The China Mail - Roach runs through Bangladesh top order after 250th Test wicket

Wicketless through the visitors' first innings of 234 on Friday, Roach made amends second time around with the wickets of Tamim Iqbal, opening partner Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Anamul Haque to leave Bangladesh at 32 for three, still 142 runs away from making the West Indies bat again.

For the Bangladeshis, whipped by seven wickets in the first Test in Antigua a week earlier, there was at least a moment of supreme satisfaction on another otherwise disappointing day as Khaled Ahmed claimed his first five-wicket innings haul in Test cricket as the West Indies were eventually dismissed for 408 in their first innings.

With the early wickets of Raymon Reifer and Nkrumah Bonner a day earlier, the medium-pacer removed Alzarri Joseph in the rain-shortened morning session before ending the innings on a damp afternoon by getting top-scorer Kyle Mayers for 146 and then ending the innings by having last man Jayden Seales caught behind to finish with figures of five for 106 off 31.3 overs.

West Indies had started the day already well placed at 340 for five but suffered an immediate setback when Joshua da Silva, who had contributed 29 in a 96-run sixth-wicket partnership with Mayers, fell leg-before to Mehidy Hasan Miraz.

Joseph's equally swift demise to Khaled brought in Roach, who finished unbeaten on 18 as the wickets tumbled at the other end.

Mayers' second Test century - his first was a monumental unbeaten 210 on debut against the same opponents in Chattogram in February of last year - spanned just over five hours in which he faced 208 deliveries, striking 18 fours and two sixes before lifting a catch to Shoriful Islam at mid-on off Khaled.

Any expectation of top-order Bangladesh resistance in the second innings evaporated when Tamim essayed an expansive off-drive for wicketkeeper Da Silva to take the catch and give Roach his 250th Test wicket.

He then had Mahmudul taken by Jermaine Blackwood at third slip before earning an lbw verdict against Anamul just as rain was sweeping across the ground again.

C.Smith--ThChM