Bashar hits third Test hundred for Bangladesh
Saturday, May 29, 2004
GROS ISLET, St. Lucia (AFP): Habibul Bashar
hit his third Test hundred to help Bangladesh bat through the opening day of
the opening cricket Test against West Indies on Friday.
The Bangladesh captain, hit a fluent 113,
his highest Test score, to be the cornerstone of the visitors' 278 for seven
at stumps, after the visitors chose to bat on a hard, easy-paced Beausejour
Stadium pitch under sunny skies.
Bashar pulled a short delivery from fast
bowler Tino Best to long leg for a single to arrive at his landmark and
occupied the crease for nearly 3-1/2 hours, facing 131 balls and hitting 15
fours.
He shared a 121-run second wicket stand with
Javed Omar and then added 50 with Rajin Saleh and impressed all with an array
of strokes, particularly the pull and the hook that brought him most of his
boundaries.
"I think this is probably my best hundred
because to score a hundred against the West Indies is always special," Bashar
told reporters.
"From the time I started playing cricket, I
loved West Indies cricket, so it was my dream that I would play Test cricket
in the Caribbean and score a hundred against West Indies."
He added: "The pitch seems good to me. I thought it would have been a good
pitch on which to bat first. Nobody wants to bat on a fourth innings on a
wearing pitch in Test cricket."
Crucially, Mohammad Ashraful, batting at
five, hit a patient, fourth Test half-century to stabilise the Bangladesh
innings, after they declined to 227 for four. His unbeaten 65 from 149 balls
contained seven fours.
Pedro Collins was the most successful West
Indies bowler with three wickets for 75 runs from 20 overs. Ramnaresh Sarwan
twirling his uncomplicated leg-spin took two for 20 from 14 overs.
Bangladesh had an inauspicious start to the
match when opening batsman Hannan Sarkar was adjudged lbw to Collins' sharp
inswinger for zero off the first ball of the Test.
Bashar and Omar, however, quickly helped
that fade into memory. With the West Indies four-pronged fast bowling attack
emasculated by the benign nature of the pitch, the visitors recovered through
this critical stand that put West Indies on the backfoot and lifted Bangladesh
to 101 for one at lunch.
Omar was fortunate though, having been
dropped on seven when he whipped a sharp chance to forward short leg fielder
Dwayne Smith off Fidel Edwards, and Bashar too, when he top-edged a hook at a
delivery from Jermaine Lawson, but wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs could only get
his fingertips to the ball.
After the interval, the two continued to
plunder the bowling, but Collins made the breakthrough when Omar was caught at
gully for 32, paving the way for Bashar and Saleh to continue the fight.
An unexpected shower about 1-1/4 hours after
lunch prompted an early tea break with Bangladesh 166 for two and Bashar
having reached the milestone.
Jermaine Lawson, playing in his first Test
for a year, made the breakthrough when Bashar was caught at deep backward
square leg top-edging a hook, but Saleh and Ashraful resisted with a stand of
56 for the fourth wicket.
With the fast bowlers exhausted from the
hard toil on the unresponsive pitch, West Indies captain Brian Lara turned to
his slow bowlers and Sarwan had Saleh caught behind for 26.
Three more wickets fell to leave Bangladesh
250 for seven with Faisal Hossain being caught at mid on off Collins for six,
Mushfiqur Rahman caught behind off Sarwan for one, and Khaled Mashud stumped
off Chris Gayle for two.
Bangladesh omitted Alamgir Kabir, Alok
Kapali, Enamul Haque Jr AND Manjural Islam Rana from their touring party of 15
which meant Faisal Hossain and Tareq Aziz are making their Test debuts.
West Indies left out unorthodox left-arm
spin bowler Dave Mohammed and fast bowler Ravi Rampaul from their squad of 13.
Scoreboard at close on the first day of the first Test:
Bangladesh 1st innings
Hannan Sarkar lbw b Collins 0
Javed Omar c DS Smith b Collins 32
Habibul Bashar c DR Smith 113
Rajin Saleh c Jacobs b Sarwan 26
Mohammad Ashraful not out 65
Faisal Hossain c Best b Collins 5
Mushfiqur Rahman c Jacobs b Sarwan 1
Khaled Mashud st Jacobs b Gayle 2
Mohammad Rafique not out 17
Extras (lb3, nb14) 17
Total (for 7 wickets) 278 Fall of wickets:
1-0, 2-121, 3-171, 4-227, 5-238, 6-241, 7-250
To bat: Tareq Aziz, Tapash Baisya
Bowling: Collins 20-4-75-3 (5nb), Edwards
13-1-54-0 (1nb), Lawson 10-0-44-1 (6nb), Best 13-2-46-0, DR Smith 4-1-5-0
(2nb), Gayle 16-2-31-1, Sarwan 14-6-20-2
Overs: 90
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