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Pace bowlers did reasonably well, but the batsmen failed to prove themselves as the three-day warm-up match between Bangladesh and Cricket West Indies President’s XI ended in a draw on Sunday.
Bangladesh opted to bat first and declared their first innings on 310-7 in 97 overs. Tamim Iqbal was the highest score with 162 runs, and Najmul Hossain scored 54 runs.
CWI President’s XI declared their first innings after scoring 359-8 in 108 overs. Ebadot Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman took three wickets each.
In the second innings, Mominul was out only for four runs. Mahmudul Hasan was unbeaten on nine runs, surviving 53 balls. Bangladesh were 47-1 in 20 overs in the second innings at the end of day three, meaning the match ended as a draw.
The purpose of a practice match is to provide an opportunity for the visiting team to get accustomed to the conditions and the match served well for Tamim Iqbal and pacers like Ebadot and Mustafiz.
Tamim scored 162 runs, and retired to give an opportunity to his teammates. He survived more than six hours in the middle and played a patient knock to prepare for another Caribbean adventure.
Mominul stepped down from captaincy saying that the leadership role is taking a toll on his batting, but his luck hasn’t improved. He was out for a duck in the first innings after giving away his wicket to off-spinner Brayan Charles, and in the second innings, he was run out.
Yasir Ali will have a chance to play both Tests in Mushfiqur Rahim’s absence, and he scored 11 runs, while Nurul Hasan scored 35, and Mosaddek Hossain scored 19 runs in the first innings.
In a nutshell, only Tamim scored a handsome number of runs. Most of the other batsmen could not survive the bowlers of CWI President’s XI; raising the question, can they handle the likes of Alzarri Joseph and Jayden Seals?
At home, the Bangladesh top-order failed to negotiate pacers like Kasun Rajitha and Ashitha Fernando. There is no sign of development from the batsmen in the Caribbean so far.
On the other hand, the bowlers did a decent job in the match. Mustafiz skipped the second day’s bowling to attend an individual training session with Allan Donald for his introduction to the Dukes ball, and it looks like he has learned the new tricks in no time.
On Sunday morning, Mustafiz took two wickets in the very first over. Later, he took another and ended with a bowling figure of 6-1-34-3. Ebadot also did well by taking three wickets for 67 runs in his 16 overs. Khaled Ahmed and Rejaur Rahman Raja took one wicket each.
After the warm-up match, Ebadot said he was happy with the preparation.
“Tamim Bhai scored a hundred, Shanto got a half-century. Most of the batsmen have done well. Bowling-wise, our preparation went well. Mustafiz joined us today (Sunday) and gave us a great start. We enjoyed the practice match,” said Ebadot.
Bangladesh have two more practice sessions before the first Test at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on June 16.
