Bangladesh A in hope of win

Fifties from Shadman Islam, Shahadat Hossain, and Irfan Sukkur gave Bangladesh A some glimmer of hope to find a win in their second four-day match against West Indies A in Sylhet as they ended the day on 274-6, with

a 164-run lead.

Irfan Sukkur, playing a brilliant knock, was at the crease at the end of the day on 64 off 85 balls, alongside Nayeem Hasan on 14 off 31 balls.

Shadman scored 74 at the top of the innings, while Shahadat picked up his second fifty of the match by scoring 50.

Bangladesh will hope to pile on some more runs on the final day today, and hand West Indies A a tricky target to chase on the final day.

The Caribbeans started the day on 268-6 and they managed to add 77 runs on the third day to end on 345, courtesy of Joshua Michael’s unbeaten 47 and Kevin Oswald’s 32.

That meant Bangladesh were 108 runs behind as they started their second innings, and it did not go well as Zakir Hasan (13) was dismissed in the 10th over.

Saif Hasan (16) also could not last long as he was gone off Akeem Jordan’s bowling. However, a 56-run partnership between Shadman and Mohammad Naim (28) took Bangladesh close to taking the lead before the latter was bowled by Oswald.

From there came the biggest partnership of the innings thus far as Shadman and Shahadat, the two batters hitting a fifty, added 68 runs for the fourth wicket.

However, after Jordan trapped Shadman LBW, Bangladesh lost another wicket in quick succession as skipper Afif Hossain (4) was dismissed off

Oswald’s bowling.

Shahadat then added 29 runs with Irfan as he reached his fifty but was almost immediately dismissed as Oswald trapped him LBW.

However, from there on, Irfan and Nayeem were able to see the day off with a brilliant partnership of 65 runs off just 82 balls. Irfan, who came into the XI courtesy of Jaker Ali Anik’s injury, reached his fifty ofd 70 balls and with his impactful fifty, showcased his full ability.

Bangladesh have the chance to score beyond 300 for the first time in this series, and the batters not succeeding has created some displeasure.

“We have high expectations because there are some current players from the national team and some future players in the squad. We had expected more from their batting. We have to say, we did see enough. But there is still a match to play. Hopefully, they can match our expectations,” Bangladesh National Team selector Habibul Bashar said.

However, the former Bangladesh captain, nicknamed ‘Mr 50’, was full of praise for Shahadat, who notched up back-to-back fifties.

“He (Shahadat) looked organised. We could see in his batting how you should bat in the longer version. He is very organised and his technique is pretty good. His batting is impressive because the wickets have not been easy to play on.

“We have kept six millimetres of grass on the pitch of both matches, creating a seaming condition. We wanted to see who does how in such conditions. Shahadat has been batting well for some time now. He has done well in the first-class circuit. If he can continue, he can be a good player for us in the future,” Bashar said.