Bangladesh A concede series securing draw

Bangladesh A opener Mahmudul Hasan Joy batted till the end on Friday to avoid another loss for them as their third and final four-day match against West Indies A ended in a draw at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet.

Bangladesh A played out the final day of the match to ensure a draw as they made 306-4 depending on Mahmudul’s 114 after West Indies A set a mammoth target of 461 ahead of them on the third day.

However, the draw wasn’t enough to save the series for the hosts as they lost the series 1-0, drawing the last two games after losing the first one.

In the match, Bangladesh bowlers suffered in the first innings as West Indies batters dominated them and scored 445-10 in the first innings. In response, Bangladesh’s batting line was rattled as they couldn’t even last three sessions and were bowled out for 205.

Bangladesh trailed by 240 runs after the first innings and the Caribbeans added another 220 in their second innings and set a target of 461, nearly impossible to chase as there were only 103 overs available.

Bangladesh seemed helpless in the first three days against the visitors as the Caribbean side saw five fifties in their first innings while opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul scored 83 in both innings.

Bangladesh, in their second innings, came back strongly with Mahmudul scoring 114 and Yasir Ali Chowdhuri scoring 67. Opener Zakir Hasan and skipper Saif Hassan scored 43 and 38.

Pacer Shoriful had taken a couple of wickets in the first innings but remained wicketless in the second while Saif took three in the second.

After losing the first match and drawing the second, Bangladesh called in big-name players with national and international experiences including former Bangladesh national team skipper Mominul Haque, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Yasir Ali Rabbi, and Nasum Ahmed to win the third and final game to save the series from losing.

Nasum took five wickets in the first innings before taking a couple in the next while Yasir bounced back in the second innings after a letdown in the first. Though Sohan showed promise in the troubling first innings, veteran Mominul was only his shadow as he scored 5 0ff 8 and 5 off 12 in his two innings.