Temperament personified
West Indies one-down batsman Kirk Edwards sweeps the ball fine during his undefeated knock of 71 on the first day of the second Test against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday. The visitors finished the day on 253-5.Photo: Anisur Rahman
The Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium couldn't have asked for a more traditional Day One of a Test match after a 1-and-half-year wait. If it wasn't for the three late wickets claimed by the Tigers, all the eulogies would have been reserved for the young opening batsmen and the solidity provided by the pair.
Kraigg Brathwaite and Kieran Powell gave caution their first priority as the West Indies looked to consolidate from the onset of the second and final Test. The drawn first game in Chittagong, especially the top-order's failure in the first innings, must have forced them take this route but it takes a cold-hearted personality to wear an attack down. In Brathwaite and Powell, who totalled three Tests between them before this game, the visitors found the perfect medium to execute their plan.
Both struck their maiden half-centuries with Powell, who made 72, bettering his previous best by a whopping 68. Brathwaite had given an inkling of his intentions in the first Test but the 18-year-old was in his elements, batting out 130 minutes for a neatly-crafted 50.
On a wicket that offered no sideways movement or turn, Shahadat Hossain and Rubel Hossain were reduced to a containing job. Shakib Al Hasan, who was introduced in the sixth over of the morning, saw very little of even moral success as the young duo blunted him with pure defensive play. Off the 40 deliveries Brathwaite faced from Shakib, he batted out 36 of them for dots and only took four runs. Powell was slightly better, taking 16 from the 42 he faced from the left-arm spinner. With Elias Sunny curiously missing the second Test, debutant Sohrawardi Shuvo bowled just two overs to the pair as it was clear that the pair was playing a game of patience.
"Initially we tried to bat out the first hour and then afterwards settle in after lunch and continue," said Powell at the end of the day. "It is a very proud moment for me [to score a maiden Test fifty]. I tried to build a good start for the team, tried to get us into a good position and gain control from here."
Powell termed the wicket as one on the lower side but said he didn't find handling spinners that much of a tough proposition. "I didn't find it too difficult because the ball wasn't turning too much. They were looking for lbws and I kept playing it straight and be positive," he added.
When Brathwaite gave Imrul Kayes an easy catch at slip fifteen minutes after lunch, it ended a 100-run opening stand that took much of the sting out of the Bangladesh bowling attack. The partnership was also the 20th occasion of an opening pair adding 100 or more against the Tigers and the 43rd time an opening stand has gone past the 50-mark.
But the lack of initiative in the first session, especially with the team asked to bowl first, puts the team in a negative frame of mind. Bangladesh has often struggled to pick up early wickets (even with the presence of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza), but twice this year, after Tino Mawoyo and Vusi Sibanda added 103 in the Harare Test, they have lacked intent in the opening salvo.
Nasir Hossain's two wickets and Shakib's beautiful slider that easily went past nightwatchman Kemar Roach's bat have kept the Tigers in the hunt but on the second day with the newish ball, the pacers would be asked to put their hand up.
Comments