WI reeling from Hasan blow

Colourful Khulna fans enjoy Bangladesh's batting against the West Indies on the first day of the second Test at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium yesterday.Photo: STAR

West Indian coach Otis Gibson described the last session of the first day as a 'bit of a blow' for the visitors at a post-day press conference held at the Sheikh Abu Naser stadium in Khulna yesterday. Debutant, Abul Hasan, who became only the second cricketer batting at number 10, to score a century in Test cricket, turned the tables for the hosts.
“He played well, we didn't know a lot about him. Normally we have videos of batsmen. The shots he played, you'd think he deserves the hundred,” said Gibson, when asked if he was surprised with the player's batting ability. “I have never seen anything this dramatic. You actually don't want it to be on the receiving end, you'd like it for your teammate to do it. It's a horrible feeling. He played excellent cricket. He played some fantastic shots; he rode his luck at times. He was good in defence when he had to be,” he added.
The 9th wicket partnership which lasted for 30 overs saw the batsmen score 172 runs. The toll that the late partnership had on the fielders was quite visible, as they dropped two catches and looked tired on the field.
“It's a natural reaction sometimes. You don't expect something like this. It catches you off-guard. It looked he would get out at any point, but you need luck in certain situations,” said Gibson.
“We had six wickets, we thought if we could do the same thing we would get the other four wickets. We are a little bit disappointed at some of the stuff I saw. We should have made more in-roads… it was a tough day for us,” he added.
The coach, however, had good words for Fidel Edwards, who picked up a five-for and ran through the batting order of Bangladesh. “He is a quality performer. He was waiting in the side to come back. He proved the sort of bowler that he is.”
He also stated that it would only be a matter of time before spinner, Sunil Narine, comes into his groove. “He's a quality bowler, mostly in the one-day format. In Test matches in the Caribbean he got 10-12 wickets in first two Test matches.
He has found bowling here a bit difficult. He has played a lot of cricket in a short space of time in
his career. It's a situation we nurture. We help him to understand Test cricket and we continue to support him,” said Gibson.