Mighty Mayers leads Windies' Chattogram heist
Kyle Mayers played a Herculean knock on his Test debut to propel West Indies to a thrilling five-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the first Test at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Sunday.
The 28-year-old Barbadian, who got his opportunity to represent the Caribbean team like a few others after a string of first-team players opted out of the tour over concerns of Covid-19, grabbed the opportunity with both hands and drove the visitors to a memorable win from the clutches of defeat.
The left-hander, who arrived at the crease on Saturday evening with his side three down for 59 chasing 395, took the team to victory with an unbeaten 210 off 310 balls, breaking a few records on the way, including becoming the first man to score 200 in the fourth innings on Test debut and achieving the highest successful run-chase in Asia.
This victory would surely go down as one of the greatest comeback wins of all time, and certainly bearing lot of resemblance to India's famous Gabba win over Australia earlier in the year. It also comes on a day the visitors appeared with black armbands on their hands in respect of former West Indies pacer Ezra Moseley, who died from a road accident in Barbados on the previous night.
It was a frustrating defeat for the home side, who would have hoped for a few wickets after reducing the visitors to 110 for three at the end of the fourth day.
They took a couple of wickets after Tea, but by that time that West Indians had already stepped on the gas as the target came closer. Two more wickets fell right at the death before the winning runs were scored.
There was a clear lack of seriousness in the body language of the Tigers as they went without a wicket in the first two sessions before the apprehension of defeat dawned on them.
With Shakib Al Hasan sitting out with an injury, ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal was out of the ground for long hours as an inexperienced Mominul Haque struggled to exert aggression on the opposition batsmen.
The closest the Tigers came to taking a wicket in the first two sessions was in the final over before Tea when Bonner danced down the wicket and missed the delivery against Nayeem Hassan, only for Liton Das behind the stumps failing to collect the ball for a stumping opportunity.
Earlier, before Lunch, Bangladesh had an lbw appeal against Mayers from Taijul Islam turned down by the on-field umpire, with video review returning umpire's call as the ball would have brushed the top of the bails.
There were two other occasions, though, that Bangladesh chose not to take reviews -- both given not out by the umpires, video replays showing that had those verdicts been challenged, the results would have been in favour of Bangladesh.
With none of the bowlers proving to cause much discomfort to the Windies batters, Bangladesh were sorely missing premier all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who was still sitting out with an injury.
The defeat, meanwhile, keeps Bangladesh firmly at the foot of the ICC Test Championship table without a single point following four defeats in four matches.
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