Windies take lead past 300

Hosts West Indies took a firm grip of the second Test on day three yesterday as they bowled Bangladesh for a below-par 161—219 runs short of West Indies's first innings score-- at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia yesterday. 

West Indies captain Denesh Ramdin decided against enforcing the follow-on and by Tea the hosts were cruising at 90 for 2 in their second innings.  Debutant Leon Johnson scored eight boundaries in his 41 before getting bowled by Taijul Islam. Kirk Edwards was caught at gully off Shafiul Islam.

Earlier Mahmudullah Riyad scored a fighting half-century and also brought up a 1000 Test runs for himself in the morning session of day 3. While the middle-order batsman's 53 did not take Bangladesh over the follow-on mark – the Tigers were short by 20 runs—it compelled Ramdin to make his side bat.

With an overnight score of 104 for 7, Bangladesh's first target of the day was to bring the lead below 200 runs. They began well in pursuit of their mission as both Shafiul and Mahmudullah followed a cautious approach.

Shafiul seemed solid in his front foot defence while Mahmudullah milked the runs from the other end. The pair added 27 runs in the morning session and did not seem to be in any real trouble at all.

The partnership however, came to an end in the 54th over as Shafiul edged a full length delivery to the keeper and provided Shannon Gabriel with his first wicket of the match.

Robiul Islam joined after Shafiul's departure and seemed to be following a similar approach to that of his pace-bowling partner. While he did not score any runs, he kept one side intact.

Mahmudullah on the other hand, shifted gears and started looking for the big hits.

He began by pounding Gabriel over mid-wicket for a six. Four overs later he brought up his half-century by hammering a juicy fulltoss to long-on. 

However, just as the batsman was getting a move on, he threw it away as Benn induced an edge off his bat which the keeper took with no problems. Mahmudullah was unable to judge the bounce of the ball to perfection and his attempted cut-shot led to his downfall.

Al-Amin Hossain joined Robiul Islam for the last wicket and began well by driving a boundary through the covers.

The next over though Benn trapped Robiul in front of the wicket and brought an end to Bangladesh's innings. The decision was reviewed by Robiul to no avail.