West Indies look to rout Bangladesh in test series

The West Indies will be looking to go all out to blank Bangladesh 2-0 in their two match test series, when the second test bowls off tomorrow, September 13, at the Beausejour Ground in Gros Islet, St Lucia.{{more}}

A clean sweep of the series is imperative if the West Indies is to gain points on the ICC ranking system.

Heading into the first test, the West Indies, which is eighth on the ranking, sat on 74 points.

The West Indies will earn a maximum of one rating point if it takes the series two-nil, while Bangladesh, which has 21 points and is 10th on the list of the 10 test nations, will drop two rating points.

If the series ends 1-1, the West Indies will drop four points, while Bangladesh will garner seven.

The West Indies head into the second test one-up, after completing a 10-wicket win over their opponents here at the Arnos Vale Playing Field last Tuesday.

When played was called on Tuesday, the visitors, resuming on 256 for 5, and needing another 46 runs to make the West Indies bat again, were dismissed for 314.

The Bangladeshis, who succumbed to the pace of Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel, lost their last five wickets for 58 runs.

In between time, captain Mushfiqur Rahim, who was 70 overnight, and in sight of his third test century, went on to hit 116.

He lashed 15 fours and a six in his innings, which saw him surviving four dropped catches.

Rahim, however, was dropped twice by Chris Gayle and once by Darren Bravo and Jerome Taylor.

Roach ended with figures of 4 for 64, Gabriel 2 for 25 and Sulieman Benn had 2 for 44, to follow up with his five in Bangladesh’s first innings.

Openers, Gayle and Man of the Match for his 212 in the West Indies first innings, Kraigg Brathwaite, then knocked off the 13 runs without much bother.

This pushed the regional team to record their first test victory at Arnos Vale.

In their previous matches at the venue, the West Indies and Sri Lanka played to a draw in 1997, while in 2009, the Bangladeshis took advantage of a depleted West Indies team and romped to a 95-run trumping.

Summarised scores: West Indies 484 for 7 declared and 13/0; Bangladesh 182 and 314. (RT)