Windies bowlers tame Bangladesh on first day

The West Indies took day-one honours in the first Test at the Sir Vivian Richards Ground in Antigua on Thursday.

The seam bowling quartet of Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, Alzarri Joseph, and Kyle Mayers ripped through the hapless Bangladesh batting unit for just 103 runs. Then, Brathwaite led the hosts to 95 for two at stumps, and within eight runs of a first-innings lead.

The toss proved crucial to the home side, who immediately sent in the visitors on a track that was offering some slow sideways movement. If there was any doubt that Roach was carrying an injury, he swiftly allayed those fears by picking up two quick Bangladeshi wickets with just three runs on the board.

Seales and Joseph made sure that the poor start by Bangladesh did not get any better, with the former sending back Manumul Haque for a duck, then Joseph had opener Tamim Iqbal caught down the leg side by wicket-keeper Joshua Da Silva for 29 at 41 for four.

Mayers also got in on the act, and he, too, snared two quick scalps to leave the visitors in tatters at 76 for six at lunch.

Captain Shakib Al Hasan tried to breathe some life into the innings with some inadvertent shots. He eventually steered the innings, as wickets continued to fall around him, with Joseph and Seales helping themselves to three apiece.

Shakib was the ninth wicket to fall after he added a fighting 51 runs from 67 balls with six fours and six. However, the workmanlike effort from the Windies bowlers meant that Bangladesh had another torrid first day of a Test in the Caribbean.

Joseph finished with career-best figures of three wickets for 33 runs, and so, too, did Seales. Roach had two wickets for 21 runs, and Mayers bagged two for 10.

To say that the West Indies began their reply sedately was an understatement, as Brathwaite and John Campbell crawled their way to tea at 15 without loss off 15 overs.

On the resumption, the duo turned things up just a notch, with Campbell hitting one four and a six in his knock of 24. But he became the first wicket to fall, with the score on 44, when he played on from seamer Mustafizur Rahman.

Barbadian Raymon Reifer then joined compatriot Brathwaite and they added 28 runs for the second wicket before Reifer got a peach of a delivery from seamer Ebadot Hossain and was caught behind for 11.

Jamaican Nkrumah Bonner, and Brathwaite, made sure no further damage was done, as they inched their way to 95 with Brathwaite unbeaten on 42 and Bonner, 12.