Tamim Iqbal and Mominul Haque shared 66 runs in their unbroken third wicket stand as Bangladesh continued to defy West Indies attack in the second Test in St Lucia on Tuesday.
Set an improbable target of 489 runs, the Tigers reached 114-2 by tea on the fourth day, still needing 375 runs or bat out four sessions if they were to get any positive outcome from the match.
Tamim looked confident on 43 which followed his 48 in the first innings while Mominul was batting on 31.
Left-hander Mominul, however, was lucky to survive as Darren Bravo dropped him on 29 off Jerome Taylor.
Shamsur Rahman earlier provided a brisk 39 off 27 balls before he paid the price for playing one shot too many times.
The opener dispatched four boundaries and two sixes, both off consecutive deliveries from Taylor, which momentarily had sent a positive vive to Bangladesh tent.
However, the positive air turned into fear once Shamsur was caught by Kirk Edwards at deep square-leg attempting Taylor for another hook on which he had no control.
Anamul followed him soon without troubling the scoreline when he edged Sulieman Benn to Denesh Ramdin.
West Indies declared their second inning on 269-4, adding 61 runs to their overnight 208-4 in little less than an hour on the fourth day.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul finally got some reward for his arduous effort when he completed his 30th Test century helping West Indies set a massive winning target for Bangladesh.
Chanderpaul, unbeaten on 85 and 84 respectively in his previous two innings of the series, reached 101 not out when the innings was declared.
West Indies captain Ramdin called the batsmen back once Chanderpaul flicked Mahmudullah to square leg for two runs, making him only the 11th batsman to get 30 or more Test hundreds.
It took Chanderpaul’s average against Bangladesh in the last two series to an astounding 624 with scores of 203 not out, 150 not out, 85 not out, 84 not out, 101 not out and 1 in six innings.
The only time he was dismissed was for 1 when he came in to bat at number 11 because he was sick in a Test in Dhaka.
The left-hander praised the Bangladesh bowlers for their efforts in this series.
‘These guys have been bowling very well in the series, you cannot take that away from them,’ Chanderpaul said after third day’s play when he was 63 not out.
‘They have been changing their pace nicely and this has made them hard to attack. I realised that and have played accordingly.’
Bangladesh never gave an indication on the fourth morning that they could dismiss the 40-year old left-hander.
The only chance that they could create was against Jermaine Blackwood in the first over of the morning when Taijul Islam hit him on his back foot.
The umpire gave Blackwood leg-before but the decision had to be overturned after review.
Blackwood stayed 66 not out and shared 169 runs with Chanderpaul in an unbroken fifth wicket partnership.
-With New Age input
