 West Indies will play Bangladesh in the second test match at St. George's
in Grenada starting from Friday. The first game had been won by Bangladesh in
a thrilling contest which saw them triumph in only their second test match in
sixty attempts! Incidentally, this was also the first test match with Mashrafe
Mortaza as the captain, after Mohammad Ashraful had been removed from
the helm for poor captaincy.
West Indies may go on with a similar, second-string side for the second game
as well, what with no signs of the contractual issues between the West Indian
cricket board and the players showing no signs of abating. This will mean that
West Indies will have to rely on the likes of Omar Phillips and Floyd Reifer
in the top order for their batting. Both had hit half-centuries in the first
essay, with Phillips even missing out on a sure-shot century when he got out
on 94.
Where the hosts may have an issue is their rather weak bowling, that would
be over-reliant on Tino Best. Now, while Darren Sammy did pick up a five-wicket
haul, it is difficult to expect him to repeat the dose over and over again,
given his slow medium pace bowling. The West Indies could try and experiment
with someone from the first class cricket who is a trifle quicker than the rest
of the medium-pacers in the squad to rattle some of the Bangladeshis.
Bangladesh would have been cock-a-hoop with their first test match win, however,
they would know that a draw or a win here would also mean that they would clinch
their first ever series in this format of the game. A lot would depend on how
their spinners perform, but if the first game was anything to go by then the
likes of Mahmudallah and Shakib-al-Hasan should do well on the slowish
West Indian tracks.
The problem that the Bangladeshis may face is with the supposed absence of
the new captain, Mashrafe Mortaza, who had a knee injury in the previous game.
Shakib captained for half the game and did a decent job, but it remains to be
seen whether he does the job in a full game.
Tamim Iqbal's century in the first game earned him the man-of-the-match award
and he will look to extend his good form. Shakib himself did not have a great
game with the bat, but he looked to be regaining his touch in that second innings
of 30, and will be a man to watch out from the tourists' side. Junaid Siddique
had a couple of good innings to go for him, including that 78 and the involvement
in 146-run stand with Iqbal. To me, unless the main team for West Indies plays
the game, Bangladesh looks like firm favourites to clinch the series!
|
