AFTER two and a half years and umpteen attempts, Ramnaresh Sarwan brought the most agonising wait of his young career to a positive and definite end at the Bangabandhu Stadium here yesterday.
His 119 on the second day of the first Test against Bangladesh was his first hundred, 28 Tests and 49 innings after he announced his arrival in international cricket, aged 19, with a polished, unbeaten 86 against formidable Pakistan bowling mounted by Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Saqlain Mushtaq.
Fourteen times he had gone past 50 but the closest he could come to the goal of every cricketer who has ever held a bat was 91 against South Africa on his home ground at Bourda in May of 2001.
The longer the delay became, he had acknowledged, the more he worried. But it was never a matter of if, only of when.
A week earlier, he completed his first hundred in West Indies colours off thelast ball of the innings in his 28th one-day international, the second of the three against the same opponents on the same ground.
It did not require extra-sensory perception to recognise that it was a breakthrough that would lead to many more from a player identified as a star of the future when first selected for Guyana as the youngest first-class West Indian cricketer, aged 15.
The next, and most cherished, a maiden Test hundred, was not long in coming.
Since the West Indies' next opponents happen to be heavyweights Australia in the Caribbean next April and May, it was not lost on Sarwan that the Bangladeshi flyweights, the newest member of Test cricket's elite club and the current whipping boys, offered a timely chance to complete the double.
Duly patient and respectful of opponents who refused to be daunted by their obvious limitations and their hopeless position in the match, Sarwan achieved the goal from his 195th ball with a single to short third man off miserly left-arm spinner Enamul Haque three-quarters of an hour after tea on the second day of the first Test.
He shared a fourth wicket partnership of 176 with Marlon Samuels, at 21 another of the emerging group of exciting young West Indies batsmen, who missed his own hundred - his second in successive Test innings following his 108 against India in Calcutta last month - by nine runs.
It formed the core of a total of 400 for five that gave the West Indies a lead of 261. It was an equation that left Bangladesh's 15th defeat in the 16 Tests they have played since accorded full status two years ago all but certain over the remaining three days.
Routed for 139 in their first innings and clearly out of their depth, Bangladesh might have simply resigned themselves to their fate. But they never allowed the rapid run glut expected after the West Indies resumed at 118 for no wicket.
They caused an early morning flutter when the lively Tapash Baisya, 19, removed left-handed openers Chris Gayle, for 51, and Wavell Hinds, 75, in the same over and left-arm spinner Enamul Haque had Shivnarine Chanderpaul caught at the wicket 18 runs later.
Gayle was not himself either the previous afternoon or for the half-hour he spent adding seven yesterday morning.
He seemed more vulnerable than ever to the ball angled across him but finally succumbed to a flat-footed slash at a ball so wide he just managed to touch it to the keeper.
Four balls later, after Sarwan got going with a single, Hinds got himself into a tangle for a stroke off his hips and spooned a simple catch to mid-wicket. When Chanderpaul edged his uncertain prod at Enamul's straight ball, the West Indies were 150 for three and in need of repair work.
Sarwan and Samuels duly provided it.
Sarwan edged his fourth ball, from the tall, rangy Talha Jubair, the other teenaged fast bowler who turns 17 today, a foot short of second slip but the pair offered little encouragement for the next three and a half hours until Jubair won an lbw claim against Samuels.
Samuels stroked 15 handsome boundaries, the most pleasing straight down the ground with a full, effortless flow of the bat.
The distinct movement of his backfoot across the stumps to the faster bowlers leaves him open to lbw decisions and the only doubt about umpire Dave Orchard's as he went back was whether the ball brushed the edge.
Sarwan was then 96 and he spent 20 tense minutes getting through the 90s, including a wild cut at Jubair at 99. But he would not be denied this time.
He eventually fell to a catch to third man from a slash off Jubair with the second new ball half-hour to close and was upset afterwards that he couldn't return on the third day for more.
Those who remained to add to their tally were Daren Ganga, who overcame an uncertain start to end 34, and Ridley Jacobs who can contemplate victory in his first Test as captain.