GROS ISLET, St. Lucia, (CMC) - West Indies’ stocks were dealt one more cruel blow when Mohammad Rafique, batting at nine, completed his maiden Test hundred for Bangladesh on the second day of the opening Test yesterday.
Already frustrated by the slow nature of the Beausejour Stadium pitch and early morning rain that precipitated a wet outfield, the ineptitude of Brian Lara’s side was cruelly exposed by a left-hander whose previous highest score in Test was 32.
Rafique, aged 29, heaped more scorn on West Indies when he square drove Ramnaresh Sarwan through cover for four to reach his milestone and lift Bangladesh to their highest total in 29 Tests, a monumental 406 for nine when bad light stopped play 7.5 overs early.
After the hapless Fidel Edwards dropped him twice on 84, Rafique rode his wave of fortune to plunder the wayward West Indies attack that found the “whipping boys” of international cricket too hot to handle.
His innings follows the previous day’s 113 from Habibul Bashar that gave the Bangladesh captain his third Test hundred and highest Test score.
Sarwan with three wickets for 51 runs from 23.1 overs, Pedro Collins with three for 83 from 26 overs, and Jermaine Lawson with two for 66 from 16 overs were the leading bowlers for West Indies.
It was another sorry day of Test cricket that West Indies will want to erase from their memories and leaves them with plenty of work to do over the last three days to restore their fallen pride and, indeed, reputation.
Persistent morning showers and the drenched outfield allowed only 2.4 overs before tea that arrived when another unexpected shower forced the main actors to retreat to the confines of the dressing room after Bangladesh had continued from their bedtime position of 278 for seven.
The real drama unfolded after tea when Rafique and the obdurate Mohammad Ashraful completed an 87-run stand for the eighth wicket that gave some indication of the pending gloom.
Ashraful was finally lbw to Jermaine Lawson for 81 that contained eight fours from 224 balls in 273 minutes only for West Indies to be stalled when Rafique and Tapash Baisya added another 33 for the ninth wicket.
When Baisya was caught and bowled by Sarwan for nine, a swift end might have been expected, but West Indies could not dislodge either Rafique or batting bunny Tareq Aziz, making his debut, and were delivered the ultimate insult.
On 84, Rafique mistimed a slog/sweep off Sarwan to deep square leg, but Fidel Edwards grassed the chance and, in the next over, bowled by Edwards, the fast bowler failed to hold a hot return chance.
Those two dropped catches added to Edwards’ woes in the field. The previous day he dropped Ashraful twice and his figures of 21-2-78-0 were unflattering, but only served to underline the listless approach of the West Indies.
SCOREBOARD BANGLADESH 1st Innings
(overnight 278 for seven)
Hannan Sarkar lbw b Collins 0
Javed Omar c D.S. Smith b Collins 32
*Habibul Bashar c D.R. Smith b Lawson 113
Rajin Saleh c wkpr Jacobs b Sarwan 26
Mohammad Ashraful lbw b Lawson 81
Faisal Hossain c Best b Collins 5
Mushfiqur Rahman c wkpr Jacobs b Sarwan 1
+Khaled Mashud st Jacobs b Gayle 2
Mohammad Rafique not out 103
Tapash Baisya c and b Sarwan 9
Tareq Aziz not out 4
Extras (lb10, w1, nb19) 30
TOTAL (9 wkts) 406
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-121, 3-171, 4-227, 5-238, 6-241, 7-250, 8-337,