GROS ISLET: Heavy overnight rain and a saturated outfield prevented any play before lunch on the fourth day of the second and final Test between the West Indies and Bangladesh at the Daren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia on Monday.

Bangladesh, who lost the first Test by seven wickets in Antigua a week earlier, are set to resume at 132 for six in their second innings, still needing another 42 runs to make the West Indies bat again.

Of primary concern for players and officials are sodden areas at the edge of the square which are considered too dangerous to allow play to get underway.

Another inspection was scheduled for 1 p.m. local time (1700 GMT), 20 minutes after the end of the scheduled lunch interval.

June marks the start of the rainy season in the southern Caribbean and the region is experiencing a period of increased weather instability with the threat of more rain over the next two days.

On Sunday, Kemar Roach became just the sixth West Indian to claim 250 Test wickets as the senior pacer swept through the Bangladesh top order to put his team on course for victory.

Roach’s three wickets led the assault of the hapless visitors after Kyle Mayers’ top score of 146 anchored the West Indies first innings total of 408.

Poised on 249 wickets after his “Man of the Match” performance in the first Test but wicketless through the visitors’ first innings of 234 on Friday, Roach made amends second time around with the wickets of Tamim Iqbal, opening partner Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Anamul Haque to rock the south Asians back at 32 for three.

Another brief respite followed courtesy of another series of showers.

However the reprieve proved temporary with Alzarri Joseph unsettling the batsmen with pace and bounce to claim the wickets of Najmul Hossain Shanto and captain Shakib al Hasan while Jayden Seales chimed in by removing the experienced Liton Das.

It left wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz to hang on to close, which came earlier than scheduled thanks to more rain.

Earlier, Khaled Ahmed had claimed his first five-wicket innings haul in Test cricket as the West Indies were eventually dismissed after lunch.

The medium-pacer ended the innings by getting Mayers for 146 and then having last man Seales caught behind to finish with figures of five for 106 off 31.3 overs.

Scoreboard

BANGLADESH: (1st Innings) 234WEST INDIES (1st Innings, overnight 340-5)K. Brathwaite b Mehidy 51J. Campbell c Nurul b Islam 45R. Reifer b Khaled 22N. Bonner b Khaled 0J. Blackwood lbw Mehidy 40K. Mayers c Shoriful b Khaled 146J. da Silva lbw Mehidy 29A. Joseph c Liton b Khaled 6K. Roach not out 18A. Phillip Nurul b Shoriful 9J. Seales Nurul Hasan b Khaled 5EXTRAS (B-9, LB-24, NB-4) 37TOTAL (all out, 126.3 overs) 408FALL OF WICKETS: 1-100 (Campbell), 2-131 (Brathwaite), 3-132 (Reifer), 4-132 (Bonner), 5-248 (Blackwood), 6-344 (da Silva), 7-363 (Joseph), 8-384 (Mayers), 9-403 (Phillip), 10-408 (Seales)BOWLING: Shoriful 19-6-76-2, Khaled 31.3-3-106-5 (1nb), Shakib 18-5-46-0 (1nb), Ebadot 19-6-56-0 (2nb), Mehidy 39-8-91-3BANGLADESH: (2nd Innings)Tamim Iqbal c da Silva b Roach 4Mahmudul Hasan Joy c Blackwood b Roach 13Najmul Hossain Shanto c da Silva b Joseph 42Anamul Haque lbw Roach 4Liton Das lbw Seales 19Shakib al Hasan c Campbell b Joseph 16Nurul Hasan not out 16Mehidy Hasan Miraz not out 0EXTRAS (B-9, LB-1, NB-2, W-6) 18TOTAL (for six wickets, 36 overs) 132FALL OF WICKETS: 1-4 (Tamim), 2-22 (Mahmudul), 3-32 (Anamul), 4-57 (Liton), 5-104 (Najmul), 6-118 (Shakib)STILL TO BAT: Shoriful Islam, Ebadot Hossain, Khaled AhmedBOWLING: K. Roach 10-1-32-3 (1nb), A. Joseph 10-2-31-2 (2w), A. Phillip 5-1-23-0 (1nb), J. Seales 6-2-15-1, K. Mayers 5-1-21-0

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2022