Bangla Tigers haunted by six ducks

After six batters failed to add anything to their scorecard, Bangladesh were dismissed for 103 runs in the first innings of the first Test against West Indies at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua. Kraigg Braithwaite and co were 122-2 after 60 overs in their innings, with the skipper past the fifty-run mark. 

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Bangladesh, often referred to as the Tigers, registered an unwanted record on Thursday. Shakib Al Hasan’s men became the first team to record as many as six ducks in the 145-year history of Test cricket. 

Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mominul, Nurul Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman and Khaled Ahmed were the players gone without scoring. Skipper Shakib Al Hasan top-scored with 51, veteran opener Tamim Iqbal made 29 and Litton Das got 12 runs. They were the only players to reach double figures. The innings lasted only 32.5 overs.

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Of the seven instances in which there have been six ducks in a test innings, Bangladesh now is responsible for three, including in the first innings of their previous test against Sri Lanka last month. The other teams with six ducks in an innings are Pakistan in 1980, South Africa in 1996, England in 2014 and New Zealand in 2018.

The lethal West Indies bowling was led by Jayden Seales, who took 3-33 from 10 overs. Alzarri Joseph returned the same figures from 8.5 for a career-best haul. Kemar Roach began the decline of the Bangladesh innings with two early wickets and finished with 2-21, while Kyle Mayers took 2-10 from five overs.

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“It was a pretty tough pitch to bowl on in terms of finding a length. It was very slow at the beginning so obviously you want to be a bit fuller. There were some rough patches there and some ridges and such that we wanted to hit as much as we can. I think we did that pretty well. Shakib batted well for his 50 but overall the bowling group did a pretty good job today,” Roach said. 

Sixty-three overs into their innings, West Indies led Bangladesh by 31 runs.