Mominul Haque yesterday equaled the Bangladesh record with his eighth Test century, as he propelled the hosts to 315-8 against the West Indies on the opening day of the first Test.
Haque’s 120 off 167 balls, featuring 10 boundaries and one six, was his sixth century at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in just eight Test matches.
His dismissal by Shannon Gabriel triggered a collapse, as the fast bowler took four wickets in 18 balls after tea, dropping Bangladesh to 235-7 from 222-3.
The lower order showed grit to recover, and at stumps Taijul Islam was on 32 and debutant Nayeem Hasan on 24 in a 56-run unbroken stand for the ninth wicket.
Haque went to the crease in the first over of the day after the dismissal of Soumya Sarkar, whose first Test innings in a year lasted just two deliveries.
Haque shared a 104-run partnership with Imrul Kayes, who contributed 44 before he was out on the stroke of lunch, tapping a turning delivery off left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican to short-leg.
Kayes was dropped on 3 by Roston Chase at second slip off Kemar Roach, and on 16 when he holed out to deep square-leg, but Warrican was ruled to have no-balled.
Haque shared two more significant partnerships — 48 with Mohammed Mithun (20) and 69 with skipper Shakib al-Hasan (34) — to see the side pass 200 against the West Indies for the first time in four years.
The West Indies had a chance to remove Haque on 67, but wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich was not able to hold a catch off leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo’s bowling.
Bishoo extracted considerable turn and bounce off the pitch to trouble the Bangladesh batsmen and was rewarded with the wicket of Mithun.
However, Haque’s dominance kept the Caribbean side at bay and he equaled Tamim Iqbal’s record eight Test hundreds in his 32nd Test.
He finally perished to a loose shot just after tea off a Gabriel full-length delivery outside off-stump.
Gabriel was suddenly untouchable, as Mushfiqur Rahim (4), Mahmudullah (3) and Shakib were all beaten for pace.
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