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Bangladesh batters couldn’t match the prowess of their West Indian counterparts as they slipped to 269-9 at the end of the third day of the first Test at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on Sunday. 

They avoided the follow-on but were still trailing by a huge margin of 181 runs when bad light stopped the day’s proceedings. The last pair of Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam was batting. 

The bowlers got a huge task ahead if they would’ve wanted to keep them in the match. 

Seven of the top eight batters of Bangladesh reached double figures in the first innings, but none could go past 53, the score of wicketkeeper-batter Jaker Ali. Mominul Haque also made 50.

Bangladesh did not lose wickets in clusters, but no partnership was strong enough to match the hosts’ massive score.

Shahadat Hossain and Mominul held the fort for a while at the start of the day. But Shahadat (18 off 71) edged to slip off Kemar Roach after surviving nearly an hour in the morning. 

Mominul and Liton—the two most senior campaigners of the team—were going well on either side of the lunch break. 

Mominul reached his 21st half-century by taking a single off Alzarri Joseph, but he was immediately trapped lbw off a full-length delivery by Jayden Seals. 

The hosts applied short-ball tactics to unsettle the Bangladeshi batters, and it finally paid off when Liton chopped on off Shamar Joseph after making 40. 

Captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz became the victim of a short ball too. After going past 20s, he was caught at short leg off the other Joseph—Alzarri.

Jaker got good company from Taijul Islam, as they brought the highest partnership of the innings so far—68 runs. But Joseph broke Taijul’s vigil, with the follow-on creeping in.

Jaker prevented that but couldn’t match what Justin Greaves did for the Caribbean. It took a brilliant catch by Seals to see the back of him, though. 

Jaker got to his fifty in 85 balls and fell on the 89th delivery he faced. 

Bangladesh has been playing in this Test without captain Najmul Hossain and the veteran Mushfiqur Rahim, who both were ruled out due to injury. 

So it was always going to be a tough ask for a batting lineup that had been struggling. The likes of Mominul and Liton thus got the extra responsibility on their shoulders. 

They both made promising starts but couldn’t deliver the desired big innings. And as a result, Bangladesh found themselves on the brink with two days remaining in the Test.