West Indies suffered another lost inside three days in the two-Test series against Bangladesh in Dhaka on Sunday.
Spin bowler Mehedi Miraz produced the best bowling performance ever by a Bangladesh bowler to bowl his side to a convincing victory and claim a historic series win over the West Indies.
Mirza tore through the Windies’ middle order on his way to grabbing seven wickets in the first innings and then returned to wreck more havoc, taking five more wickets in the second innings, to finish with the remarkable figures of 12 for 117.
His attack allowed the hosts to complete a momentous innings and 184-run win over the Windies, their largest ever margin of victory in a Test match.
The Bangladesh spinners were so dominant in the two-match series that they accounted for all 40 Windies wickets.
The writing was on the wall for a Bangladesh victory at the end of the second day with the regional team struggling on 75-5 in reply to the home side’s huge total of 508 in the first innings.
When West Indies took the crease in the first innings they were bowled out for 111. They were asked to follow on.
Miraz broke a 57-run partnership between Shimron Hetmyer and Shane Dowrich — the only form of resistance in the West Indies first innings — when he induced the former to play down the wrong line to have him caught and bowled for the top score of 39.
Asked to follow on after trailing Bangladesh by a massive 397 runs, the West Indies found themselves on the back foot with four of the top batsmen back in the pavilion with the score on 29.
Stand in captain Kraigg Brathwaite‘s run of poor form continued when he was bowled by Shakib Hassan for a duck
The only two batsmen to show some resistance were Shimron Hetmyer and Shane Dowrich but when Miraz came back to bowl the partnership ended.
Hetmyer fell short of his century when he was caught and bowl by Miraz on 93. Hope then hit Miraz into the hands of Shakib at midwicket for 25,
Hetmyer proved to be the lone bright spark, his 93 coming from just 92 balls as he took the attack to the spinners.
He also struck nine sixes, which equaled the most ever in a Test innings by a West Indies batsman.
After his departure, wickets began to tumble and it was only a fighting unbeaten 37 from Kemar Roach and 20 from Shermon Lewis delayed the inevitable.
After the match, West Indies captain Braithwaite admitted that the Windies batsmen were not up to the task mentally.
It was the first time they had lost a Test series to Bangladesh in Bangladesh.
