Rahim, Mahmudullah take Tigers to the brink

An unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 60 between Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah put Bangladesh within sight of a first innings lead at tea on 217 for seven in the second and final Test against West Indies on Saturday.

At the interval, Mushfiqur Rahim was not out on 47 and Mahmudullah was not out on 15, as Bangladesh continued their reply to West Indies' first innings total of 237 at the Queen's Park Sports Complex.

The pair revived Bangladesh, after Kemar Roach collected the scalps of Raqibul Hasan for 44 and stand-in captain Shakib Al Hasan for 16 to leave the visitors wobbling on 157 for seven.

Raqibul and Shakib were unsettled by the pace and the hostility of Roach on the hard, true pitch, and surrendered meekly after frustrating West Indies for close to an hour-and-a-half to put on 44 for the sixth wicket.

Things changed, when Raqibul was struck on his left elbow by a short, lifting delivery from Roach, and required the physio to nurse him back to life.

Two balls later, he wafted at a wide half-volley and was caught behind to become wicketkeeper Chadwick Walton's fourth victim.

Two overs later, Shakib too, appeared timid, when he essayed an ill-advised hook at another short, lifting ball from Roach and was caught at mid-wicket.

Bangladesh were 157 for seven, but Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah put their heads down and continued to wear the West Indies attack down before the break.

Before lunch, Bangladesh came under pressure, as West Indies fought back to restrict them to 134 for five.

Bangladesh suffered an early setback, when night-watchman Enamul Haque was caught down the leg-side by the wicketkeeper off Kemar Roach for 13.

But the Tigers found scoring difficult against tight bowling from the Caribbean side and wobbled when two wickets fell for two runs in the space of five balls.

Tamim Iqbal, a century-maker in the opening Test, was caught behind off Dave Bernard Jr for 37 playing forward, and Junaid Siddique was bowled for seven when he chopped on a delivery from Ryan Austin to leave Bangladesh 77 for four.

Mohammad Ashraful joined Raqibul and stemmed the fall of wickets before he cut a short ball from let-arm spinner Ryan Hinds and was caught at backward point for 12 to leave the Tigers on 106 for five.

But Shakib came to the crease and batted through the next 45 minutes with Raqibul to stabilise the innings for the Bangladeshis - that's until Roach got up their noses.

Bangladesh lead the two-Test series 1-0, after they won the opening Test which ended last Monday in St. Vincent by 95 runs.

The Tigers need only to draw the match to clinch their first-ever Test series victory overseas.