BAN vs WI, 2nd Test — Day 1 Stumps: West Indies 235/4, Bangladesh Yet to Bat, After Amir Jangoo Turns 27 for 3 Into a Day of Control

West Indies began this Test with two openers in bed and finished the first day with a batter in three figures. In between, there was a morning that could have ended the series as a contest and an afternoon that made sure it did not. At 27 for 3 in the ninth over, with a stand-in opener gone and the ball moving, Bangladesh were the side with the momentum. By stumps, West Indies were 235 for 4 and Amir Jangoo was 111 not out.

It was his second Test hundred, in only his tenth innings, and it came with a flourish: a six over wide long-off off Taijul Islam in the third session. But the innings will be remembered less for that shot than for what came before it, two and a half hours of calm when West Indies had every reason to panic.

The trouble started before the toss. John Campbell and Tagenarine Chanderpaul were ruled out with viral fever, and Joshua Da Silva walked out to open in a Test for the first time. Roston Chase still chose to bat.

Taskin Ahmed answered in the fifth over. A full ball shaped in late, Brandon King tried to flick it through midwicket, his head fell over, and his middle and leg stumps were flattened. He had 9. In the next over Hasan Mahmud, having worked Kavem Hodge over, found a length ball that Hodge left and watched hit the top of middle stump; ball-tracking later showed it was shorter than one he had left safely two balls earlier. Then Taskin brought one back in at 132kph and trapped Da Silva lbw for 12. Da Silva did not review, and Hawk-Eye said it was hitting middle. West Indies were 27 for 3.

Jangoo and Wickham, the debutant, simply stayed. At the first drinks West Indies were 41 for 3; at lunch, 86 for 3, Jangoo 32 and Wickham 27.

Wickham was more willing after lunch and went after Taskin. Jangoo began the session with a flat-batted pull off Taskin and then hit Nayeem Hasan for a big six over midwicket; Wickham reached his fifty, off 123 balls, in the same Nayeem over. Jangoo had got to his own half-century off 86 balls. The hundred stand took 192 balls.

Mahmud tried a short-ball barrage and nearly got Jangoo, on 68, with a miscued pull that came back to him, but the caught-and-bowled chance went down. He kept at it, and after a few overs of bouncers he pitched one fuller, angled in from wide of the crease over the wicket. Wickham drove with the angle, the ball straightened a fraction, and the off stump went. He made 61 off 145, and the stand was worth 131. West Indies went to tea on 180 for 4, Jangoo 76 and Greaves 16.

Justin Greaves took 45 balls to find his first boundary, a straight drive off Mahmud, and then looked comfortable. Jangoo kept scoring after tea, hitting Taijul, Taskin and Mehidy Hasan Miraz for boundaries, and reached his hundred off 149 balls with the six off Taijul. The light then took over. Play was stopped at 216 for 4 after 65 overs, a break of 35 minutes, and stopped again at 235 for 4 after 70 with 22 minutes of scheduled play left. It did not resume.

For Bangladesh, the morning was the plan working. The two seamers took all four wickets between them, every one bowled or lbw, and the spinners kept things tight: Mehidy, Taijul and Nayeem bowled 42 overs for 114 runs. What they will regret is the dropped chance off Jangoo on 68, and the long middle of the day when the wickets stopped and the runs did not. Bangladesh need to win this Test to level the series, and they will now bat second, after a first innings that already has 235 on the board with six wickets in hand.

For West Indies, this was the kind of day a touring side remembers. They were short of two first-choice openers, lost three wickets for 27, and still finished the day ahead. A draw is enough for them to take the series, and every run Jangoo and Greaves add tomorrow makes that easier.

The first hour had something for the seamers: Taskin found the full ball that swung in, and Mahmud found enough off the surface to beat Hodge's judgment and Wickham's outside edge. Once the shine went, it was harder work. No spinner took a wicket on the first day, and Jangoo's runs came through drives and pulls rather than scrambles. The light, not the surface, was the bigger enemy by late afternoon.

A left-hander, 111 not out off 171 balls, eleven fours and two sixes. Those are the numbers. The more telling one is 27 for 3, which was the score when he settled in. He did not try to hit his way out; he waited for the ball to drive and the ball to pull, and he let Wickham take the risks after lunch. When the debutant fell, he did it again with Greaves. There is a quiet kind of courage in batting like that when your side is short of men, and on a grey Sylhet evening it shone a little brighter than the light did.

On the pitch, our previews were right about the first morning. We said Sylhet typically offers more for the seamers than Mirpur, particularly in the first session, and picked out Hasan Mahmud as the bowler who might benefit most; Mahmud and Taskin took 3 for 27 inside nine overs and all four wickets of the day. We also said the toss could be pivotal. It is too early to judge that, though West Indies, who won it, ended the day ahead.

On the team sheets, less so. We wrote about Kemar Roach's workload and about King and Chanderpaul as an opening pair; Roach is not in this West Indies XI and Chanderpaul was ruled out with fever, as was Campbell. We floated a three-seamer Bangladesh attack; they bowled two seamers and three spinners. Those were calls about selection, and illness is nobody's fault, but it is fair to note them.

The second new ball is due after ten more overs, and that is Bangladesh's best chance to get into the tail before West Indies reach a total that takes defeat out of the equation. Chase, Shamar Joseph, Bishop, Seales and Warrican are still to bat. Watch Taskin and Mahmud with the new ball, watch whether Jangoo can push on with Greaves, and watch the sky: two stoppages on Day 1 already cost Bangladesh time they can ill afford in a Test they must win.