BAN vs WI, 2nd Test — Day 3 Stumps: West Indies 7/0, Trail by 23, After Towhid Hridoy's Record 242* Turns 184 for 7 Into 386

Just before lunch, this Test looked to be drifting away from Bangladesh. They were 184 for 7, still 172 behind, with one batter unable to bat at all. By the time bad light came, they were 30 runs in front, and the scorebook had been rewritten around one name. Towhid Hridoy made 242 not out, the highest Test score by a Bangladesh batter, and he made 213 of those runs on this one day.

Some innings win a match. This one may yet do that, but what it has already done is change what the match is about. West Indies, who need only a draw to take the series, now have to bat again, and they start 23 behind.

Hridoy and Mushfiqur Rahim took their stand to 73 before Jomel Warrican broke it, and then broke the middle order. He had Mushfiqur caught at cover for 34, and in his next over Litton Das went the same way for 8. Mehidy Hasan Miraz made 16 before he paddle-swept Roston Chase down the leg side and Justin Greaves ran across from slip to take the catch. When Warrican had Hasan Mahmud caught by Amir Jangoo for 1, Bangladesh were 184 for 7. Hridoy reached his hundred off 171 balls just before the break, and they went to lunch on 205 for 7.

Already on 100, Hridoy changed gear. He chose to farm the strike and hit big, turning down singles to keep the tail away from the bowling. An upper-cut four off Shamar Joseph started it, and Chase was swept over square leg and then hit for two more sixes in his next over. West Indies hoped the second new ball would bring wickets. Instead Taijul found two boundaries off it, and Hridoy hit Seales for a four and a six in the same over. He reached 150 off 235 balls with a flick off Joseph and then took two more fours off him in the next over.

Taijul's job was simpler, and he did it well: he faced 56 balls. Their stand was worth 117 when Warrican had him stumped for 22. At tea Bangladesh were 318 for 8 and Hridoy was on 190.

In the fourth over after tea, Hridoy took a single off Warrican to reach his double hundred off 304 balls. He went past Tamim Iqbal's Bangladesh record for sixes in an innings by lofting Joshua Bishop, and the tenth and eleventh sixes came off Chase, a slog sweep and then a hit straight down the ground. Taskin Ahmed, who made 12 off 29 and shared 85 for the ninth wicket, top-edged Seales to fine leg, and with Shadman unable to bat, the innings closed on 386.

There were four overs left for West Indies before the light went. Bangladesh reviewed lbw decisions against Brandon King twice in the very first over, and lost both. West Indies finished on 7 for 0.

For Bangladesh, the morning was the old story and the afternoon a new one. The middle order fell to soft dismissals against spin, three of them caught off attacking shots. But 202 runs for the last two wickets, with ten men, is the kind of thing a dressing room remembers. A lead of 30 is small. The way it was made is not.

For West Indies, Warrican bowled 41 overs and took 4 for 104, and on a different afternoon that would have been the story of the day. The second new ball, which they hoped would finish the innings, went for boundaries instead, and once Hridoy started turning down singles they could not get at the tail. Chase's 13 overs cost 66.

After two days in which the seamers took most of the wickets, Day 3 belonged to spin. Spinners took five of the six wickets that fell, four of them to Warrican. Hridoy's innings showed that a set batter can score quickly here, but every new batter struggled. With the pitch wearing, Bangladesh's spinners, Taijul and Mehidy, will expect to be busy in West Indies' second innings.

242 not out off 359 balls, 22 fours, 11 sixes. He is the fourth Bangladesh batter to make a Test double hundred, after Mushfiqur, Tamim and Shakib Al Hasan. He went past Mushfiqur's 219 not out against Zimbabwe in 2018 for the national record, went past Shakib's 212 in Wellington in 2017 for the most runs by a Bangladesh batter in a day, and his 11 sixes are one short of the world record held by Wasim Akram and Yashasvi Jaiswal. At 172 he also passed the highest Test score made in Sylhet.

The numbers are big, but the thinking was the best part. He came in at 22 for 2 on the second evening. By the end of the third, he had batted with seven partners and outlasted all of them, and the lower order had found in him a roof over their heads.

Our Day 2 read, that Bangladesh first had to save the follow-on, now looks very cautious. They got past it and then past West Indies' total too. Our pre-match call on Hasan Mahmud and the seamers still stands from the first two days, but Day 3 was a reminder that a single innings can turn a Test away from any model.

West Indies need 23 to wipe out the deficit and then a lead big enough to feel safe. A draw takes the series for them, so time is now as much their weapon as runs. Bangladesh need early wickets: watch Taskin and Hasan Mahmud against King and Da Silva in the first hour, and then Taijul and Mehidy on a pitch where the spinners took the wickets today. Watch the light, too. It has ended all three days early.