Player of the Match Kevin Sinclair’s five-wicket haul and Brandon King’s half-century, his first useful score on tour so far, steered West Indies ‘A’ to a narrow three-wicket victory over Bangladesh ‘A’ at Syhlet International Stadium on Friday.
Resuming from their overnight score of 274-6, a lead of 166, the hosts only managed to add an additional 23 runs and were bowled out for 297 for a lead of 189. Chasing victory, The West Indies were in trouble at 70-5 before King scored a stabilizing 54 as the West Indies reached 191-7 in 49.5 overs.
Irfan Sukkur, 64 not out and Nayeem Hasan on 14 overnight extended their 65-run partnership to 78 which was broken when Jair McAllister had Hasan caught behind for 17. Sinclair then dismissed Tanzim Hasan Hakib and Sukkur in quick succession for four and 72, respectively, before McAllister ended the innings with the wicket of Khaled Ahmed for 0 with the score at 297.
Sinclair finished with the impressive figures of 5-79 to go with his first innings take of 2-44. McAllister, the Player of the Match in the first drawn unofficial Test, finished with 2-42 while Akeem Jordan took 2-38.
Chasing a target of 190 for victory, the West Indies were in danger of relinquishing their grip on the match, losing their first five wickets for just 70 runs. Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Raymon Reifer each scoring 22 before losing their wickets to Saif Hasan. Kirk McKenzie made 12 and Keacy Carty and Alick Athanaze, four each, as the tourists’ run chase faltered.
However, Brandon King, who has had a terrible time of it so far with two consecutive ducks, found some form to help stage a West Indies recovery with a well-played 54 as he and Captain Joshua da Silva added a crucial 76 runs for the sixth wicket.
That stand was ended when King was dismissed by Tanvir Islam with the West Indies’ still 44 runs shy of their target. Things got worse when the bowler also had Sinclair caught behind for four. Da Silva and Akeem Jordan then combined to score the remaining runs. The captain scored an unbeaten 47 for the second time in the match and Akeem Jordan 22 from 20 balls as the West Indies ‘A’ secured victory at 191-7.
Tanvir Islam took 4-52 and Saif Hasan 2-24 in the losing cause.