• Holder stars as Windies complete 2-0 sweep

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    Bangladesh mounted a fightback with the ball but their brittle batting was no match for a rampant Jason Holder.

    After Shimron Hetmyer fell for 86 early on day two, the Windies added less than 60 runs to finish 354 all out, Holder lashing out to score more than half of the runs while he was at the crease – 33 off 42 balls, with two fours and two sixes.

    Tamim Iqbal offered the only resistance from Bangladesh, top-scoring with 47 off 105 balls (six fours) before becoming the first wicket for Test debutant Keemo Paul, who had been dismissed for a duck in his first Test innings when the West Indies batted. Paul added the wicket of Nurul Hasan next ball, bowled for a golden duck, but wasn’t able to convert the hat-trick.

    ‘I was disappointed with not scoring any runs, so I just wanted to go out there and execute and bowl how I know to bowl, so getting that first wicket of Tamim was a very special feeling for me and it was emotional for me as well, but it was fantastic,’ said Paul.

    Bangladesh was bowled out for 149, with four of their batters bowled and four out leg-before, Paul ending with 2-25 and Shannon Gabriel 2-19. Hero of the innings, however, was Holder, who knocked over five Bangladesh batsmen for just 44 runs.

    Bangladesh earned a measure of respectability when the West Indies went back into bat, bundling the hosts out for 129 in 45 overs. Shakib Al Hasan was imperious with the ball, taking 6-33 in his 17 overs (econ 1.94) as he tore through the Windies’ top order (including nightwatchman Paul, who scored 13), and then mopped up the tail.

    Nurul Hasan took an impressive three stumpings in the innings (two off Shakib), although that was two stumpings shy of Kiran More’s Test record of five stumpings in an innings for India against the West Indies in 1988.

    Faced with a stiff target of 335 for victory, Bangladesh were woeful in their efforts. First innings ‘hero’ Tamim Iqbal fell leg before to Holder for a seven-ball duck, and three other Bangladesh batters joined him in the duck parade: Nural Hasan, Kamrul Islam Rabbi and Abu Jayed.

    Further ignominy came with the realisation that Jayed and Hasan were both dismissed for a pair, with Hasan facing the ignominy of having recorded only the 21st king pair in Test history (statistic unverified).

    All out for 168, Bangladesh lost the Test by 166 runs and the series 2-0.

    Holder added another five-for in the Bangladesh second innings, ending with 6-59 off 13 overs for his best Test innings figures. It was his fourth five-for in Tests (three of which have come in the last month) and his first Test 10-wicket haul, ending with match figures of 11/103.

    Having taken five wickets in the first Test and added scores of 33 and 33 not out in the two-match series, Holder was deservedly announced as both the Player of the Match and the Player of the Series.

    Scorecard

    Photo: Randy Brooks/AFP/Getty Images

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    Simon Lewis