A superb 120 from Mominul Haque was the backbone of Bangladesh’s first-day effort of 315-8 in the first Test against the West Indies at Chittagong.
Haque and opener Imrul Kayes (44 off 87 balls) added 105 for the second wicket, after which he put on 48 for the second wicket with Mohammad Mithun, whose 20 came off 50 balls.
Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan (29 off 55 balls) joined Haque in adding 69 for the fourth wicket to take Bangladesh to Double Nelson when Haque finally fell after scoring 120 runs off 167 balls (10×4, 1×6, S/R71.85).
It was 27-year-old Haque’s eighth Test hundred, which puts him alongside Tamim Iqbal as Bangladesh’s joint leading Test century scorers, and raised his average to 44.94 from 32 Tests.
After starting 2018 with a century in both innings against Sri Lanka in Chittagong, his next eight Test innings yielded a paltry 69 runs (ave 8.63), including three ducks in the space of five innings.
In his next Test, he scored 161 and 1 against Zimbabwe at Dhaka, which was followed by his Chittagong century to bring his tally of Test centuries in 2018 to four, putting him level with the legendary Virat Kohli at the top of 2018’s Test century chart.
Test debutant Nayeem Hasan (24 off 60 balls) and Taijul Islam (32 off 57 balls) will resume Bangladesh’s innings tomorrow with their score on 315-8 off 88 overs.
Shannon Gabriel is on the verge of his sixth test five-for, having returned figures of 18-2-69-4 (econ 3.83), while slow left-arm orthodox spinner Jomel Warrican rolled down 21 overs and six maidens t0 return 2-62 (econ 2.95).
Photo: Munir uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)
