Jair McAllister bagged his best first-class figures of 15-2-60-5 to help West Indies A bowl out Bangladesh A and claim a first innings lead of 163. West Indies then enforced the follow-on and the home team will resume on Friday at 5-0. McAllister is in just his first year of first-class cricket and is playing his eighth match, and the first outside the region. He admitted to being nervous at the start, but quickly got into his stride.

“I had a few nerves at the beginning but when I settled in I found my rhythm and bowled the way I know I can. It felt really good to get the wickets and perform for the team. We will come back tomorrow (Friday) and look to push for a win,” McAllister said. The West Indies only added 10 runs to their Day 2 tally before declaring the inning.  Within those 10 runs, Kevin Sinclair (53 from 80 balls) got to his half century, before the skipper Da Silva (77 from 127 balls) lost his wicket and signaled for the end.  They had produced a hefty total of 427-7 (126.3 overs) and would need time to bowl Bangladesh out twice.

The West Indies bowlers came out blazing and got their first breakthrough in the eighth over through left-arm seamer  Raymon Reifer (2-44).  Shadman Islam went for 2 (15 balls).  Reifer picked up another wicket during the innings and so did his opening bowling partner, Akeem Jordan (2-53).  McAllister was obviously the pick of the bunch, sprinkling his five wickets throughout the innings. Leg spinner Yannic Cariah picked up the remaining wicket to dismiss the home team for 264 within 68 overs. Significant contributions with the bat came from Saif Hassan (95 from 71 balls), who fell agonizingly short of a century when he was caught and bowled by McAllister, along with Jaker Ali Anik (64 not out from 123 balls) and captain Afif Hossain Dhrubo (45 from 41 balls), who was unfortunate not to get his half century.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP