Gabriel works old-ball magic after Mominul ton

Thu, Nov 22, '18

For 59 overs on Day 1 in Chittagong, Bangladesh rarely put a foot wrong. They waltzed past the first couple of hours with a session strike rate of nearly four, recovered well from break in partnerships and most importantly, had a familiar centurion in this part of the country - Mominul Haque. The left-hander didn't just enhance his already exceptional numbers at the Zahur Ahmed Choudhary stadium in Chittagong [six centuries in nine Tests], but also put Bangladesh on course to go past the average first-innings score at the venue - 374.

A fourth spell for Shannon Gabriel however, turned the tables rather spectacularly. In the space of three overs in the post-Tea session, Gabriel brought an end to Mominul's 167-ball stay and then proceeded to destroy Bangladesh's middle-order, reducing them from 222 for 3 to 235 for 7.

Mominul enjoyed a bit of luck courtesy Windies' poor catching, but played a very confident, unwavering knock throughout the day. The early spells from the pacers in the morning session - exploiting the angle from around the stumps - was dealt with, with a lot of awareness [of where his off-stump is] and confidence. On a surface where Jomel Warrican, Roston Chase and Devendra Bishoo extracted a lot of turn and steep bounce - from as early as the 12th over - Mominul displayed some deft backfoot play to keep the trio at bay.