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Everything but winning

Rabeed Imam from St Lucia
If there is any emotion that can best describe Bangladesh's performance in the first Test against the West Indies in St Lucia, it has to be astonishing.
What didn't the Tigers do? They chose to bat first fully aware that the home team were going to come at them with four fast bowlers. They kept the West Indies at bay batting out two days and posting their record score in the process. The skipper and a number nine scored hundreds. They bowled out the formidable batting line up and took a lead, got themselves in serious trouble and then recovered in spectacular fashion to get in a position to declare with the number eight making a ton this time.
It was as perfect as things can get in a drawn match. There was hardly any chance of enforcing a win considering the benign nature of the pitch, the state of the match and the time on hand.
Resuming the final day at 94 for six with an overall 158-run lead, one would have thought 'here we go again!' But that' s the beauty of this new Bangladesh team. They fought back as good as any team playing international cricket and surprised you when you least expected them to deliver. For the handful of Bangladeshis who were present at the ground, it was a privilege to watch the Tigers as they steadily reached that zone of comfort at 271 for nine declared.
For Khaled Mashud, fighting through odds on the field is like an obsession. He relishes the battle out there and the stage
was set for him on the last day. The bubbly wicketkeeper began the day on eight and added another 95 in his unconquered innings.
Shortly after the tea interval, Chris Gayle bowls a faster off-break that gives just enough room to Mashud to put his front foot forward and drive past the cover fielder towards the boundary to cross the 100-run landmark for the first time in a Test match.
By the time he did this in the 106th over of the second innings, he had spent nearly six hours at the crease. More importantly he and Rajin Saleh, the overnight partner, gave the confidence to the tailenders sitting in the dressing room and made them feel that it's easy in the middle for the brave.
Mashud was wrapped underneath his right elbow from a stinging Tino Best delivery and Saleh too took in some blows in the first hour of play. Both needed treatment and with the hostile Best bowling around the 90mph mark, it was a testing time. But they never flinched. When Saleh departed after a sedate yet soothing 51, Mashud, so appropriately nicknamed Pilot, became the inspiring influence to Mohammad Rafique, Tapash Baisya and Tareq Aziz.
The West Indies, perhaps bowled their best of the match on Tuesday but the Bangladeshi late-order never allowed them to sniff a kill.
With Rafique, Mashud put on 56 and then had a wonderful 75-run partnership with Baisya, a Bangladesh record for the ninth wicket eclipsing Mashud's own stand of 49 with another fast bowler Mashrafee-bin-Mortuza against New Zealand in Wellington in 2001-2002. The interesting thing was you never noticed when all those runs had been scored.
When Baisya (26 off 75) left him just before tea, Mashud was still 13 runs shy of a hundred and his captain was prepared to give him time to reach that deserved landmark although many around the ground would have loved to have seen a declaration. It was paying tribute to a teammate who is such an integral part of Team Tigers.
Bangladesh epitomised what a team performance is all about in St Lucia. Everyone contributed at some stage of the Test. Bashar led the way with his hundred. Rafique scored his maiden ton when it was needed most and spent one and a half hours at the crease on the final day when the team required someone to support Mashud. Baisya showed courage and technique and Tareq, without a wicket in both innings on debut, also dis-
played how he helped two partners reach the landmarks of their lives with admirable composure as the last man batting. Mushfiqur Rahman took wickets when they mattered and had the heart to come back and dismiss the great Brian Lara after having a catch dropped offthe batsman earlier.
SCOREBOARD
Final scoreboard on the fifth day of the first Test between Bangladesh and the West Indies at Gros Islet in St Lucia on Tuesday.
BANGLADESH: First innings 416 (Bashar 113, Rafique 111, Ashraful 81; Collins 4-83)
WEST INDIES: First innings 352 (Gayle 141, Lara 53; Mushfiq4-65) BANGLADESH: Second innings (overnight 94-6)
Hannan b Edwards 9
Omar cJacobs b Collins 7
BasharbBest 25
Saleh lbw b Edwards 51
Ashraful c and b Sarwan 1
Faisal c Gayle b Sarwan 2
Mushfiq lbw b Sarwan 0
Mashud not out 103
Rafique c Jacobs b Sarwan 29
Baisya c and b Gayle 26
Tareq not out 1
Extras: (lb-5, nb-12) 17
Total: (For 9 wktsdeci in 105.2 overs) 271 Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-21, 3-70, 4-73,5-79,6-79,7-123,8-179,9-253
Bowler O M R W
Collins 17 5 42 1
Edwards 19 1 61 2
Lawson 16 0 60 0
Sarwan 20 9 37 4
Best 13 1 33 1
Gayle 19.2 7 33 1
C'paul 110 0
WEST INDIES: Second innings
Gayle not out 66
Devon not out 40
Extras: (b-4,lb-l,nb-2) 7
Total: (Forno loss in 23 overs) 113
Bowler O M R W
Baisya 3 0 26 0
Tareq 6 1 31 0
Mushfiq 6 0 25 0
Rafique 5 17 0
Ashraful 3 0 19 0
Result: match drawn.
Man-of-the-match: Chris Gayle.
SecondTest: Kingston, June 4-8.