Hodge's Hundred Puts West Indies in Command in Sylhet as Lead Passes 250

There comes a point in every Test match when the game stops being a contest and starts being a countdown, and on the fourth afternoon in Sylhet, Kavem Hodge was the man who pushed it over that line. When he raised his bat for a hundred, West Indies were already in front by more than 200, Bangladesh's bowlers were running out of answers, and the only question left was how big the target would be and how much time the tourists would leave themselves to bowl Bangladesh out.

It had not looked quite so straightforward at lunch. West Indies had resumed the fourth morning with a lead of just 30, and Brandon King and Joshua Da Silva had set about it with real intent, adding 85 for the first wicket and striking boundaries almost at will. King drove beautifully, depositing Nayeem Hasan back over his head for six, and for a while it looked like the morning might belong entirely to the visitors. But Bangladesh fought back the way they have all match. Taijul Islam trapped Da Silva lbw for 36, the sixth time he has dismissed the West Indies keeper in Test cricket, and Mehidy Hasan Miraz had King caught at slip on the stroke of lunch for 61, a bright innings of ten fours and a six. At 128 for two, the lead was 98, and the game was still alive.

That was when Hodge took it away from them. He had already struck four boundaries in quick succession before lunch, and after the break he simply did not stop. He played Taijul with patience, waited for the loose ball, and punished it, reaching his fifty and then pushing on towards three figures while Kevin Wickham, at the other end, played the perfect supporting hand. Wickham's 78 came off 107 balls with seven fours and two sixes, and together the pair added 165 in 221 balls, a stand that drained the life out of the afternoon and out of Bangladesh's hopes of keeping the target manageable.

By tea West Indies were 259 for two, the lead 229, and the writing was on the wall. Hodge kept going after the interval, bringing up his hundred with 11 fours and a six, and when Wickham finally fell, caught and bowled by Taijul for 78, the score was 284 for three and the lead was 254. Hodge was unbeaten on 103 from 153 balls, and Amir Jangoo had just joined him at the crease.

Bangladesh's first innings, built on Towhid Hridoy's magnificent unbeaten 242, had given them 386 and a 30-run lead. That feels a long time ago now. West Indies made 356 first time around, and their second innings has been an exercise in control, each session adding a little more pressure. There is still a day to go, and a declaration will come at some point, leaving Bangladesh a chase they will not fancy and a fourth innings on a wearing Sylhet pitch. Hodge's hundred has not won this Test yet. But it has made the ending feel inevitable.