Hridoy's Record 242* Turns Sylhet Around as Bangladesh Snatch a First-Innings Lead

Just before lunch in Sylhet, Bangladesh looked beaten. They were 184 for seven, their opener in hospital with a twisted ankle, and West Indies' spinners were running through them. By stumps, Towhid Hridoy had produced the greatest innings in his country's Test history. Hridoy finished unbeaten on 242, turning a maiden Test century into a record-breaking double hundred and dragging Bangladesh to 386 — a 30-run first-innings lead over West Indies' 356. It is the highest score ever made by a Bangladesh batter, going past Mushfiqur Rahim's 219 not out against Zimbabwe in 2018, and it came in only Hridoy's third Test. The morning had belonged to the bowlers. Bangladesh resumed on 88 for three, still 268 behind, and the session cost them four more wickets. Jomel Warrican had Mushfiqur Rahim and Litton Das both caught at cover in consecutive overs. Mehidy Hasan Miraz was hustled down the leg side and caught by Justin Greaves, diving across from slip. When Warrican removed Hasan Mahmud for one, Bangladesh were seven down and effectively eight, because Shadman Islam — injured fielding on the first morning, his left ankle twisted chasing a ball to fine leg — could not bat at all. Hridoy, though, was only getting started. He had reached his hundred just before lunch, 100 not out from 171 balls, and after the break he stopped nursing the innings and started attacking it. The boundary spree began with an upper-cut four off Shamar Joseph, then Roston Chase was deposited over square leg, twice more in his next over. The second new ball was supposed to finish the job. Instead Taijul Islam met it with boundaries off both Jayden Seales and Joseph, and Hridoy lashed Seales for four and six in the same over. He brought up 150 with a flick off Joseph and kept going. On 172 he passed Mahmudul Hasan Joy's 171 against Ireland as the highest Test score at Sylhet. His 117-run stand with Taijul — whose 22 took 56 balls and whose real contribution was simply staying there — ended when Warrican had him stumped. Then, in the fourth over after tea, a single off Warrican took Hridoy to his double hundred, making him only the fourth Bangladesh batter to reach the mark after Mushfiqur, Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, and the 46th player in Test history to turn a maiden hundred into a double. The records kept falling after that. His eighth six broke Tamim's record for the most sixes in a Bangladesh Test innings. By the time he had hit 11 — one short of the world record shared by Wasim Akram and Yashasvi Jaiswal — he had scored 213 runs in the day alone, beating Shakib's 212 at Wellington in 2017 for the most by a Bangladesh batter in a single day of Test cricket. Taskin Ahmed, who had held up his end of the last-wicket stand, finally top-edged Seales to fine leg to end the innings on 386. West Indies had four overs to survive before stumps and did so without loss, Brandon King and Joshua Da Silva taking them to seven without loss, still 23 behind. But the shape of the match has changed completely. A side that was staring at a deficit of 150-plus at lunch now leads, and a 25-year-old playing his third Test has put his name at the top of his country's record books. The fourth day in Sylhet now belongs to Bangladesh's bowlers — and to the question of whether West Indies can find an answer to a day they will not forget in a hurry.