The Test Updates

Azhar Ali hits his way to a significant hundred for Pakistan

We preview the 2nd Test encounter of Bangladesh and West Indies while Pakistan are stealing the show in Dubai with a lead of 96 runs with Sri Lanka bowled out in their first innings for 239 and then at 88/1 in the 2nd innings.

The short and the tall...

Bangladesh v West Indies 2nd Test Preview
Bangladesh were narrow at beating West Indies but they hope rain won't dent their chances in getting themselves up the Test rankings. West Indies need to play patiently and get the bad balls to be hit with the promising spin attack Bangladesh have. Marlon Samuels has been a stand out performer with the bat and ball but the Windies pace bowling needs to step up in terms of swing as plenty of swing was shown with the adventurous and promising Bangladeshi pace bowlers. Mushfiqur Rahim and his team must have been full of confidence in the lead up to this test with the adventurous and proud declarations Mushfiqur Rahim made in 2 days.


West Indies though have a good record in Mirpur with only 3 out of the 4 games in this tour won by them with the exception of the Twenty20 International which they embarrassingly lost. Windies need to pull up their sleeves and improve in their spin bowling and batting against spin or Bangladesh will benefit more than ever with the momentum from the First Test draw and use the Windies woes to their advantage with their home support.


Bangladesh Squad:
1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Imrul Kayes, 3 Shahriar Nafees, 4 Raqibul Hasan, 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Mushfiqur Rahim (capt & wk), 7 Naeem Islam, 8 Nasir Hossain, 9 Elias Sunny, 10 Rubel Hossain, 11 Shahadat Hossain


West Indies Squad:
 1 Lendl Simmons-, 2 Kraigg Brathwaite, 3 Kirk Edwards, 4 Darren Bravo, 5 Marlon Samuels, 6 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 7 Darren Sammy (capt), 8 Carlton Baugh (wk), 9 Ravi Rampaul, 10 Fidel Edwards, 11 Devendra Bishoo


Pakistan v Sri Lanka- 2nd Test, Day 3
Sri Lanka 239 and 88 for 1 (Paranavitana 42*, Hafeez 1-24) trail Pakistan 403 (Azhar 100, Shafiq 59, Younis 55, Dilshan 3-57) by 76 runs


Sri Lanka got rid of Pakistan but had a rough and vicious pace attack of Pkaistan being lead by Junaid Khan. But Mohammad Hafeez got the sole wicket to dismiss Thirmitanne for 8. Azhar Ali was 11th time lucky to get his maiden 100 but Pakistan collapsed to 403 to pose a decent margin for Sri Lanka but with Sri Lanka building up a good 2nd wicket partnership and 2 days to be played, it is still anybody's game to be won or lost...