WI vs BAN 1st Test: Kemar Roach puts West Indies on verge of victory against battling Bangladesh

Kemar Roach's enduring quality and consistency put the West Indies within 35 runs of victory over Bangladesh going into the fourth day of the first Test. His five for 53 from 24.5 overs in the Bangladesh second innings total of 245 looked, briefly, as if it would be overshadowed though by a stunning West Indies collapse in pursuit of a modest target of 84 as the hosts slipped to nine for three late on the third day Saturday. Those three wickets by seamer Khaled Ahmed - he removed captain Kraigg Brathwaite, Raymon Reifer and Nkrumah Bonner in quick succession - lit a fire under the Bangladeshis.

Although opener John Campbell and fellow-Jamaican Jermaine Blackwood avoided any further alarms in taking the score to 49 at the close, the visitors will still be clinging to hopes of more miraculous events on Sunday morning. Their spirit and energy in that final passage of play was probably sparked by a 123-run seventh-wicket partnership between captain Shakib Al Hasan (63) and wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan (64) just a couple hours earlier which saved the tourists from the ignominy of an innings defeat. They had come together just before lunch at 109 for six and proceeded to frustrate the West Indies through the entire afternoon session.

It took the new ball and the persistence of Roach to separate them after tea with the Barbadian taking three of the last four wickets for his 10th five-wicket innings haul in Test cricket. His dismissal of Ebadot Hossain, uprooting the tailender's middle-stump, to end the innings was also his 50th Test wicket at the venue, the most by any bowler. He also drew level with Michael Holding on 249 wickets for joint-sixth position on the list of all-time leading West Indies wicket-takers in Tests.