WI waiting on Gayle force

While the West Indies did go on to win the third ODI in Mirpur on Wednesday to keep the series alive, there are a number of areas that the visiting team management will be worried about. The batting, for starters, is yet to click for the team.

Scores of 199 and 132 in the first two ODIs point to the need for a major overhaul in the visitors' batting order. Their pursuit of 228 in the last game also witnessed a collapse. Apart from Kieron Powell and Marlon Samuels, the rest of the batting order failed to negotiate the Bangladeshi spinners effectively.

It's been the constant failure of opener Chris Gayle that's been a major worry for the West Indians. Apart from a solitary wicket with the ball on Wednesday, Gayle's performance has been below-par. Scores of 35, 15 and 4 in the first three ODIs show that the aggressive opener hasn't quite enjoyed his stay.

The team management though believes that it's only a matter of time before the big man hits form. “Chris Gayle has played all round the world. He is a fantastic player and knows his own strengths and weaknesses. I think at some point in the next few days Gayle will get a big score, I am sure he will,” said Toby Radford, assistant coach of the West Indies at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

“The players are gradually performing. Sunil Narine bowled exceptionally well. [Verasammy] Permaul came into the side as well and bowled very well. Marlon Samuels's innings was outstanding really. He pretty much batted right till the end and allowed the other guys to bat within [themselves],” he added. Kieron Pollard, another player who is yet to contribute for the visitors was seen at an extended training session in Mirpur yesterday.

With seven of the ten Bangladesh wickets in the third ODI going to the West Indian spinners the visitors, like in their previous game, will want to bowl first. “With the dew the toss could be really important. The ball was skidding last night, the fielders were sliding around, for the bowlers it's not easy to keep wiping the ball all the time, takes away your concentration, so in some ways the toss is important,” said Radford.

The series so far has been a disappointment for a majority of the West Indian players. However, with the visitors in pursuit of a dramatic comeback, the game today sets up an ideal platform for the likes of Gayle and Pollard to fire.

Record-breaking Cook puts Eng in command

Captain Alastair Cook set a record for England Test centuries with his 23rd as the tourists assumed control of the third Test against India.

The opener passed the mark of 22 held by Wally Hammond, Colin Cowdrey, Geoffrey Boycott and Kevin Pietersen.

Cook made 136 not out as England reached 216 for 1 in reply to India's 316 all out at the close of second day at Eden Gardens in Kolkata yesterday.

Cook, 27, also became the youngest batsman to reach 7,000 Test runs.

The Essex left-hander reached the milestone at the age of 27 years and 347 days, knocking Sachin Tendulkar off top spot.

The India great, who has a record 15,638 Test runs, was 28 years and 193 days old when he passed the 7,000 mark.

Cook, whose Test career began with a hundred against India in Nagpur in 2006, has now scored centuries in all five of his Tests as captain.

He brought up his third ton of the series off 179 balls with a sweep for two off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin during an opening partnership of 165 with Nick Compton.

Cook also surpassed Andrew Strauss, the man he succeeded as Test captain before the India tour, to move up to ninth in the list of England's all-time highest run-scorers with 7,048. Graham Gooch holds the record with 8,900.

Cook was dropped by Cheteshwar Pujara at slip off the bowling of Zaheer Khan on 17 but did not offer a further chance in a confident and controlled innings featuring 19 fours and a six.

He and Compton, Strauss's replacement at the top of the England order, put the tourists in a strong position to go 2-1 ahead in the four-match series as they target a first victory in India since 1985.

Somerset's Compton batted circumspectly at first before opening up after tea to reach his first Test fifty.

His 137-ball knock was eventually brought to an end when he missed an attempted sweep at Pragyan Ojha and was trapped lbw.

Jonathan Trott then showed signs of playing himself into form, easing to 21 not out in an unbroken partnership of 51 with Cook.

Earlier, England made relatively light work of wrapping up the India tail as Monty Panesar had Zaheer Khan trapped lbw for six and then rearranged Ishant Sharma's stumps.

Captain Mahendra Dhoni smashed the England spinner for two sixes en route to a half-century before he was last out, fending a Steven Finn bouncer to Graeme Swann, who ran forward to take a low diving catch.

Fearless Tigers

It seems that this winter has not been too cold on the Bangladeshi newcomers as the addition of Shohag Gazi, Mominul Haque and Anamul Haque has provided a boost to the national side. The trio already made their arrival felt but they have also seen both sides of the coin following Bangladesh's defeat in the third match after two convincing wins in Khulna. After the four-wicket loss in the third game at Mirpur, the million dollar question is: will Bangladesh be able to win the series against the formidable West Indies?

Without doubt the winter would be more remarkable for the three newcomers if they can be part of a series-winning team and contribute something to the success. It however will not be an easy task even though the home side is leading the series 2-1 and showed some character even in defeat as West Indies' top performers like Marlon Samuels and Sunil Narine showed their class in the third ODI. A carefree Gazi, a smart Anamul and a shy Mominul were however confident enough about winning the series and they were hopeful that the dream can come true today when the fourth match will take place at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, starting at 2.30pm.

While Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim was reluctant to speak to the media on the eve of the fourth game yesterday, a rest day for the Tigers, his young brigade were however eager to express their determination and all three were praying that their skipper calls rightly at the toss for the first time in the series. Unlike the third game the pitch for the fourth game could be a batting paradise, in which case batting second will be much easier under lights, so luck at the toss is important for both teams in the day-night affair.

The young players were however very much aware of the fact that the toss factor is not in their hands. But what is in their hands is an attempt to improve their batting because the common feeling in the team was that they were a few runs short in the third game.

Tendulkar finds runs

Sachin Tendulkar marked his return to form with a patient 76 but England claimed the honours on the opening day by reducing a jittery India to 273 for seven in the first innings of the third Test on Wednesday.

Tendulkar played a composed innings under pressure facing 155 balls andhitting 13 boundaries in the process. His partnership of 79 for the fifth wicket with Yuvraj Singh was the highlight of the Indian innings as most of the other top order batsman failed to capitalise on starts.

He missed a century when he was forced to edge one off seamer Jimmy Anderson and the catch was taken by wicketkeeper Matt Prior diving to his right.

Anderson got the ball to reverse consistently in the post tea session which saw England get three wickets after getting two each in the first couple of sessions on a Eden Gardens track which appeared good for batting.

It was Tendulkar's first half-century since the Sydney Test as he appeared relieved after getting to the mark with a boundary of pacer Steven Finn.

Electing to bat on flat wicket that had little to offer, India had a promising start from Gautam Gambhir (60) and Virender Sehwag (23).

But Gambhir could not convert his fine start for yet another time, while Virat Kohli's poor form in the series continued as he could manage only six runs.

Anderson (3 for 68) rocked the home team at the fag end of the day with the second new ball. He bowled a perfect off-cutter that breached Ravichandran Ashwin's defence.

At stumps, skipper Dhoni was unbeaten on 22 (from 59 balls) along with Zaheer Khan who was yet to open his account. This is the first time that floodlights were used in a Test match at the Eden with the last 40 minutes being played under artificial lights.

Our focus is on next game'

It was a measured century by Marlon Samuels that proved to be major difference between Bangladesh and the West Indies, in a match, that perhaps seesawed till the 45th over, before Samuels smacked pacer Rubel Hossain for 24 runs in one over and ensured a Caribbean delight.

"To be honest, I had just completed my century in the previous over and I was going to take on any one bowling at me from the other end. It was unfortunate for Rubel," said Samuels in the press conference after the third one-day international at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium last night. The visitors, before the 45th over, were visibly nervous and needed 34 runs off the last six overs. Three boundaries and two over-boundaries off Rubel, however, changed the entire scenario.

Curbing his natural instincts, Samuels played with a lot of patience and took the responsibility to guide West Indies home, following Kieron Powell's departure. While it wasn't chanceless innings -- he was edgy in the beginning of his innings and was dropped on 96 in the slip cordon -- he did, however, hold his composure long enough to take his side home.

"I went out to bat on a pitch that was not easy to bat on. It's a wicket that's very slow, so you had to wait on the ball. I went and batted at 3 because I knew that the pitch was turning and that I had the technique to bat out the early overs," said Samuels. "It helped others bat around me," he added.

While the West Indies did go on to win the game by four wickets, there was, however, a similar batting failure for the visitors. The likes of Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Smith and Kieron Pollard lost their wickets cheaply. The visitors in fact almost went through a similar collapse following the 111-run partnership between Powell and Samuels for the second wicket.

Samuels though believed that it was only a matter of time before the batsmen in the team joined the party. "We have a lot of quality batsmen who are finding their way in our team. This win was also a special team effort. There will be times when few will have to stand up if others don't do it on the day," said the West Indian.

Having guided his team to their first win in the five-match ODI series, Samuels stated that the visitors would focus on one game at a time. "We'll take it step by step. We are making a comeback, so we can't afford to think about anything apart from the next game. We just have to play basic cricket and take move in strides."

25 runs short: Mahmudullah

Bangladesh all-rounder Mahmudullah Riyad (L) and Shohag Gazi steal a single during the third ODI against West Indies at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Miprur yesterday. The two provided valuable contributions down the order to set up a fighting score. Photo: Firoz Ahmed

Two of the West Indies' three star players, mystery spinner Sunil Narine and batsman Marlon Samuels, made significant contributions as Bangladesh finally stumbled coming into the third match of the five-ODI series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.It was Narine with a four-wicket haul who put the skids under the Tigers, who needed a victory in the match to seal a 3-0 series win. The home team could manage only 227 in 49.1 overs after being put in to bat, with vice-captain Mahmudullah Riyad playing a major part in helping the Tigers achieve the respectable total after slumping to 110 for five by the 23rd over. The total was still not enough as Samuels scored a patient hundred to guide the tourists home in a match they needed to win to keep the series alive.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Mahmudullah identified their below-par score as the main reason behind their not being able to seal a memorable series win, while also ruing the fact that they could not make enough early inroads into the West Indian batting.

"I think we were 20 to 25 runs short," said Mahmudullah of the four-wicket defeat. "But the kind of wicket that it was, if we could have taken the wickets earlier and were a little more tight, the result might have been a little different."

Narine, who has become a sensation in the cricketing world of late with his mystery spin, had been kept at bay by the Tigers throughout this tour until this game. Mahmudullah thought that his success was due to him bowling his own version of the carom ball more in the ODIs and the pitch which assisted the Caribbean twirler.

"I think in the Test matches, he didn't use his mystery delivery. In Khulna when he started using it from the first ODI it's been effective," explained the vice-captain. "The pitch was quite good as well. It was gripping and turning. So that helped as well. He bowled well. Hopefully we'll see his videos and find out how to pick him."

It has often been said that for a batsman of his abilities Mahmudullah bats too low down the order, but the man himself was happy with his role. "Whatever the team combination is, I bat accordingly, I have no problems batting down the order or batting where I am right now," he said. "It was my wish to bat till the 50th over but unfortunately I couldn't. But I'll learn from this match and play accordingly in the next matches."

His 58-run sixth wicket partnership with skipper Mushfiqur Rahim, while it saved the Tigers' blushes, could have given them a winning platform had Mushfiqur not gotten out in the batting Powerplay overs. "When Mushfiq and I were batting our target was around 230 to 240. But unfortunately we couldn't succeed in the Powerplay. It was our plan to play good cricketing shots then. And hit in the last 10 overs."

Despite the reversal, Mahmudullah did not feel that the Tigers would be under any pressure as they were still 2-1 up in the series. "I believe that we are still confident enough to win the last two games," said Mahmudullah. "I don't think we were in any sort of pressure or will feel anything. We are still positive and will go hard at winning the last two matches."

: Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (L) and Rubel Hossain hone their football skills during practice at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday evening. The duo is expected to spearhead the pace attack when Bangladesh take on West Indies in the third ODI today. Second match's centurion Anamul Haque wears a broad grin as he walks down the lobby of the Sonargaon Hotel yesterday. Photo: Firoz Ahmed. The 19-year-old batsman will be the focus of attention as Bangladesh take on West Indies in the third ODI today.

Mushfiqur Rahim along with young batsman Mominul Haque came to the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium two hours before the scheduled practice time yesterday evening. The Bangladesh captain had a quick look at the pitch on which the Tigers, 2-0 up in the five-match series, will take on a wounded West Indies in today's third ODI, which will start at 2.30pm.