62 for 6 and 301 behind: humiliation looms

Many would argue that it has already happened, but humiliation -- most likely of a historic variety -- looms for the Bangladesh cricket team in Antigua. They ended the second day of the first Test on 62 for six in the second innings and needing 301 runs to make West Indies bat again. It is one of the rare instances in cricket when the bare numbers paint the fullest picture.

Having been bowled out for their lowest ever Test total of 43 less than 30 hours ago, at stumps on the second day Shakib Al Hasan and his team completed two days of Test cricket that produced 105 runs for Bangladesh in 36.4 overs for the loss of 16 wickets.

Mahmudullah Riyad, out for a golden duck in the first innings, could well have been the 17th had Shannon Gabriel not overstepped and Mahmudullah's floundering flail was punished with a dismissal. Instead, he will resume on Friday unbeaten on 15, the second highest score by a Bangladeshi in 16 tries in the match. Liton Das's first-innings 25 is the gold standard.

In more than 12 hours of the first two days' play, Bangladesh batted for less time than it very possibly will take to watch both World Cup matches today -- and smart money would be on Bangladesh's two completed innings being shorter if just one of the quarterfinals goes into extra time.

So far for Bangladesh batting, it has been three hours and 10 minutes split pretty evenly between the first morning and the second evening. The rest of the time West Indies spent coolly and patiently compiling an innings of 406 all out in 137.3 overs. 9.4 times the runs as Bangladesh's first innings, scored in 3.75 times the overs. Kraigg Brathwaite alone scored 121.

Kemar Roach hauled in five wickets for eight runs in the space of 12 balls in the first innings with, by the way, a hamstring injury that limited him to five overs in the match -- all in one spell in the first innings. Gabriel and captain Jason Holder would not have minded Roach's absence in Bangladesh's second innings as it allowed them the opportunity to take four for 36 and two for 15 respectively.

Bangladesh have averaged a wicket every 6.5 runs in this Test and in the first innings their last four wickets fell for nine runs.

If Mahmudullah, Nurul Hasan, Abu Jayed, Rubel Hossain and Kamrul Islam do not add 7 more runs on Friday, Bangladesh's combined total of less than 112 across both innings (which Pakistan managed against Australia in 2002) will go down as the worst Test aggregate since 1946 when New Zealand were 42 and 54 all out against Australia. If they add less than 10 for a combined total lower than 115, it will go down as the fifth lowest Test aggregate in 141 years and 2,310 Test matches.

Bangladesh's own previous worst was a lofty 226 against West Indies in 2002, when they were true babes in international cricket, similar to what Afghanistan are now. But Afghanistan, ranked outside the top 10, managed 212 runs across two innings in their debut Test match against India in India, the top-ranked side in the world and a veritable fortress.

If one were to look past numbers, it could be said that Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib fell in the same manner in both innings -- a failure to get behind the line of a fast incoming ball in the case of the former and in the case of the latter, a proclivity to chase balls that could have been left alone. In that the captain was not alone. It could also be mentioned that senior player Mahmudullah displayed the same disregard for team cause when he went for that airy waft in the last over of the second day as junior opener Liton did when he, being the only one who had played himself in, fell swiping across the line with the score on 34 for five in the first morning.

But the numbers in this match do not require all those eye witness accounts to lend weight to the story. 105 for 16 against 406 all out and all those digits in between tell the story of two sides monumentally mismatched in commitment, ability, mental strength and the will to fight.

For those objecting to the inference into Bangladesh's commitment and will to fight, it may be instructive to contrast the vast difference between the teams' stats in this Test and the number 1: the difference between the team's rankings. Bangladesh at eighth are actually one place higher than West Indies in the ICC Test team rankings. 

The second Test will start in Jamaica from July 12, and yes, there will still be a World Cup semifinal and final to look forward to when it does.