Bangladesh Look to Level Test Series

Khulna: Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim hopes his team can bounce back to win the second and final Test against the West Indies starting Wednesday after snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the first.

The home team had raised hopes of an upset win in Dhaka by setting up a modest victory target of 245 runs following a stunning bowling performance of 6-74 by debutant off-spinner Sohag Gazi.

But a customary second innings batting failure ended landed them a 77-run defeat, as West Indian paceman Tino Best generated some hostile pace to claim 5-24 and push the Tigers to their 64th defeat in 74 Tests.

Rahim said Bangladesh achieved some positives despite their defeat.

"But we scored 500-plus and took a first-innings lead, these are big achievements, all the players were committed and if we could have played a little better we could have possibly won it." said Rahim.

Bangladesh will also hope their fortunes change on a new venue, the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in the industrial town of Khulna which will be hosting a Test for the first time.

Tamim Iqbal had an elbow injury but passed a fitness test on Tuesday and will play the second Test. The team management may likely replace Junaid Siddique, the other opener, with Nazimuddin on the account of the former's struggle against the short ball and problems with slip-catching. Still, one will not be too surprised if Tamim and Anamul Haque, the batsman flown in as his cover, go out to open.

West Indian captain Darren Sammy agreed Bangladesh will take some positives into the second match.

"I know Bangladesh will take a lot of positives and so will we. It leaves the series wide open. We have seen they are not a team we can roll over," said Sammy who also led his team to 1-0 Test win in Bangladesh last year.

Darren Sammy has also hinted at continuing with the same line-up that played in the first Test. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who didn't field for much of the previous game, is fit, and the likelihood of using Fidel Edwards as a third pace bowler has diminished due to Permaul's impressive debut.

Teams from:

Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Siddique, Shahriar Nafees, Naeem Islam, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (captain & wk), Nasir Hossain, Mahmudullah, Sohag Gazi, Shahadat Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Abul Hasan, Elias Sunny, Nazimuddin and Anamul Haque

West Indies: Chris Gayle, Kieran Powell, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Darren Sammy (captain), Sunil Narine, Ravi Rampaul, Tino Best, Veerasammy Permaul, Kirk Edwards, Narsingh Deonarine, Assad Fudadin

Pitch & conditions
Khulna pitch has generally been batting-friendly but is likely to offer turn on the last two days. The weather has been unpredictable over the last two weeks.

Stats & trivia

• Khulna will be Bangladesh's seventh Test venue.
• The last time West Indies won four Tests in a row was between January and April of 1993 when they beat Australia home and away.

Match facts
November 21-25, 2012
Start time 0930 local (0330 GMT)