Towhid Hridoy’s unbeaten 242 breaks Bangladesh’s Test record and puts them 30 ahead in Sylhet

From 172 behind to 30 ahead

Hridoy resumed on 29 alongside Mushfiqur Rahim, with Bangladesh 88 for 3. Jomel Warrican took three wickets in the morning, and by the seventh wicket Bangladesh were 184 for 7, still 172 short of West Indies’ total. With Shadman out of the innings, that left Hridoy two partners.

Taijul Islam stayed for 56 balls and 22 runs while 117 were added for the eighth wicket, before Amir Jangoo stumped him off Warrican. Taskin Ahmed then made 12 off 29 in a stand of 85 for the ninth, until Jayden Seales had him caught by Joshua Bishop. The last three wickets were worth 202, a Bangladesh record, according to bdnews24.

Hridoy reached his first Test hundred off 171 balls, 150 off 235 and 200 off 304. He had one narrow escape, on 138, when an lbw review off Seales stayed with the on-field not out on umpire’s call. Warrican finished with 4 for 104 and Seales 2 for 58.

The records Hridoy took in one day

The Daily Star listed what the innings changed:

• 242 not out passes Mushfiqur’s 219 not out against Zimbabwe in 2018 as Bangladesh’s highest Test score.
• He is the first Bangladeshi to turn a maiden Test hundred into a double. Mominul Haque’s 181 against New Zealand had been the biggest first hundred.
• 11 sixes is a Bangladesh Test record, ahead of Tamim Iqbal’s seven against Pakistan in 2015, and one short of the 12 hit by Wasim Akram and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
• The 213 runs he added on the day passed the 212 Shakib Al Hasan scored in a single day against New Zealand in 2017.
• He joins Mushfiqur, Shakib and Tamim as Bangladesh’s fourth Test double centurion, and it is the first Test double hundred at Sylhet. The previous best at the ground was Mahmudul Hasan Joy’s 171 against Ireland in 2025.

“That was an outstanding innings,” Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons said, the AFP news agency reported. Warrican, who took four of the wickets, was just as generous: “I just think he batted extremely well. I’ve got to give him his credit.”

Why the lead may matter more than it looks

Thirty runs is not much on a pitch where West Indies made 356, but it changes the shape of the last two days. West Indies can no longer bat Bangladesh out of the game with a big total in their first innings, and Bangladesh’s spinners, who took nothing on day one, now bowl to a side that has to set a target rather than protect a lead.

Time is the other opponent. Bad light has ended play early on all three days, and it stopped day three after only four overs of West Indies’ second innings. If that keeps happening, a draw is a live result, and a draw gives West Indies the series after their eight-wicket win in Mirpur.

Shadman’s ankle and the South Africa tour

Shadman slipped in the field on day two and was stretchered off. A team management source told The Daily Star that his condition “does not look good” and that he is “probably out of South Africa as well”, with a fracture the bigger worry. The BCB has not announced the scan result.

That would leave Bangladesh looking for an opener before the Tests in South Africa, which start at the Wanderers on 15 November. Nayeem Hasan opened in Shadman’s place here.

Market watch

• West Indies resume on 7 for 0, 23 behind. Their second-innings total decides the target, and two days of play is less than it sounds with the light closing in each evening.
• Bangladesh effectively bat with ten in any chase if Shadman stays out, which matters for innings-runs lines.
• Warrican has four of the nine wickets that fell. On a fourth-day surface, the left-arm spinner is the obvious name in bowler markets.
• A draw still settles the series for West Indies, so read series and match prices together.

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Top image: Photo: Raaz.t92 / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons