Ottis Gibson, the West Indies coach, has said his team was pleased to be in control of a Test match for the first time in a long while. Darren Bravo made 195 to leave Bangladesh chasing 508 in the fourth innings, and the home side still need a further 344 runs with seven wickets in hand to pull off what would be a recording-breaking victory.
Bangladesh lost opener Imrul Kayes early but Tamim Iqbal made an aggressive half-century and though Bangladesh lost a further two wickets, some fluent and assured batting from Mushfiqur Rahim together with a much-tempered Tamim helped Bangladesh through to the close.
"It's nice to be in control of a Test match after so many games of trying," Gibson said. "We know Tamim [Iqbal] is still in the crease and he's a quality player, so we're mindful of that. We've set them a record target of 508. Four hundred and eighteen is the record score so we're happy with that. But we're also mindful that it's still a very good wicket to bat on, so we have to work hard for our wickets.
"We need to get seven wickets to win and the wicket is still playing well, although we found it difficult to score in the morning. You don't come over to a place like this and expect to blast through the opposition."
West Indies struggled against Bangladesh's spin-heavy attack in the first Test and Gibson said he expected the ball to turn more than it had in Mirpur so far. "This wicket especially hasn't spun much, we know their main potent attack is spin so we expected the ball to turn more but it didn't happen. We did our homework on how to play their spin and it's good to see it pay off with the likes of Darren Bravo getting his first Test hundred."
Despite the huge challenge facing the hosts, Gibson doesn't expect Bangladesh to just roll over and suggested they still had a shot at winning the game."You can't really rule out a Bangladeshi win, if Bangladesh can chase 508 then they deserve to win. It will be a record.
"You need to work hard for your wickets. The Bangladeshi batsmen were a bit reckless in the first innings but you don't expect them to do that twice. We're obviously not working hard enough in our fielding. Dropped catches will happen, but as long as they are not too often and not to the same person in the same position [it's okay]. We have to spend a lot of time working on our fielding."