SYL­HET – Left-han­der Kirk McKen­zie passed fifty for the fourth time in five in­nings but nar­row­ly missed out on three fig­ures, as West In­dies A carved out a small lead on day two of the sec­ond four-day “Test” in Bangladesh on Wednes­day.

Re­ply­ing to Bangladesh A’s 237, the Caribbean side end­ed the day at Syl­het Acad­e­my Ground on 268 for six – a lead of 31 runs.

The 22-year-old McKen­zie once again led West In­dies A, top-scor­ing with an at­tack­ing 91 which came from on­ly 122 balls and in­clud­ed nine fours and three six­es.

Kea­cy Car­ty al­so got among the runs with 68 but per­ished with the close beck­on­ing, while Al­ick Athanaze chipped in with 45 and Ray­mon Reifer, 37.

Ear­li­er, fast bowler Akeem Jor­dan claimed five for 45 as the hosts lost their last five wick­ets for 62 runs af­ter re­sum­ing the morn­ing on 175 for five.

Sha­ha­dat Hos­sain, un­beat­en overnight on 25, car­ried the fight for his side with a top score of 73, which came from 124 de­liv­er­ies and in­clud­ed 10 fours and two six­es.

How­ev­er, he lost overnight part­ner Nay­eem Hasan af­ter the 23-year-old had added on­ly five to his 12 at the start, as three wick­ets tum­bled for 13 runs in the space of 35 de­liv­er­ies – Jor­dan strik­ing twice.

Tot­ter­ing on 199 for eight, Sha­ha­dat in­spired a 34-run, ninth wick­et stand with Tan­vir Is­lam (4) to re­vive the in­nings, be­fore fast bowler Jair McAl­lis­ter and Jor­dan picked up the last two wick­ets.

In re­ply, West In­dies A suf­fered an ear­ly set­back when Test left-han­der Tage­nar­ine Chan­der­paul missed a de­fen­sive stroke to a good length de­liv­ery on leg stump, and was ad­judged lbw to seam­er Khaled Ahmed for four with 16 runs on the board.

On 26 for one at lunch with McKen­zie un­beat­en on 18, West In­dies A flour­ished on the re­sump­tion as McKen­zie and Reifer stretched their sec­ond wick­et stand to 116.

Reifer faced 78 de­liv­er­ies and count­ed two fours and two six­es but his dis­missal, clip­ping left-arm spin­ner Tan­vir Is­lam to short mid-wick­et, led to a slide which saw three wick­ets go down for sev­en runs in quick time.

McKen­zie was one of the ca­su­al­ties, hol­ing out down the ground off off-spin­ner Saif Has­san (2-37). In his four pre­vi­ous in­nings, the Ja­maican had knocks of 50, 0, 221 and 86.

In need of a re­vival at 139 for four, West In­dies got it through Car­ty who an­chored two crit­i­cal stands, putting on 79 for the fifth wick­et with Athanaze and 48 for the sixth with cap­tain Joshua Da Sil­va, who was un­beat­en on nine at the close.

The left-hand­ed Athanaze struck eight fours in a 60-ball knock be­fore falling lbw to off-spin­ner Nay­eem Hasan while Car­ty faced 111 balls count­ed five fours and two six­es be­fore go­ing run out in the day’s penul­ti­mate over.

CMC

Scores:

BANGLADESH A 237 (Sha­ha­dat Hos­sain 73, Afif Hos­sain 37, Saif Has­san 31; Akeem Jor­dan 5-45, Kevin Sin­clair 2-44, An­der­son Phillip 2-67)

WEST IN­DIES A 268/6 (Kirk McKen­zie 91, Kea­cy Car­ty 68, Al­ick Athanaze 45, Ray­mon Reifer 37; Saif Has­san 2-37)