Bangladesh's caution helped us - Sammy

Bangladesh's watchful approach at the start of their chase of 245 gave West Indies the upper hand as the Mirpur Test moved towards a tight finish, according to Darren Sammy. He praised his team's attitude of not taking Bangladesh lightly, a factor he said had contributed to the 77-run win, especially after West Indies had conceded a 29-run lead in the first innings.

"Normally Tamim [Iqbal] goes after the new ball," Sammy said. "They always start off with a flier. But to see them coming out and leaving balls, I liked it. Had they got off to a flier, we would have had to pull back the game. I think it suited our plans the way they kept being tentative.

"I know Bangladesh will take a lot of positives from this game and so will we. It leaves the series wide open with one more Test to go. We have seen that they are not a team we could roll over. We can expect a bigger fight and hopefully we can come out victorious in Khulna."

Bangladesh had scored their highest Test total - 556 - and remained competitive for four days, but blew their chances of victory during the last two sessions. On the second day, West Indies had declared on 527 for 4, and after Bangladesh surpassed that, the visitors came out firing in the second innings.

"We were never going to take Bangladesh lightly but had we taken them for granted, the result of the first innings score would have caused panic in the dressing room, which eventually was a happy place after we had won a hard-fought Test match.

"To see that we battled throughout the Test match and came out victorious, it would definitely boost the confidence that we had coming from the World Twenty20. It will improve the attitude of the players when we go out and play on the cricket field."

The deteriorating pitch helped West Indies keep the home batsmen quiet. The ball kicked up a few times when it hit the ridges that had developed, and there was spin too. "In the dressing room we talked about taking 10 wickets," Sammy said. "The pitch we saw from the last session of the fourth day and the first session today, there were something for the spinners and also our guys are much quicker. We saw how Rubel [Hossain] bowled today and yesterday. I backed my bowlers and once we were patient, we know could get wickets."

Sammy was pleased to see the inexperienced players in his side standing up when it mattered, especially the second-innings century by Kieran Powell, who became the first West Indies batsman in 12 years to score hundreds in each innings of a Test. Debutant Veerasammy Permaul took four wickets in the game, while Tino Best picked up his first five-wicket haul with a burst of pace and bounce in the second innings.

"The positives of this match are that guys have been scoring runs. Marlon [Samuels] and [Chris] Gayle didn't score and yet we got 500-plus in the first innings and 240-odd on the fourth day in the second innings," Sammy said. "The youngsters are really coming through. More players are stepping up and performing on a consistent basis."