Samuels, Bravo and Chanderpaul Have Piles

Samuels made 260 in big partnerships with Bravo and Chanderpaul

The West Indies finished the third day of their Test match against Bangladesh with a lead of 177 after two huge partnerships.

Marlon Samuels, who scored his first Test double century in a day in which he added 82 runs at a run a ball before lunch and was then easily outscored by Shiv Chanderpaul after. Its not something many batsmen are guilty of. His partnership of 326 with Darren Bravo all but put their team into the lead and ended two balls before lunch when Bravo was lbw to Sohag Gazi, trying to cut the ball off leg stump. For Bravo, his century was bitter/sweet. It's his fourth but all have been made on the sub continent, where the bounce is low and the pace of the wickets much slower. On bouncier tracks elsewhere, he is often found wanting. With Samuels playing Tommy the Turtle in the middle session, the normally steady Chanderpaul outscored nearly two to one.

Samuels became the other wicket to fall with the day deep into the last session, a victim of the third new ball and one that Rubel Hossain managed to lift onto the shoulder of his bat and it carried to point.

Chanderpaul raised his 27th century during the 177 4th wicket stand with Samuels. They have moved into number two and four on the aggregate run scoring list for 2012 and a further 54 tomorrow will give Chanderpaul 1000 runs for the year for only the second time. In the first Test, he made an unbeaten double century and might do so again but its unlikely captain Darren Sammy will bat that long.

Bangladesh had no luck and no answers either as they were dominated by the three West Indian batsmen. Its hard to imagine their fortunes changing much in the two days left.