Captain Habibul Bashar was keen to play his shots on Friday

A final session fightback by the West Indies cancelled out Bangladesh's early advantage on day one of the first Test.

Captain Habibul Bashar struck his third century to put Bangladesh in a strong position at 166-2 at tea.

But the tourists, who chose to bat after winning the toss, then lost five wickets, including that of Bashar, who was caught off Jermaine Lawson.

Mohammed Ashraful survived a bizarre appeal for a run-out and was on 65 at the close of play on a rain-hit day.

The Tigers, still searching for their maiden Test win, had the worst possible start when Pedro Collins trapped Hannan Sarkar lbw with the very first ball of the Test.

But, apart from the loss of Javed Omar, caught at backward point by Devon Smith off Collins for 32, Bangladesh then dominated to reach 166-2 before rain stopped play.

Bashar coped well with the Windies bowlers, looking to pull anything pitched slightly short of a length.

Lawson made a start after being out of Tests for a year but struggled to find his rhythm along with fellow young pacemen Tino Best and Fidel Edwards.

But after tea, the home side made the breakthrough and once Bashar had gone, the wickets began to fall.

Saleh was then caught by Ridley Jacobs off the bowling of Ramnaresh Sarwan and only 11 more runs were added before Faisal Hossain was caught by Tino Best to become Collins' third victim.

Mushfiqur Rahman had only made one run before being dismissed when Jacobs and Sarwan combined again.

Then wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud went for two when he was stumped by Jacobs off the bowling of Chris Gayle for only two.

Ashraful was lucky to still be at the crease at the close after earlier appearing to be run out after a misunderstanding with Rajin Saleh.

Collins' throw hit the wicket but umpire Daryl Harper refused to call on the services of a third umpire.

TV images showed that Ashraful had not grounded his bat or his foot and, alerted to this, Windies skipper Brian Lara then appealed to the umpire.

This time Harper did call on assistance but the third umpire declined to dismiss the Bangladesh batsman - rules do not permit a player to request a consultation after an umpire has already made a decision.

West Indies: Brian Lara (capt), Chris Gayle, Devon Smith, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Smith, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ridley Jacobs, (wkt), Tino Best, Pedro Collins, Fidel Edwards, Jermaine Lawson.