Bangladesh scripted history at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium as they beat Pakistan by 6 wickets in the second Test and registered their maiden series win over.
The Asian rivals on Tuesday, September 3. Pakistan set a target of 185 runs for the visitors to chase down in the fourth innings and the challenge was happily accepted by the resurgent Bangladesh team who were riding high on their maiden win over the Asian rivals in the first Test.
Zakir Hasan (40), Najmul Hossain Shanto (38) and Mominul Haque (34) made vital contributions in the chase to help their team taste unprecedented glory on Pakistan soil. As a result, Bangladesh won their first Test series against Pakistan after facing six losses on the trot. Not many expected the match to produce a result, after the first day was completely washed out due to rain. However, Test cricket once again proved its worth by enthralling with riveting action over the course of four days.
Bangladesh Openers start positively
The final day began with Bangladesh resuming their second innings on 42/0 after seven overs with openers Zakir Hasan (31*) and Shadnam Islam (9*) at the crease. The duo continued from where they left off on Day 4 as Islam found a boundary on just the second ball of the day against Mohammad Ali to make his intentions clear.
The Bangladesh openers completed their 50-run stand in ten overs sending ominous signals in the Pakistan dressing room. With the visitors requiring just 127 runs more win having all ten wickets in hand, Pakistan captain Shan Masood was in desperate search of a wicket.
Pakistan strike back in first session
Mir Hamza turned the man with the golden arm to end his team’s long search for a wicket as he cleaned up Hasan (40) with a jaffa. The wicket helped the hosts to stem the run flow as Hamza and Mohammad Ali bowled 24 dot balls in a row to put some pressure on the opposition.
Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto broke the shackles by flicking Hamza for a boundary in the 15th over. Unbothered by it, the left-arm seamer continued to create chances as an edge flew off Islam’s bat towards the slip cordon but even Salman Agha’s full stretched dive failed to help him grab hold of the ball.
However, Pakistan managed to see the back of the Bangladesh opener in the very next over as Khurram Shahzad made him chip one in the air towards his captain at mid off who made no mistake and caught it safely.
Captain Shanto and Mominul stitch crucial stand
As a result, with both set batters back in the hut, Pakistan got a massive opening to penetrate into the Bangladesh batting lineup who had chased down a fourth innings target of over 180 just twice in 144 matches played in their history.
Shan Masood made his seamers bowl to a packed field on the off side against the left-handed duo of Shanto and Haque who battled through a good spell from Pakistan seamers as they managed to create some chances which fell in the vacant spaces in the field. The duo added a crucial 57 runs for the third wicket to calm the nerves down in the dressing room.
Post Lunch, Agha Salman and Abrar Ahmed got rid of Shanto (38) and Mominul (34) respectively but Bangladesh continued to chip away with the runs. In the end, Mushfiqur Rahim (22*) and Shakib Al Hasan (21*) took their team home in the second session to send their dressing room into a frenzy.
Litton-Mehidy rescue Bangladesh in first innings
Earlier in the game, Pakistan scored 274 in the first innings after being put in to bat first on Day 2. Saim Ayub (58), Shan Masood (57) and Agha Salman (54) starred with the bat for the hosts while Mehidy Hasan Miraz picked 5/61 for Bangladesh.
In reply, Bangladesh were left reeling at 26/6 courtesy of a hostile new ball spell from Khurram Shahzad (6/90) and Mir Hamza (2/40). However, Litton Das (138) and Mehidy Hasan (78) rescued their team’s innings to help Bangladesh get to 262 giving Pakistan just a 12-run lead in the first innings.
Pakistan failed to capitalize on their lead in the second innings and were bundled out for 172 with Hasan Mahmud starring with the ball for the visitors with figures of 5/43 while Nahid Rana also picked up 4/44.