Bangladesh bowlers tore through Pakistan’s batting order as the hosts lost five wickets, including that of skipper Shan Masood and former skipper Babar Azam, on the fourth day of the second Test against Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Monday.
Soon after Saim Ayub (20) was caught off Taskin Ahmed’s delivery in the 13th over, Masood (28) was shown out in the 17th over. After that, star batsman Babar (11) was also caught, leaving Pakistan at 65-5.
At the start of the third day of the match, opener Abdullah Shafique was dismissed for 3 and nightwatchman Khurram Shahzad fell.
On Sunday, Bangladesh’s Litton Das hit a defiant 138 and Mehidy Hasan Miraz 78 as the tourists recovered from a precarious position to post a total of 262 after Pakistan’s Khurram Shahzad took six wickets on the third day of the second Test.
In response to Pakistan’s first innings 274, Bangladesh were reduced to 26-6 and threatened to follow in the morning amid fiery fast bowling, but Das and Miraz put together a 165-run stand for the seventh wicket to steady the ship.
Das hit 13 fours and four sixes in his 228-ball knock while Miraz, who took five wickets to fire Pakistan, showed his prowess with the bat as he hit 12 fours and a six.
After a hard day’s toil, Pakistan were 9-2 at stumps in their second innings and a slender lead of 21 as they sought to level the two-match series after losing the first Test by 10 wickets.
Hasan Mahmud dismissed Shafique and bowled night watchman Shahzad in the last ball of the day.
Earlier, Bangladesh went on to 10 for no loss when they kept Pakistan calm on Saturday after the opening day was washed out, but they came under intense pressure immediately.
Shahzad (6-90) got rid of the pace and swing early, getting rid of Zakir Hasan and in his next over, he covered Shadman Islam and skipper Najmul Hossain Shant, while Mir Hamza also chipped in with two quick knocks.
Shahzad trapped the experienced Shakib Al Hasan lbw to leave the shell-shocked tourists in a desperate situation, still needing 98 runs to avoid the follow-on.
However, Miraz and Das put up a remarkable fightback from there as they took Bangladesh to 75-6 at lunch and milked Pakistan’s bowlers to bring up their half-century.
Shortly after hooking Shahzad for a huge six to take their partnership past 150 runs, Miraz offered the pace bowler an easy catch but Das went on to bring up his fourth Test century to frustrate Pakistan.
