Liton, Mushfiq put Tigers’ on driving seat

Liton, Mushfiq put Tigers’ on driving seat

Liton Das brought up his maiden Test ton while Mushfiqur Rahim scored an unbeaten 82 as Bangladesh recovered from a shaky start to finish on 253-4 on Day 1 of the first Test match against Pakistan at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on Friday.

Liton and Mushfiq remained unbeaten on 113 and 82 runs respectively and together they repaired the Tigers’ innings with an unbroken 204-run partnership for the fifth wicket after the hosts were reduced to 49-4.

Liton reached his personal milestone with a streaky single in the 78th over but Mushfiq will have to wait for Day 2 to get a chance to score his eighth Test century as the play had to be stopped five overs before the completion of the scheduled 90 overs due to bad light.

The Pakistan attack tasted four successes inside the first 17 overs of the day as they dismissed Saif Hassan, Shadman Islam and Nazmul Hossain Shanto for 14 each and skipper Mominul Haque for just six.

But Liton and Mushfiq didn’t allow the visitors to make any more inroads for the rest of the day.

For Pakistan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Faheem Asharaf and Sajid Khan took one wicket each.

‘I am proud of the character that they have showed with their backs to the wall. Sometimes, as a coach, you look at the technical attributes of the players. But I was pleased with the mental application,’ a pleased Ashwell Prince, Bangladesh’s batting coach, said after the day’s play.

Batting first, the Tigers couldn’t make a fine start as their opening duo of Shadman, Saif followed each other to the pavilion in quick succession.

Saif gave a catch to Abid Ali at short leg off a fiery bouncer from Shaheen while Shadman got trapped in front by Hasan, after getting two lives.

Nazmul and Mominul also failed to lift their innings as the pair was dismissed by Faheem and Sajid respectively.

Off-spinner Sajid made Mominul edge a ball to wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan where the umpire had initially given not out but had to reverse his decision after Pakistan reviewed the call.

In the next over, Nazmul followed his captain’s footsteps by giving a catch to Sajid at point, leaving the Tigers at risk of getting bundled out for an embarrassing total.

Liton and Mushfiq then appeared as saviours for the hosts. They made a cautious start and went into Lunch unbroken.

In the post lunch session, they quickened the run-scoring rate and reached their respective half-centuries.

Liton, who went through an acute run dearth in the recently concluded ICC Twenty20 World Cup, received a life on route to his century as Sajid dropped his catch off Shaheen when he was batting on 67.

Liton also struggled with cramps and the team physiotherapist had to rush to the field multiple times to treat him in the final session.

But he endured the discomfort and completed his milestone.

Mushfiq, who completed his 24th half century in Tests with consecutive boundaries off Hasan, looked in control throughout the day and the duo completed each other wonderfully till the end of the day’s play.