Bangladesh squandered a flying start to finish the opening day of the one-off Test against Afghanistan at 318-8 in Abu Dhabi on Friday, despite half-centuries from Shadman Islam and Litton Das and an explosive 83 from Tanzid Hasan Tamim.<\/p>\n
Batting first after winning the toss, Tigers raced to 134-1 in the opening session, with Tanzid and Shadman putting on 124 for the first wicket. But the momentum faded across the next two sessions as they lost four wickets for 92 runs before three more batters fell in the final session.<\/p>\n
The batting-friendly pitch largely lived up to captain Najmul Hossain Shanto\u2019s pre-match assessment, but Bangladesh failed to make the most of the conditions. Afghanistan\u2019s pacers varied their pace to good effect, with Mohammad Saleem claiming three wickets for 70 runs, while Yamin Ahmadzai and Ismat Alam took two apiece.<\/p>\n
Tanzid\u2019s dismissal was the day\u2019s biggest disappointment. Fresh from scoring a century in the Darwin Test against Australia, the opener looked set for another big score after racing to his fifty off just 41 balls.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old attacked even deliveries outside off stump but fell just 15 minutes before lunch, edging Ismat\u2019s short delivery to the wicketkeeper. He made 83 off 71 balls, striking eight fours and four sixes, but missed out on a second successive Test century.<\/p>\n
At the other end, Shadman batted with greater restraint to register his first Test fifty in five years and eight months (68 months). The opener\u2019s 67 was his eighth half-century in 31 Tests, but his innings ended when he mistimed a pull off Salem to be caught at square leg.<\/p>\n
Bangladesh then suffered a damaging collapse, losing three experienced batters for just 12 runs between 221 and 233. Mominul Haque made 39 before falling to a catch at short cover, Mushfiqur Rahim was bowled for a duck by a Yamin yorker, and Shanto departed for 29 after edging Qais Ahmad\u2019s leg-spin to slip.<\/p>\n
A 62-run stand between Litton and Mehidy Hasan Miraz briefly steadied the innings. The wicket-keeper, who had struggled for runs in recent international outings, showed encouraging signs of a return to form and reached his 21st Test fifty with a flick for four off Yamin.<\/p>\n
However, he fell soon afterwards, hooking Saleem\u2019s short delivery to deep fine leg for 53 off 89 balls.<\/p>\n
Miraz made 24 before playing on to Ismat, whose delivery came back in to hit the stumps. Hasan Mahmud then lasted only briefly, bowled by a Saleem yorker for two.<\/p>\n
Bangladesh closed the day on 318-8, left to rue Tanzid\u2019s missed century and their inability to turn a dominant start into a commanding total.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
-DailySun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bangladesh squandered a flying start to finish the opening day of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[174,41,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bangladesh","category-cricket","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4023,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4021\/revisions\/4023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}