CHITTAGONG: If somebody had told Bangladesh that they would finish the day at 253 for the loss of four wickets at the end of the first hour of the first innings, they wouldn’t have believed you. Such poor was their start, but so strong was their comeback too.
Bangladesh, as they have done so far, won the toss and decided to bat first. Their inexperienced but talented batting line up was put to the test straightaway by Pakistani bowlers who gave away nothing. They reduced them to 49 for 4 at one stage, before Litton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim came out and rescued them.
All was not easy though as the Pakistani bowlers gave very little margin to the Bangladeshi batters. However, in a display of great resolve and grit, Das scored a phenomenal century with Mushfiqur currently playing at 82 not out.
The fifth wicket partnership is worth 204 runs. For Pakistan, Nauman Ali, who remained wicketless, was the pick of the bowler. He bowled tight lines and lengths to keep the scoring rate down. Shaheen Shah Afridi, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, and Sajid Khan all picked one wicket each.
The game will start 11 minutes early tomorrow. In a video shared by the Pakistan Cricket Board after the end of the Day 1 proceedings, Hasan said: “Ball started coming on to the bat nicely after the first session of the Day. But, credit to Litton and Mushfiqur, they have batted very well.”
He hoped that Pakistan bowlers would be able to bowl out Bangladesh quickly tomorrow, and that the Pakistani batters would also put on a good batting display.