Bangladesh’s historic maiden Test win against Pakistan
Bhubaneswar: A spirited Bangladesh bowling unit rode on the confidence Mushfiqur Rahim’s 191 had instilled into their camp on the fourth day to skittle Pakistan for 146 on the fifth, and hand them a fifth loss in a stretch of nine winless home Tests. While Pakistan have not won a Test at home since February 2021 against South Africa, this was Bangladesh’s maiden Test win against Pakistan – a ten-wicket win to boot – and a rare one away from home. Leading into this game, they had won just two Tests on foreign soil in the last seven years.
If the fourth day was about Bangladesh slowly strengthening their grip on the game, the last day was about romping to victory. Once the fast bowlers removed three of the top four Pakistan batters, the spinning duo of Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz shared the remaining seven wickets; the ball had started to turn more than it did on Saturday, with some uneven bounce as well.
Young fast bowler Nahid Rana cranked up the pace close to 150kmph to snare Babar Azam, Shakib stifled with his stump-to-stump lines from both sides of the wicket, and Mehidy struck with his zippy offbreaks to regularly create tense moments and wicket-taking opportunities.
After Pakistan – led largely by Mohammad Rizwan’s 51 – set Bangladesh a mere 30 to win in the second session, Bangladesh hunted down the runs in 6.3 overs.
Even though the ball wasn’t swinging as much as it did on the previous evening, Bangladesh’s quicks set up their push for victory in the first session. With Saim Ayub already dismissed on the fourth day, Shan Masood fell early when he edged Hasan Mahmud to the wicketkeeper. The on-field umpire didn’t give it out, but Bangladesh reviewed and saw the decision overturned after a spike on UltraEdge.
The score of 28 for 2 could have been 28 for 3 when Babar Azam edged his second delivery, angling away from him to the keeper, but Litton Das couldn’t hold on to the chance to his right and Babar survived a pair.
He grew in confidence with some runs and boundaries, but Nahid spotted his lack of footwork and plotted his fall. He peppered Babar with short balls regularly above 145kmph to push him on the back foot, and when he pitched one up outside off, Babar’s feet didn’t move quickly and far enough, and his drive resulted in him chopping on for 22. That started the slide of wickets, halted briefly only by a counter-attacking innings from Rizwan before the lunch break.
Saud Shakeel stepped out to negate Shakib’s turn but missed and was stumped for a duck. A patient Abdullah Shafique then threw his wicket away with just over three overs left for lunch. He attempted a wild swing over mid-off only to hand a leading edge to Shadman Islam at backward point. Two balls later, Mehidy drew Agha Salman forward with a teasing offbreak and drew his edge, with Shadman taking a sharp catch to his left this time at slip.
Rizwan, in between, struck four boundaries on either side of the wicket to wipe out a chunk of the deficit that was 50 when he had walked out. He attacked a slightly tired Nahid with a hat-trick of fours and followed it with a slog sweep for another boundary next over that made it 26 runs scored off the two overs. But he was forced to curb his instincts with Salman’s dismissal and farmed the strike after the lunch break once Shaheen Shah Afridi was trapped in front by a Mehidy delivery that barely bounced.
Pakistan were 111 for 7 at the time, still trailing by six. They took the lead, but Naseem Shah soon handed a catch to midwicket before Rizwan took the responsibility of building some sort of a lead with his tenth Test half-century. He was going hard at the ball through his innings and this resulted in his wicket when he chopped on against Mehidy, who also trapped Mohammad Ali to wrap up the hosts.
Zakir Hasan and Shadman then ensured Bangladesh got over the line unscathed. Zakir struck three fours in his 14 and hit the winning runs with a sweep down to the vacant fine-leg fence.