Home ›› 05 Dec 2021 ›› Sport
Taijul Islam was the only ray of hope for Bangladesh in the second Test of the series against Pakistan at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur, where the first day’s play ended 33 overs short due to bad light.
Pakistan were 161-2 after 57 overs at tea on day one, and the play did not resume afterwards, and the umpires, after several inspections, called off the first day’s play at 4.06 PM. The start timing of day two has been pushed forward to 9:30 AM.
On his last toss of the series, Pakistan captain Babar Azam finally won the toss and elected to bat first. The conditions were a bit overcast due to a depression in the Bay of Bengal, thus floodlights were lit from very early in the morning.
The fresh wicket of the first day with moisture and overcast conditions created the perfect atmosphere for the pacers, and Mominul Haque handed the red new ball to pacers Ebadot Hossain Chowdhury and Khaled Ahmed.
But they failed to recreate what Hasan Ali and Shaheen Shah Afridi did against Bangladesh at Chattogram. The duo could hardly put any pressure on Abid Ali and Abdullah Shafique, who batted effortlessly during the most critical period of the Test.
Ebadot bowled some challenging deliveries for the batsmen but Khaled lacked bite in his bowling. Together, they could not form a pressing partnership with the new ball, forcing Mominul to call upon his left-arm spinners. Shakib Al Hasan was brought into the attack on the 10th over, and Taijul on the other end.
Taijul gave Bangladesh the much-needed breakthrough by clipping the stumps of Shafique when he was on 25. Taijul’s slow arm-ball went between the bat and pad of Shafique, who was on a defensive posture, but the ball found the gap to rattle the stumps.
Another opener Abid Ali, who scored a century and a half-century in Chattogram and was adjudged player of the match, did not last long either as he chopped on a Taijul delivery to get out for 39 runs.
Abid was playing the cut shot well, but that cost him his wicket when he tried to slice the ball towards the unguarded third man area, but the bottom edge of his bat guided the ball onto the stumps.
That brought Babar Azam in the middle. The Pakistan captain had been struggling with the bat throughout the series, but this time he found ample time and opportunity to score some runs to generate confidence.
The bowling from Shakib, Taijul and Mehidy Hasan hardly could put any dent in Babar’s confidence, and he was playing with utmost comfort, and at the end of the day, he was unbeaten on 60 runs from 99 balls with seven fours and one six. Azhar Ali, not one of the quickest scorers in Test cricket, held on to his role as he was not out on 36 runs from 112 deliveries.
Taijul ended the day with a bowling figure of 17-5-49-2, whereas Shakib also tightened the screw from the other end as he ended with 15-6-33-0.
Mehidy also contained runs but it was the pacers who leaked runs early on the day, which could be the ideal time for them to provide an early breakthrough.
After the day’s play, Mehidy was full of praise of compatriot Taijul.
“Taijul bhai started very well today. He was in very good shape in the last Test, got wickets there. He was off to a good start today too. He bowled very well from one end. He and Shakib bhai created a partnership. Shakib bhai bowled tight, and Taijul bhai bowled well to get wickets,” the off-spinner said.
