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Bangladesh just batted, batted, batted, and finally, when they thought it was enough, they put Afghanistan in to climb a mountain and nicked off both their openers.
That was pretty much the third day of Bangladesh’s one-off Test against Afghanistan in Dhaka as the visitors still need an impossible 617 runs in the remaining days for a win.
Najmul Hossain Shanto made history with his second century of the match, Mominul Haque finally reached three figures after 26 innings, Liton Das managed to mark his captaincy debut with a fifty, and Zakir Hasan left a century on the ground trying to steal a third run – that would be the summary of the Bangladesh innings.
However, the eye-catching matter of the day was Bangladesh setting the Afghans a target of 662, the highest they have ever done, and also the highest ever in Asia.
At one point, it seemed like Bangladesh would bat out the whole day like Chandika Hathurusinghe said in the morning but they did not, and Mominul, after the day’s play, said that their plan was to just bat as long as they could.
“We did not have any targets (regarding someone reaching triple figures). It was the decision the captain took. We just wanted to bat for a long time,” the left-handed batter said.
Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott hoped for a good performance from their batters on the fourth day.
“We are working at trying to bat out the two days, which is going to be tough. And I thought the fight shown tonight by the two batters who are not out was good. It is what we expect in test cricket, good test cricket. Hopefully, the pitch is getting a little bit slow and we can bat out and put up a good performance,” he said.
Bangladesh started from where they left off on the second day and it looked like the Afghans would not find inroads into the Bangladesh batting order. However, courtesy of a poor call from Zakir, the batter was out on 71.
Najmul then reached triple figures and could extend his knock to 124 before he and Mushfiqur Rahim were dismissed in quick succession.
However, an unbeaten 143-run partnership between Mominul and Liton saw Bangladesh take their lead to 661.
In reply, Afghanistan were shocked as soon as they stepped out to bat as Shoriful Islam’s full-length delivery trapped Ibrahim Zadran LBW, and then Abdul Malik was caught behind off Taskin Ahmed.
A short ball from Taskin Ahmed hit Afghan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi on the head and the batter had to leave the pitch. Trott informed that he hoped Shahidi would be fine.
“Obviously (Shahidi is) a little bit sore, a little bit groggy. It’ll just be monitored overnight and the usual process. Our medical staff are really good and he’ll be in good hands. So, we hope he’s okay. It’s important the skipper is healthy and okay to lead the guys. Hopefully, he’ll be fine and I’m sure he will be,” he said.
