Bangladesh registered a historic maiden Test match win over Pakistan as they beat them by 10 wickets on Day 5 of the first Test on Sunday, August 25 at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi.
Pakistan came into the day on 23/1 trailing Bangladesh by 94 runs in the first innings. However, they were blown away by the spin duo of Mehidy Hasan Miraz (4/21) and Shakib Al Hasan (3/44) who picked seven wickets between them to bundle Pakistan out for 146 runs.
Chasing a target of 30 runs in the fourth innings, Bangladesh openers Zakir Hasan and Shadnam Islam took their team home unscathed as their nation rejoiced in the historic feat.
Earlier, Pakistan’s downfall started in the second over of the day itself as Hasan Mahmud struck early for Bangladesh finding the edge of captain Shan Masood (14 off 37) which was safely taken by Litton Das behind the stumps.
Having failed to trouble the scorers in the first innings, the onus was on Babar Azam to take Pakistan out of early trouble as he walked in to bat at number four. The right-handed batter survived an early blow as Litton Das dropped him on duck.
Babar seemed to be making the most of his chance and looked in fine touch as he raced to 22 with the help of three boundaries.
However, he failed to convert it into a big score getting an inside edge back onto his stumps against Nahid Rana for 22 (50) to leave Pakistan in a precarious situation at 66/3.
First innings’ centurion Saud Shakeel walked in at number five but failed to replicate his heroics as he got outfoxed by Shakib al Hasan who got him out stumped for a four-ball duck.
With Pakistan on 67/4, another centurion from the first innings, Mohammad Rizwan, joined opener Abdullah Shafique at the crease and the duo decided to eat away with the deficit with a flurry of boundaries.
They added 37 runs for the fifth wicket in just 35 balls to bring the deficit down to 13 runs.
However, their counter-attacking play couldn’t last long as Shafique (37 off 86) got a leading edge while trying to whack Shakib down the ground and the ball went straight down the throat of Shadman Islam near backward point.
The wicket opened the floodgates, with Mehidy Hasan accounting for Agha Salman in the very next over for a golden duck. Pakistan went into lunch on 108/6 trailing Bangladesh by nine runs with Rizwan (22*) and Shaheen Afridi (1*) at the crease.
Post Lunch, Bangladesh smelled blood as Mehidy and Shakib quickly removed Afridi and Naseem Shah (3) respectively to leave the hosts staring down the barrel at 118/8.
While wickets continued to fall from one end, Rizwan showed some resilience and brought up his tenth fifty and helped Pakistan get a lead of 25 runs.
After a long wicketless passage, captain Najmul Hossain Shanto brought Mehidy back in the attack and he immediately responded by cleaning up Rizwan for 51. The off-spinner further got rid of Mohammad Ali for a duck to bundle Pakistan out for 146.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh registered their first Test victory over Pakistan after 15 matches.
Mushfiqur Rahim top scored with the bat in the first innings for the visitors with a magnificent knock of 191 while Mehidy also made a valuable contribution of 77 to help Bangladesh score 565 in the first innings.
Earlier, Mohammad Rizwan (171*) and Saud Shakeel (141) helped Pakistan reach 448/6 in the first innings after being put in to bat first.
