Mushfiqur and Mehidy star in Bangladesh's historic maiden Test win against Pakistan
Written by I Dig SportsBangladesh 565 (Mushfiqur 191, Naseem 3-93) and 30 for 0 (Zakir 15*) beat Pakistan 448 for 6 dec (Rizwan 171*, Shakeel 141) and 146 (Rizwan 51, Mehidy 4-21, Shakib 3-44) by ten wickets
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 only 30 to win in the second session Bangladesh hunted down the runs in 6.3 overs without any trouble.
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 by picking five wickets. 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, leaving Masood unhappy yet again.
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 in between 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 and unnecessary 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 this time at slip to his left.
Rizwan, in between, struck four boundaries on either side of the wicket with hard hands that wiped out a chunk of the deficit that was 50 when he 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 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 soon took the lead, but Naseem Shah handed a catch to midwicket before Rizwan took the responsibility of building some sort of a lead with his tenth Test half-century. His hard-handed approach and slog sweeps also resulted in his wicket when he chopped on against Mehidy, who also trapped Mohammad Ali to wrap 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.