If day two wasn’t proof enough, Bangladesh made a loud statement on the third day of the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Dhaka on Friday (June 16).
Having set a marathon target of 662, the hosts nipped out two early breakthroughs at the fag end of the day while injury forced Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi to retire hurt and it has meant more woes for the tourists who had a forgettable day from the get-go. Najmul Hossain tore into the bowling, carrying on from where he left off yesterday evening.
The left-hander became only the second Bangladesh batter to get two tons in a Test match as Afghanistan’s bowlers got a pasting. Mominul Haque also helped himself to a much-needed ton to break his lean patch in the longest format. Skipper Litton Das got a fifty too as Bangladesh batters made merry due to the match situation and a mentally fatigued bowling attack to pile on the runs.
Ibrahim Zadran had a surprising second failure in the game as he was trapped LBW by Shoriful Islam while Taskin Ahmed got rid of Abdul Malik to leave Afghanistan in tatters. And it got worse when Shahidi got hit on the helmet by a Taskin bumper. It is unknown whether he will bat again in this innings. In any case, the writing is on the wall with two full days left.
Brief scores: Bangladesh 382 (Shanto 146, Zakir 76, Masood 5-79) & 425/4 decl. (Shanto 124, Mominul 121*, Zakir 71) lead Afghanistan 146 (Zazai 36, Jamal 35, Ebadot 4-47) & 45/2 (Shoriful 1-6, Taskin 1-28) by 616 runs.
