Shakib century lifts Tigers( may be bacha tiger)
Sat, Dec 17th, 2011 9:25 pm BdST
Dhaka, Dec 17 (bdnews24.com) - The Tigers' pride was salvaged with a superb unbeaten century by Shakib Al Hasan and a fighting Shahriar Nafees (97) effort, as Bangladesh ended the opening day on 234 for five after being put into bat in the second Test against Pakistan on Saturday.
Shakib was batting with skipper Mushfiqur Rahim (5) to hold the Tigers' fort at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
The former Bangladesh captain Shakib came to the crease with the hosts reeling on 43-4 after Pakistan seamer Aizaz Cheema took advantage of the helpful morning conditions that had the ball reverse swinging.
From that point Shakib and Nafees batted watchfully - hoisting a 180-run partnership. Their cautious running and judicious shot selections, in the two sessions they batted, set an example for the other top order batsmen.
The partnership is Bangladesh's highest against Pakistan and also their highest fifth wicket stand in Tests. Before this Habibul Bashar and Javed Omar put together a 167-run second wicket partnership at Peshawar in 2003.
Mushfiqur and Mehrab Hossain's joint effort of 144 runs against New Zealand in 2008 has fallen to second highest fifth wicket partnership.
Shakib, who scored the second century of his career and his highest runs in an innings, was particularly strong square of the wicket, but his aggression baffled Misbah as to how to plan his fielding placements.
With the light fading, Shakib cut Umar Gul twice to bring up his hundred.
Nafees, on the other hand, had earlier showed his team-mates the way to play the fast bowlers on a wicket that was aiding seam in the morning. Wary of edging angled deliveries to the four slips, Nafees aimed to play straight as much as he could.
Nafees hammered Gul's first delivery of his second spell through extra cover to reach his third 50 after his return to the Test side in August.
With the top order failing yet again, with the exception of Nafees, the hard fight that the duo put up all day since the morning only brought balance to the match.
The foggy morning conditions helped the seamers as they moved the ball around.
For the spinners there was no assistance; even Saeed Ajmal's 'doosra' was ineffective. The figures speak for it - all five wickets that fell went to the seamers.
Gul (2 for 63) came back into the attack to rid of the joint effort. He banged in short to Nafees, who tried to sway out of the way and gloved the ball to the keeper.
Cheema was the architect of the early Bangladesh collapse as he picked up three wickets conceding 52 runs. Gul picked up the other wicket of an out of form Tamim Iqbal who fell cheaply on 14.
Nasir Hossain (7) nipped a good length delivery off Cheema for a catch to wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal. Mahmudullah Riyad (0) was bowled by Cheema as the delivery came back in to beat the batsman through the gate.
Tamim (14) was taken out by Gul off a bouncer that he hooked to send high in the air for a well judged catch to Cheema at fine leg. Nazimuddin was Cheema's first prey in the morning. He returned for a duck being trapped in front of the wickets by a sharp reverse swinging delivery.
The game lost 22 overs in the day, a late start for the fog and an early finish for bad light.
In the morning, Pakistan won the toss and decided to field.
Bangladesh trail the series 1-0.
Full report
bdnews24.com/smo/lg/1800h
:p
