Despite losing Mahmudul Hasan Joy during the second session of the first day of the one-off test match that Bangladesh is playing against Afghanistan at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today, Bangladesh stayed in a position of strength throughout the day.
The Tigers reached 235 for two after 49 overs at tea time without losing a single wicket in the afternoon session. Joy’s wicket was the only one that fell (he scored 76 runs off 137 deliveries). The Tigers scored several runs in a short amount of time, as seen by their total of 119 runs scored in the second session’s 25 overs. Mominul Haque is still not out after batting for 126 runs off 14 balls, while Najmul Hossain Shanto has not been dismissed after scoring his third century in a test match.
After giving pursuit to a wide, tossed-up delivery from Rahmat Shah’s leg spinner, Joy managed to only edge the ball back to the first slip, where it was easily caught. The wicket brought a stop to a tremendous second-wicket stand that Joy and Najmul Hossain Shanto had put up, scoring 212 runs between them. This was Bangladesh’s second-highest partnership for the wicket in Tests.
The 232 runs that Imrul Kayes and Shamsur Rahman scored for the second wicket in Bangladesh’s match against Sri Lanka at Chattogram in 2014 is still the record for the best second-wicket partnership in Tests for Bangladesh.
Afghanistan’s only success in the most recent session of the test was getting Joy out, while everything else went against them. The only time Shanto ratcheted up the scoring pace was when he crossed the three-figure mark in 118 deliveries. Prior to that, he had been playing an aggressive game ever since he came in to bat early in the morning.
The Bangladesh hitters benefited greatly from the wayward bowling delivered by the Afghans, with Shanto taking the most advantage of the scenario. Shanto, who is not afraid to swing his bat, has hit a total of 21 boundaries and one six, which came off a full toss from leggie Zahir Khan.