Shah, Asghar defy Bangladesh spinners

Sports Desk: Rahmat Shah became first Afghanistan cricketer to score a Test century while Asghar Afghan hit an unbeaten half-century as Afghanistan made Bangladesh toil on the opening day of one-off Test in Chattogram on Thursday.

Shah hit 102 off 187 balls while Afghan remained unbeaten on 88 as the visitors reached 271-5 at stumps on the first day after Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan elected to bat first at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.

Off-spinner Nayeem Hasan dismissed Shah in the second over of the final session to break his 120-run fourth wicket stand with Afghan and handed Mohammad Nabi a duck in the same over to give Bangladesh some of hopes of finishing the day on top.

But Asghar put 74 runs in an unbroken sixth wicket stand with wicketkeeper-batsman Afsar Zazai to as Afghanistan seized the momentum back to leave the field content after slipping 77-3 at the lunch break.

Asghar, who was reprieved on 42 runs by television umpire after he was initially given leg before out off spinner Mehedi Hasan, will resume the second day’s play with Zazai, 35 not out, hoping to build now more pressure on Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, who fielded an all-spin attack without any regular pacer, were on top in the first session as Taijul Islam removed both the openers while Mahmudllah struck on the stroke of the break.

Taijul bowled opener Ihsanullah Janat for nine and became the quickest Bangladeshi player to reach 100 Test wickets.

Taijul also became the third Bangladeshi bowler after Sakib al Hasan and Mohammad Rafique to achieve such feat in the longer-format.

The left-arm spinner toppled Rafique to become Bangladesh’s second highest wicket taker in Test when he dismissed other opener Ibrahim Zadran for 21, tempting the debutant to give a catch to Mahmudullah at long-off.

Mahmudullah delivered a blow on Afghanistan when the forced Hashmatullah Shahidi to give a catch to Soumya Sarkar at slip for 14 in his first over and lunch taken immediately.

Nayeem and Taijul finished the day with 2-43 and 3-73 respectively.

Rashid became the youngest ever Test captain at the age of 20 years 350 days with the toss, overtaking the record of Zimbabwe's Tatenda Taibu, who made his debut as Test captain just eight days older than Rashid in 2004.

risingbd/Dhaka/September 05, 2019/AKA