Senior batter Mushfiqur Rahim hit a brilliant 191 on the fourth day of the first Test in Rawalpindi on Saturday, giving Bangladesh an outside chance of a maiden victory over Pakistan.
The diminutive batter was the foundation of Bangladesh’s first-innings score of 565 — their highest Test total against Pakistan — and gave the visitors a first-innings lead of 117.
Pakistan were 23-1 at the close of play, with Abdullah Shafique on 12 and skipper Shan Masood on nine. The home team trail by 94 runs after making 448-6 declared in the first innings.
Bangladesh, who have lost 12 of the 13 Tests against Pakistan, will hope their spinners can extract some turn from a Rawalpindi pitch that has been unresponsive so far.
Pakistan once again started badly when opener Saim Ayub edged a good-length ball from Shoriful Islam to wicketkeeper Liton Das after scoring just a single in the third over of their second innings.
However, the day belonged to Mushfiqur, who added 114 with Das (56) for the sixth wicket and then a record 194 for the seventh wicket with Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who made a solid 77.
Bangladesh’s previous Test best against Pakistan was the 555-6 they made at Khulna in 2015.
Mehidy praised Mushfiqur’s knock.
“Mushfiqur played a great knock,” said Miraz, hoping Bangladesh can win.
“Definitely the first hour tomorrow will be important and if we get early wickets we have a good chance.”
Mushfiqur’s knock of eight hours and 42 minutes, which contained 22 boundaries and a six, finally ended when he edged pacer Mohammad Ali to wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan.
He overtook the previous highest individual score by a Bangladesh batter in Pakistan of 119 by Javed Omar, scored in Peshawar in 2003.
Mushfiqur was lucky to get a life on 150 when Babar Azam dropped him off Salman Agha at leg slip.
Pakistan also thought they had Mushfiqur leg-before by Ali on 59 but umpire Richard Kettleborough’s original verdict was overturned on review when the replay showed the ball missing leg stump.
Mushfiqur then hit two boundaries off both Shahzad and Saim Ayub before reaching his century, his 11th in 89 Tests.
The partnership with Mehidy was the highest for any team against Pakistan, beating the previous record of 186 set by New Zealand’s Warren Lees and Richard Hadlee in Karachi in 1976.
Mehidy added another 37 runs to the total before Shaheen Shah Afridi dismissed him and then Hasan Mahmud for a duck to finish with 2-88.
Naseem Shah ended the Bangladesh innings by dismissing Shoriful Islam for 22, finishing with Pakistan’s best figures of 3-93.
Shah admitted the pitch did not help pacers as per expectations.
“We did not get as much help from the pitch as we expected,” said Shah. “We have been getting such wickets so we have to think how can we get the home advantage.”
The second and final Test will also be played in Rawalpindi, from August 30.
