Shan Masood-led Pakistan face an uphill battle on Tuesday in their attempt to avoid a humiliating whitewash on home soil at the hands of Bangladesh as the second and final Test in Rawalpindi moves towards its conclusion.
At the start of play on fifth and final day of the match, Bangladesh resumed their innings at 42-0 in pursuit of their 185-run target. They lost both their openers within the first hour of play, with Mir Hamza castling Zakir Hasan (40) and Khurram Shehzad getting rid of Shadman Islam.
However, a lack of further breakthroughs and the shallow target meant that Bangladesh tightened their grip on the match and the series, reaching the 100-run mark in the 29th over.
Bangladesh leads the two-match series 1-0 after a surprise win in Rawalpindi last month, their first in 14 tests against Pakistan.
They have only won two series away from home — against the West Indies in 2009 and Zimbabwe in 2021.
On the fourth day of the match on Monday, Hasan Mahmud took 5-43 while Nahid added 4-44 — both career-best figures — in dismissing Pakistan for 172 in their second innings and visiting openers Hasan and Islam raced to 42 without loss — with Zakir hitting two sixes and two boundaries — before rain clouds gathered and bad light suspended play one over after the tea break.
The rain-affected Test saw Friday’s first day’s play washed out and then a remarkable fightback by Bangladesh on Sunday.
The visitors were 26-6 in reply to Pakistan’s first innings 274 before Liton Das (138) put together a seventh-wicket partnership of 165 with Mehidy Hasan Miraz (78) that enabled Bangladesh to reach 262.
Pakistan took their overnight score of 9-2 to 47-2 in 10 overs on Monday before Bangladesh broke through with a spell of three wickets for 18 runs.
Saim Ayub fell for 20 to a brilliant catch by Najmul Hossain at mid-off as the opener failed to keep down a drive off fast bowler Taskin Ahmed.
Nahid then had Pakistan skipper Masood caught behind by Liton off a wild shot before getting the prized wicket of Azam, caught at slip off a sharp delivery in his next over.
Nahid grabbed his third by dismissing Shakeel and went to lunch with figures of 3-22 off five overs.
