Mehrab, Mushfique lift Bangladesh

October 18, 2008

Azad Majumder . Chittagong.

Mehrab Hossain Jr and Mushfiqur Rahim shared a record fifth-wicket stand to guide Bangladesh to a modest 183-4 at stumps on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium on Friday.

Mehrab (79) and Mushfique (59) put on 139 runs in an unbroken stand, surpassing the previous best fifth-wicket partnership of 126 made by Aminul Islam and Mohammad Ashraful against Sri Lanka in 2001.

Ashraful had set several world records in that game in Colombo on his Test debut and a similar effort, if not any record, was needed to bring Bangladesh back in the game after they lost four wickets for 44 runs.

Bangladesh’s top-order had always been fragile, but things turned from bad to worst in this innings as runs were also coming very slowly, which was very poor even by the standard of Test cricket.

The hosts lost opener Junaed Siddique for a duck in the first ball of the second over when he was trapped lbw by O’Brien with Bangladesh yet to open the account. O’Brien missed out on a second wicket off the next delivery when Rajin Saleh, playing his first ball, was dropped by Brendon McCullum.

In the next over, bowled by Kyle Mills, Tamim Iqbal had survived a strong lbw appeal and was also dropped by Aaron Redmond at second slip with Bangladesh yet to get a run. O’Brien also dropped Tamim at forward short-leg off Jeetan Patel when he was on 8.

Bangladesh went for lunch with 34-1 off 32 overs and lost Tamim in the second ball when the play resumed. It ended an arduous partnership of 34 runs between him and Rajin which needed 187 balls.

Runs were coming slowly for Bangladesh as the New Zealand bowlers kept a steady line and in the process managed to get rid of Rajin (20 off 129 balls) and Mohammad Ashraful (two off 35 balls).

Skipper Daniel Vettori and paceman Iain O’Brien took two wickets apiece but the tourists failed to pick up a wicket after tea as Mehrab and Mushfique dug in. Mehrab was relatively fluent and took only 84 balls to score his only Test half-century.

He struck off-spinner Jeetan Patel for three fours in the 61st over as the hosts made 101-4 at tea. The New Zealand bowlers were not given a single chance in the final session as Mushfique also stepped up too boost run rate.

Mushfique hammered the only six of the day off Jeetan Patel over long-on along with nine fours. The wicketkeeper-batsman reached his second Test half-century off 138 balls and added nine more runs to his score in the next seven balls he faced.

Mehrab, Mushfique lift Bangladesh

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