Liton, Mominul, Mahmudullah steer Bangladesh in Harare
BANGLADESH’S Liton Das 95 , Mominul Haque 70 , and Mahmudullah 54 rescued the innings despite Blessing Muzarabani denting the top-order.
Blessing posed questions for the Bangladesh batters early in the day as he returned 3 48 before half-centuries from Liton Das, Mominul, and Mahmudullah resuscitated the innings to help the visitors go into stumps at 294 8 on the opening day of the one-off Test in Harare.
Earlier, Mominul Haque opted to bat and Bangladesh encountered a bumpy start with the fall of opener Saif Hassan for nought in the very first over.
Muzarabani soon followed the Hassan clean bowled with an out-swinger that outdid Najmul Hossain Shanto 2 in the fifth over edged and caught by Dion Myers in the slip cordon.
Then, it was the fifty-run partnership between Bangladesh skipper Mominul Haque and Shadman Islam that carried forward the rebuilding. The pair added 60 runs for the thirdwicket before Shadman perished to Richard Ngarava for 23.
However, the afternoon session saw imbabwe strangle the Bangladesh middleorder as an implosion was triggered. Despite a couple of dropped chances of Mominul and Mushfiqur in the field, the hosts were able to make a strong statement with the ball.
From 106 3, Bangladesh crumbled to 132 6 as Shakib Al Hasan went back for 3 runs after he nicked one straight to the keeper, followed by Mominul who succumbed to Victor Nyauchi after a clinical knock of 70 from 92 deliveries.
The duo of Liton Das and Mahmudullah carried Bangladesh to safety as they stitched together an all-important partnership of 138 off 256 balls.
In the final hour, just as Liton was about to reach the three-figure mark in Tests for the first time, Tiripano snared his wicket after Liton miscued one to Nyauchi at long-leg who took a diving catch. Liton’s gritty innings of 95 came in 147 balls and included 13 fours.
Brief Scores: Bangladesh 294 for 8 (Das 95, Haque 70, Mahmudullah 54*, Muzarabani 3-48) vs Zimbabwe.