Tigers on verge of humiliation

Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan pointed to many factors behind Bangladesh’s poor performance in one-off Test against Afghanistan after the end of the fourth day’s play yesterday and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan also expressed sheer disappointment over the dismal showing. 

Although the game is not yet decided, the reason behind the reaction was simple. Only rain at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram can realistically rescue the Tigers from the precarious position they are currently in after ending the day on 136 for six in chase of 398.

The Bangladesh batsmen had no answer for the Afghanistan spinners, with capta

Rashid Khan and left-arm spinner Zahir Khan sharing five wickets in the second innings to take the visitors closer to victory.

Skipper Shakib and Soumya Sarkar were unbeaten at 39 and 0 respectively when the fourth rain interruption of the day forced early stumps.

Afghanistan will hope for rain to stay away as they look for four more wickets while Shakib and Soumya will need to be at their pinnacle to score 262 runs or bat throughout the day.

Resuming the day at 237 for eight, Afghanistan added just 23 runs to the total before folding for 260 in 90.1 overs. Wicketkeeper-batsman Afsar Zazai backed up his 41 in the first innings with a gritty 48 to power his side to a huge 397-run lead. Shakib scalped three wickets while Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam and Nayeem Hasan bagged two each.

Bangladesh made a decent start to their second innings, going into lunch at 30 for no loss before the opposition’s spinners took control in the final two sessions of play. Bangladesh’s surprising move of changing the batting order for a right-left combination did not make much sense at all and, for the most part, they meekly surrendered aside from a good effort from opener Shadman Islam, who made a team-high 41 runs.