Bangladesh have continued piling on pressure on the hosts and it’s safe to say that they have been quite successful in doing so. The visitors started the fourth day on a highly positive note with their pacers rattling Pakistan’s top-order.
Taskin Ahmed took the first wicket of the day in the form of Saim Ayub on 20 and then Nahid Rana picked up the important wickets of Shan Masood, Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel respectively to leave the hosts reeling on 81/6 at one stage.
The partnership of Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Agha steadied Pakistan’s ship, however they weren’t able to continue for long as in the second session, the Bangladesh pacers again stamped their authority.
Pacer Hasan Mahmud who picked up the first 2 wickets of the Pakistan innings, took the crucial wicket of Rizwan for 43 runs. Then on the very next ball, he would dismiss Mohammad Ali as Pakistan lost their eighth wicket.
Agha tried his best to keep the hosts’ innings rolling , however the bowling duo of Mahmud and Rana proved to be too good as they bowled out Pakistan for only 172 runs and ended the innings with 5 and 4 wickets respectively. The hosts could only set up a target of 185 runs for the visitors to achieve,.
In reply, Bangladesh’s opening duo of Zakir Hasan and Shadman Islam started the run-chase on a fantastic note. Zakir in particular, played some fabulous shots and put pressure on the Pakistan pacers from the get-go. Bangladesh finished the second session at 37/0 after only 6 overs with Zakir batting on 27 and Shadman batting on 8.
