Bangladesh cruise to maiden Test victory over Pakistan
Spinners Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan took seven wickets between them to secure Bangladesh’s maiden win over Pakistan in five-day cricket, a stunning 10-wicket victory in the first Test in Rawalpindi on Sunday.
Mehidy grabbed 4-21 and Shakib 3-44 to trigger a Pakistan collapse on the fifth day, with the home side dismissed for 146 runs in 55.5 overs.
That left Bangladesh a target of just 30 runs, which openers Zakir Hasan and Shadman Islam reached in 6.3 overs.
Zakir (15) hit the winning boundary, with Shadman at the other end unbeaten on nine, as their squad celebrated a memorable victory.
Mohammad Rizwan top-scored for Pakistan in the second innings with 51, including six boundaries, but the home team were staring at defeat on 108-6 at lunch.
A holiday crowd of nearly 5,000 expected Pakistan to fight out a draw but Mehidy bowled Rizwan and trapped last man Mohammad Ali for a duck in successive overs.
Bangladesh, criticised for their lack of Test wins, now have one win each over Australia, England and Pakistan. The win in Rawalpindi was only their sixth in 143 Tests.
Pakistan’s batting crumbled on a pitch that had been unresponsive over the first four days until small cracks started to appear that were exploited by Bangladesh’s spinners.
The hosts declared their first innings at 448-6 and Bangladesh responded with 565, their highest against Pakistan in Tests. Pakistan also paid for not including a frontline spinner as they fell to the fifth defeat in their past nine home matches, with four draws.
Their leading batsmen also failed, with Babar Azam making only 22 and skipper Shan Masood 14. First innings century-maker Saud Shakeel fell for a fourth-ball duck.
Pakistan trailed by 117 in the first innings and resumed at 23-1, only to lose Masood in the second over to pace bowler Hasan Mahmud. It could have been 28-3 had wicketkeeper Liton Das not dropped a regulation catch off fast bowler Shoriful Islam to give Azam a first-ball reprieve.
Azam hit three delightful boundaries to raise hopes of a Pakistan fightback but was bowled by an inside edge off Nahid Rana for the right-arm paceman’s only wicket of the match.
Shakib, whose participation in the Test drew protests at home over his political ties to ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, had Shakeel stumped and Shafique caught off a miscued shot before lunch.
Agha Salman then fell to off-spinner Mehidy for a first-ball duck, leaving Pakistan in tatters at 105-6. Mehidy then dismissed Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah cheaply in the space of seven runs.
Pakistan won 12 of the previous 13 Tests against Bangladesh, six by an innings, with one draw.
The second and final Test will also be played at Rawalpindi from Friday, with the series part of the World Test Championship (WTC).
Pakistan slumped to eighth in the nine-team WTC table after their defeat, with Bangladesh climbing to sixth.
‘We have to do better’
In a post-match interview, Pakistan skipper Shan Masood said the match “didn’t play the way we thought it would”.
“There were other factors in the game, we lost half a day on the first day [due to rain],” he said. “We have to look upon the mistakes we made collectively and work on them,” the captain said.
“We expected the pitch to do more,” Shan continued. “I thought with three fast bowlers, we would push them to the limit.”
Asked about what the team could have done differently over the past days, Shan said, “Hindsight’s 20/20, the reason behind the declaration was a positive push. We could have done with those runs, but there are some things in the ball and the field we could have done.”
He added that “the cracks have opened up in last night’s session”, commending Bangladesh’s bowling attack. “We have to do better whenever we play next,” he maintained.
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi congratulated the Bangladesh team for playing “wonderfully” and holding “their ground throughout the match”.
“It is a historic win for they have won against Pakistan for the first time,” Naqvi said in a post on X.
“Unfortunately, Pakistan Cricket Team could not perform as well as it should have,” he said, adding that the “men in green would make a comeback in the upcoming match.”
‘Home advantage’
Pakistan fast bowler Naseem Shah expressed his frustrations over the condition of the Rawalpindi pitch.
“We need to be honest. It’s been too many series where we get these types of pitches,” he said at a press conference after the fourth day.
“The groundstaff tried their best to make this pitch good for bowling, but perhaps because of the heat and sunshine, there isn’t much help from the pitch.
“We need to think about how to extract home advantage because you have to find a way to produce results from these games, otherwise you’re not utilising home advantage,” he explained.