Bangladesh’s batsmen ruled the second day of the three-day practice match between Bangladesh Red and Green on Friday as Tamim Iqbal, Mominul Haque and Mohammad Mithun each scored half centuries for their respective side. Tamim scored 92 runs while Mominul added 84 as Green declared on 284-4 in 75 overs replying to Red’s 220-7 to take a 64-run first innings lead that also gave an indication of their returning to form ahead of the crucial home series against Zimbabwe.
Opener Mohammad Mithun’s unbeaten 53 from 70 balls helped Red give a fitting reply as they completed the day on 79-1 in 21 overs to earn an overall 15-run lead.
However, the second day mostly belonged to Tamim and Mominul, the two mainstays in national team set up, who resumed on 41-1 to add 158 runs in their second wicket stand.
Pace bowler Abul Hassan denied both the batsmen a century removing them in quick succession to mark his return to the national fold noteworthy after battling through his back injury for more than a year.
Newly-appointed Test vice captain Tamim, who was leading the Green, formed a perfect partnership with Mominul pacing their innings according to the need of the day.
The duo played some delightful strokes to entertain the few hundred holiday crowd who gathered at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium to enjoy the match.
Tamim, who went through a long lean patch before eventually getting some runs in the Test series of the West Indies tour, struck 10 boundaries and did not waste a single opportunity to take ones or twos.
Mominul was tested with some short balls from Rubel Hossian, Robiul Islam and Abul but he handled them well to hit eight fours in his 157-ball innings.
Mominul however was lucky to survive in the first over after the lunch break as he attempted to slice a short delivery of Rubel through point only to hole out a catch to Mahmudullah, who dropped it.
Abul picked his wicket finally when he trapped the left-hander leg-before.
It was only then that Tamim looked to have lost his patience and needlessly tried to clear the mid-on inside the circle on a fuller length delivery off Abul only to be taken by Saqlain Sajib.
Sakib al Hasan was the only front line batsman to miss out on a significant score when he was bowled by Robiul for five but Shubhagata (34 not out) and Soumyo Sarker (33 not out) continued Red’s innings.
Mithun looked determined to compensate his first innings failure with his aggressive unbeaten 53 runs which came off 70 balls with nine boundaries.
-With New Age input
