Before Mominul Haque, at least 16 batsmen scored a Test century for Bangladesh. Every time they reached their first hundred it was followed by a wild celebration irrespective of the match situation. Mominul is perhaps the first Bangladeshi to control his celebration after registering his maiden Test century. Just a simple hug from non-striking batsman Marshall Ayub and a raise of the bat for a few seconds ended his celebration before he concentrated on the next delivery.
Mominul preferred to remain calm because he was eying a bigger success. Bangladesh were still 242 runs short from avoiding the follow-on so Mominul had to do something really special to avert the danger.
He was the well-set batsman at the crease, so it was his duty to take the team forward and Mominul was fully aware of it. Instead of celebrating, he immediately set his next goal – a double century, something previously achieved by only one Bangladeshi.
And he was agonisingly close.
Before falling leg-before wicket to Corey Anderson, he amassed 181 runs off 274 balls, the highest by a Bangladesh cricketer on home soil, which helped the hosts to avoid the follow-on and transfer the pressure back on New Zealand.
‘Getting the first Test century is always satisfying,’ Mominul said after the end of the third day’s play. ‘[But] I am a bit disappointed for not making it a double century. I don’t know when I will get another chance.’
Mominul can take heart from the fact that unlike some other individual achievements, his innings has a greater value in the context of the team.
This was the match that Bangladesh thought they could win. But instead of pressing for a victory, they were struggling to stay in the contest with two wickets going for eight runs replying to New Zealand’s 469 runs.
Mominul launched a counter-attack to snatch momentum away from New Zealand on the second day and built on his overnight 77 to put Bangladesh in a comfortable position at the end of the third day’s play.
While Mominul raced to his hundred off only 98 balls becoming the second quickest Test centurion for Bangladesh in the process, he curbed his aggression and scored his remaining 81 runs off 176 balls.
‘Yesterday [Thursday] when I was batting I got many bad balls. May be they also had little knowledge about me. I got bad balls and played accordingly,’ Mominul explained his batting.
‘But today I was under some kind of pressure. I had to make the hundred. They also got an idea about my strong points and landed the ball in good areas. They bowled really well today [Friday].’
Mominul added that he had started to rein down on his shots because New Zealand were doing well with the second new ball.
‘After I reached 150, you may have seen that they took the second new ball,’ said the former BKSP student.
‘They tend to bowl well with the new ball. We lost our first two wickets to the new ball.
‘So, me and Mushfiq[ur Rahim] bhai decided to stop playing too many shots and wait for the bad balls,’ said Mominul.
-With New Age input
