To do a miracle once is one thing and to be asked to repeat it in little over a week is a completely different thing. Bangladesh cricket team is now facing the same demand after Pakistan pushed them to the corner in second Test in Dhaka on Friday. The Tigers are only hoping against the hope to get a positive result from this Test after they were left to survive more than two days to get a draw or score a world record 550 runs to win.
It left them needing to repeat their heroics in the first Test when they scored 555-6 on the back of a record 312-run partnership between Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes to secure a draw.
All-rounder Sakib al Hasan said that only a similar performance can help them deny Pakistan in this Test match, where pitch is strikingly different than that of Khulna.
‘The situation is like that we are losing this Test match,’ Sakib said after the third day’s play in Mirpur. ‘We won’t give up without a fight, I can tell you’, he said.
Sakib insisted that time should not be an issue for them as they have more than enough of it in their hand to turn the table. Tamim and Imrul withered out the initial pressure to give them a positive start to take them to 63-1 at stumps, leaving them in need of scoring another 487 runs.
Though Imrul was out to a beautifully turning ball of Yasir Shah, the record-breaking duo which scored only 48 runs this time, at least could show their intent.
Bangladesh once created a sense of panic in Sri Lankan side when they boldly chased a target of 521 runs before being stalled at 413 runs at the same ground in 2008.
Sakib, who led the chase alongside Mohammad Ashraful, was not prepared to look that behind for an inspiration and rather looking for making a positive start on the fourth day.
‘There’s a lot of time left in the game and the wicket is not as slow or low as it was in Khulna,’ he said. ‘It would be hard to predict. Nobody has ever chased such a total so we won’t be thinking about the chase obviously.
‘It is going to be difficult but if we can take inspiration from our last innings, who knows?
‘If we can get a 200-run stand from the top-order, I think we can build from that confidence.’
Sakib led Bangladesh’s batting charge in the first innings with an unbeaten 89 runs.
But it did little to help them conceding huge first innings lead as Bangladesh were all out for 203 runs replaying to Pakistan’s 557-8 declared.
Many believed things could have been different if Bangladesh had batted first after winning the toss. But Sakib differed saying that it would have more disastrous as wicket was much tougher on the opening day.
‘I feel lucky not to have batted in that first session. It was a difficult wicket, and maybe we would have lost 4-5 wickets and the game would have ended by today.’
-With New Age input
