Mominul Haque scored 80 runs as Bangladesh made an impressive start in the first Test against Pakistan in Khulna yesterday, reaching 236-4 by stumps on the opening day.
The talented 23-year-old left-hander batted fluently to cross 50 for the 12th time in his first 13 Tests before being trapped LBW by Zulfiqar Babar off the last ball of the day.
Opener Imrul Kayes made 51, Mohammad Mahmudullah scored 49 and Shakib al-Hasan was unbeaten on 19 after the hosts elected to take first strike in good batting conditions at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium.
Photo: AFP
Mominul has scored a half-century or more in his last 10 Tests. Only four batsmen — Viv Richards of the West Indies, South Africa’s A.B. de Villiers and the Indian duo of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag — have scored more 50s in consecutive Test matches.
Mominul put on 40 for the second wicket with Imrul, 95 for the third with Mahmudullah and 49 for the fourth with Shakib as Pakistan’s bowlers toiled for success on an unhelpful pitch.
Leg-spinner Yasir Shah, off-break bowler Mohammad Hafeez, left-arm seamer Wahab Riaz and left-arm spinner Zulfiqar claimed a wicket each, but Pakistan were let down by shoddy catching and fielding.
Photo: AFP
The most expensive let-off was by Zulfiqar, who spilled a simple return catch when Mominul was on 17.
Yasir broke a 52-run opening stand between Tamim Iqbal and Imrul just before lunch by having Tamim (25) caught at forward short-leg by Azhar Ali.
Yasir, who had missed the preceding limited-overs series due to injury, ended the days play with figures of 1-58 off 18 overs.
Imrul survived a strong LBW appeal off the third ball of the innings from Junaid Khan as the television umpire turned down Pakistan’s review.
Hafeez, who dropped Tamim at leg slip off Zulfiqar when he was on 16, made amends by taking a return catch to dismiss Imrul after lunch.
Pakistan had to wait for almost two hours for their next success, which came after tea when wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed dived to his right to remove Mahmudullah off Wahab’s bowling.
Bangladesh handed Test debuts to Soumya Sarkar and fast bowler Mohammad Shahid, while Pakistan picked uncapped batsman Sami Aslam for the opening match of the two-Test series.
Pakistan also ignored senior off-spinner Saeed Ajmal, preferring to go in with two specialist slow bowlers in Zulfiqar and Yasir.
The hosts swept the one-day international series 3-0 and also defeated Pakistan for the first time in a Twenty20 international.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier