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Bangladesh battle towards thrilling climax
- Updated: October 23, 2016
Tea Bangladesh 248 and 179 for 5 (Mushfiqur 22*, Sabbir 25*) need another 107 runs to beat England 293 and 240 (Stokes 85, Bairstow 47, Shakib 5-85) Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
England’s cricketers were facing a test of nerve in the face of a confident, no-regrets run-chase from Bangladesh’s batsmen, as the first Test at Chittagong built towards a thrilling climax on the fourth afternoon.
By tea, with the hardness of the new ball long gone and another probing spell of reverse-swing negated, Bangladesh had reached 179 for 5, with Mushfiqur Rahim and Sabbir Rahman settling into a vital and aggressive seventh-wicket stand. Bangladesh need another 107 runs to seal what would unquestionably count as their greatest Test victory.
Sabbir, in particular, had given the chase an injection of adrenalin. Despite being on Test debut, he was treating the contest as just another of his 60-odd limited-overs games, and with two sixes and a four off the spin of Moeen Ali, he had given a nervous Chittagong crowd plenty reason to believe as their numbers and belief mounted with every stroke.
The key man, however, is surely the captain Mushfiqur, who was unbeaten on 20 not out from 55 balls at the break – another unflustered display of patience, skill and experience. He has, after all, been playing Test cricket for longer even than England’s newly crowned most-capped cricketer, Alastair Cook.
After being bowled out for 240 in the first 20 minutes of the day to leave a victory target of 286, England made their intentions plain from the outset by opening with two spinners, Gareth Batty and Moeen – the first time they had gone …
