Bangladesh take day 1 honours

Ashish Magotra

A crowd of 50,000 turned up at the Banglabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka, to watch Bangladesh's initiation into Test cricket. And they were not disappointed after the determination their national team displayed.

Determined to prove that it deserved its place among the other Test nations, the home team treated the crowd to a superlative performance, which made the Indians look rather lowly following a dismal performance in the field after Naimur Rehman won the toss elected to bat.

At close of play Bangladesh were 239 for the loss of six wickets, with Aminul Islam unbeaten on 70 and Khalid Masud on 3.

The Indian team included three Test debutants in young speedster Zaheer Khan, wicketkeeper Saba Karim and opener Shiv Sunder Das.

In the company of Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan gave India a good start and claimed his first Test scalp in the sixth over, getting rid of Mehrab Hossain. At this stage Bangladesh were 10 for 1 and it seemed as if India might run roughshod over this inexperienced side considering the fact that it included five bowlers in its eleven.

But it was not to be; the Bangladeshis proved a determined lot. Habibul Bashar strode in at the fall of the first wicket and then proceeded to play a gem of an innings, surely one that will go down in the annals of Bangladeshi history as one of the finest.

Shahriar Hossain, the other opener, didn't last too long as he fell to the guile of Sunil Joshi, and Bangladesh were reduced to 44 for 2. The fall of Hossain's wicket brought Aminul Islam to the crease and with him the most productive part of the day.

The partnership between Habibul and Aminul flourished and runs came at a pretty decent pace. Bangladesh reached 50 in 19.2 overs. Habibul scored a very valuable 71 of only 112 deliveries to get Bangladesh past the 100-run mark. He departed with the score at 110.

What was really amazing about his innings was the fact that he threw caution to the wind and treated the huge crowd to some superlative stroke play. With Bangladesh tottering at 44/2 not too many would have expected them to reach where it finally did. In fact, not many would have expected them to even survive the entire day's play.

Next up Akram Khan took time getting off the mark, but once he did that he didn't waste too much time going for leather. Akram Khan is known to be a good stroke player and he played some pretty unorthodox shots to unnerve the Indian bowlers.

Ganguly seemed to be totally out of ideas and it was only his good fortune that Joshi managed to out-think Akram and claim his wicket when the latter was on 35. The score at this point was a respectable 175 for 4.

The most disappointing bowler was Murali Karthik, who had raised the expectations of the cricket loving public with a nine-wicket haul just before this Test, in the Irani Trophy against Mumbai. He proved to be a non factor, making absolutely no impression whatsoever on the batsman. He was give just 13 overs -- to Joshi's 26 and Tendulkar's five -- which makes one question India's logic of going into the match with five bowlers.

Al Sahariar Rokon (13) and captain Naimur Rahman (16) didn't last too long in the middle, but while they were there they gave good support to Aminul Islam. At this juncture the Indian quicks got the ball to reverse swing in a pretty big way but they were denied much success mainly because of the tenacity of Aminul Islam.

Islam was like a rock in the middle. It was around him that others built their innings. He was part of two major partnerships: 67 with Habibul and 66 with Akram. There was no great pace in his innings nor were there many breathtaking strokes, but it had a rare class. It was an innings played for the team and it got the team to a very, very respectable total at the end of day as he remained unbeaten on 70.

Bangladesh reached 200 in the 79th over, and going by the rate at which they got those runs, things do not augur well for the Indian bowling. If this is how the Indian attack deals with the Bangladeshi side playing its first Test, one wonders how it will fare against more experienced teams.

Bangladesh ended the day at 239 for 6 and that in itself is a big suprise. If they countinue to play the way they played on Friday, they could snatch a highly improbale draw, at least.

The most successful Indian bowler was Sunil Joshi, who ended the day with figures of 26-4-69-3.

Ganguly, who showed his inexperience at Test level by setting fields that would have been more suited to the one-day version, will have to hope that his bowlers provide an early breakthrough on Saturday, and Bangladesh's innings will fold without adding too much to the overnight total.

To sum-up, the first day's honours went to home side.

Scoreboard

Bangladesh (1st innings):

Shariar Hossain c Ganguly b Joshi 12
Mehrab Hossain c Saba Karim b Zahir Khan 4
Habibul Bashar c Ganguly b Khan 71
Aminul Islam not out 70
Akram Khan c Rahul b Joshi 35
Al-Shahrier lb Agarkar 12
Naimur Rahman c Das b Joshi 15
Khaled Masud not out 3
Extras (b12, lb3, nb 2) 17
Total (6 wickets, 90 overs): 239
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-44, 3-110, 4-175, 5-196, 6-231.
Bowling: Srinath 15-6-33-0, Zahir 14-4-36-2, Agarkar 17-5-46-1, Joshi 26-4-69-3, Kartik 13-5-23-0, Sachin 5-2-17-0.
Umpires: David Shepherd (England) and Steve Bucknor (West Indies)

Mail Cricket Editor