Pakistan 100 for 1 (Masood 53*, Saim 43*, Taskin 1-21) vs Bangladesh
Apart from looking for early wickets in the second session, Bangladesh will have one eye on the over rate, too. In the first session, they bowled only 25 overs in two hours and 15 minutes.
After rain had washed out the first day, a warm and sunny morning greeted the teams on Saturday. Given the moisture in the pitch, Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto had no hesitation in bowling first in what is now a four-day Test.
Taskin Ahmed, who returned from a shoulder injury, made good use of the conditions. After bowling five outswingers to Shafique, he got the last ball of the over to nip back off the seam. Shafique was not prepared for it. He came forward to defend but left a huge gap between the bat and the pad, and was bowled through it.
For a while, Taskin and Hasan Mahmud kept Ayub quiet by bowling predominantly from around the wicket. Ayub was on 4 off 25 balls at one point but hit three fours in the next 11 balls he faced. Masood was positive right from the start, which meant the fifty stand between them took just 68 balls.
It was not that the Bangladesh seamers did not induce mistakes but none of them turned out to be fatal. Nahid Rana hit Masood on the thumb with a short ball. When he tried the same ploy against Ayub, the opener pulled him over the deep-square-leg fielder for a six.
As the day progressed, the pitch eased out. Ten minutes before lunch, Masood brought up his fifty, off just 54 balls. Most of his runs came via running between the wickets – he hit only two fours in his first 50 runs.
At the toss, Masood said Pakistan had “rested” Naseem Shah for this Test. With Shaheen Shah Afridi also left out, Pakistan’s four frontline bowlers had a combined experience of 16 Tests, with legspinner Abrar (six) being the most experienced.
