Aminul Islam shows Bangladesh the way

Experienced former skipper Akram Khan, who received a rapturous response from the huge crowd when he hit the first six of the match, was caught by Rahul Dravid off Sunil Joshi with 35 when he tried for his second sixer, but he did manage five boundaries.

Al-Shahrier and all-rounder skipper Naimur Rahman, who came in at a difficult time after losing Akram, were quickly out with 12 and 15 runs to their credit respectively. But Aminul Islam, also a former skipper, stayed at the crease with Khaled Mashud to take the team score to 239 for six raising roars of approval from the 70,000 crowd at the stadium.

Islam, who appeared momentarily distracted after reaching his 50, quickly picked up each ball knowing where to place them and scored a personal 70 off 213 balls, including eight boundaries. Masud, who with Islam will resume the batting on day two Saturday, scored three to end the first day’s play with a respectable score.

Bangladesh Cricket Board chief Saber Hossain Chowdhury told AFP: “We are very satisfied and I recollect that India, Pakistan and Sri lanka had lower scores in their debut Test matches.

“We will try to set a good innings score on what we achieved today,” he added.

India’s coach Anshuman Gaekwad was upset by his side’s perfromance. “It’s a totally placid wicket which helps stroke players and the Bangladeshis exploited that as they are excellent stroke players,” he said.

“Our boys failed to meet my expectations as they failed to properly keep the length and line of bowling,” he said.

Zaheer Khan who claimed the first wicket when he had Mehrab Hossain, the only Bangladeshi batsman to have scored a century in one-day internationals, caught behind by wicketkeeper Saba Karim for 4. Shariar Hossain was soon joined back in the dressing room by Mehrab Hossain, who was caught by Ganguly off the bowling of spinner Sunil Joshi. That left the home side struggling at 44-2 but Bashar’s solid performance guided them towards respectability.

Scoreboard

Bangladesh Ist Innings:

Shahriar Hossain c Ganguly b S Joshi 12 (50b 1×4)

M Hossain c Karim b Z Khan 4 (18b)

Habibul Bashar c Ganguly b Z Khan 71 (112b, 10 x 4)

Aminul Islam Not Out 70 (213b, 8 x 4)

Akram Khan c Dravid b Joshi 35 (65b, 5 x 4)

A S Rokon lbw b Agarkar 12 (35b, 1 x 4)

Naimur Rahman c Das b Joshi 15 (42b, 1 x 4)

Khaled Mashud Not Out 3 (5b)

To bat: Bakshi Ranjan Das, Mohammed Rafique, Hasibul Hossain

Extras: (b 12, w 0, nb 2 ,lb 3) 17

TOTAL: (In 90 overs, for 6 wickets) 239

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-44, 3-110, 4-175, 5-196, 6-231

Bowling: Javagal Srinath 15-6-33-0-2, Zaheer Khan 14-4-36-2, Ajit Agarkar 17-6-39-1, Sunil Joshi 26-4-69-3, Muralik Kartik 13-5-23-0, Sachin Tendulkar 5-2-17-0.