Defiant knocks by Manjural Rana and Nasif Iqbal helped Bangladesh survive another day of Test cricket in the first match of the series against India at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on Sunday.
The young batsmen scored their maiden Test fifties to add some substance to the Bangladesh innings that seemed headed for a crushing defeat on 36 for 5 at the tea interval.
At close of day three, Bangladesh were 170 for eight with Manjural Islam Rana, 50, and Tapash Baisya, 17. The hosts still trail by 172 runs with two second innings wickets remaining.
Irfan Pathan, who claimed five wickets in the first innings, added another five to claim his his first 10-wicket haul as as the Bangladesh batsman crumbled on a flat track after letting India race away to 526 in the first innings.
The hosts, who are winless in 32 Tests, look on the verge of crashing to another embarrassing defeat.
Morning session
India's morning began on an entertaining note.
Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble were involved in a major mix-up. After completing one run, the batsmen were returning for the second when the confusion began.
Tendulkar decided against going for the second run, but Kumble continued to run awards he decided to go ahead with it. Kumble had decided to run back at the wicketkeeper's end as well and the two batsmen were in a race to that end.
The fielder was by now on his way to throwing the ball to the wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud, who fumbled and disturbed the stumps without the balls in his hands.
Tendulkar had completed the run and Kumble rushed towards the bowler's end.
Mashud, after a lot of difficulty collected the ball but threw it too long at the other end. Before the fielder at mid-off could field the ball and hit the stumps, Kumble had dived in to save his wicket. In the confusion he probably had run up and down the pitch thrice.
The sight of India's veterans scampering down the wicket had the dressing room in fits of laughter even as John Wright 's frown kept getting deeper with each passing second.
However, Kumble didn't add to the woes of the hosts as Mortaza clean bowled him for 1. (368 for 8)
Harbhajan Singh, the new batsman, hit a couple of fours and before he edged a Mushfiqur Rahman delivery at first slip, where a nervous Habibul Bashar held on to the catch. (393 for 9)
If the Bangaldesh fielding was the laughing stock, the Indians kept up the confusion in running between the wickets.
Tendulkar was probably desperate to ride on to the landmark and sent back Zaheer Khan after he had started for a run. The Bangaldesh fielding, as they have done umpteen number of times again saved the Indian batsmen of the embarrassment.
Throughout the morning session the hosts had given a poor account of themselves in the field.
Mohammed Rafique only added to Bangaldesh's woes. He hovered below a mistimed shot from Zaheer only to eventually misjudge the ball completely. The minnow's fielding performance has shown that they aren't willing to learn on the international stage.
Teams like India and Pakistan can sometimes get away with poor day in the field because of their strong batting and bowling, but Bangladesh needs to be brilliant in the field to match up to the heavyweights in the international arena.
With the exception of Mashrafe Mortaza, the rest of the bowlers were ordinary and Zaheer, with his immense strength, used the long handle to good effect.
Tendulkar, who was playing with finesse, brought up his 200 with a swept four. He equaled Sunil Gavaskar's tally of four double centuries and is just one short of Rahul Dravid's Indian record for the most number of scores above 200.
His cunning though was overshadowed by Zaheer's powerhitting.
Zaheer picked Mohammed Rafique up for two huge sixes over long-on. The right-hander, then, turned his attention to the other bowlers also hit half a dozen boundaries in the mid-wicket area to push the innings run-rate to 4.87.
At lunch, With Zaheer's swift innings (58 from 79 balls) as the pivot, India's last wicket cost Bangladesh 99 runs off 20.2 overs.
Zaheer went on to record his highest score in Tests and in the process went ahead of India's previous best at number eleven, Ghulam Ahmed.
Ahmed had scored 50 against Pakistan in New Delhi in 1952, adding a record 109 runs with Hemu Adhikari for the last wicket.
At lunch, Zaheer was not out on a quick-fire 58 off 79 balls and Tendulkar had reached 231.
The past month has been good for the fast bowlers - not only with the ball but with the willow as well. Zaheer's solid 58 followed the batting exploits of Glenn McGrath (61) and Jason Gillespie (54*) against New Zealand.
The Indians were demolishing Bangladesh but they showed a penchant for going for individual records as they continued batting despite a huge lead. The wicket hadn't cracked but afforded turn and bounce, just right for Kumble and Harbhajan to get into the thick of things.
At lunch, India were still batting on 492 for 9, a lead of 308 runs.
Post Lunch session
India innings
The Indian innings folded shortly after the lunch break at 526 from 136.4 overs, but not before another record had been broken. Tendulkar and Zaheer had retired for the lunch break after adding 99 runs for the last wicket. They made 34 more after the break, to break 52-year old Indian record held by Ghulam Ahmed and Hemu Adhikari for the highest last wicket partnership.
They cracked 133 runs from 31 overs at over than four runs an over.
Zaheer hit the highest score by a number eleven batsman. In scoring 75 he went past New Zealand's Richard Collinge's record of 68 not out against Pakistan in Auckland in 1972.
Zaheer thumped ten fours and two big sixes on his way to the record-breaking score.
India finished their innings at 526 when Zaheer dragged out his back foot, attempting a sweep off Mohammed Ashraful, for wicket-keeper Mashud to clip off the bails. Tendulkar remained unbeaten on 248 off 379 balls including 35 fours.
Bangladesh innings
The wicket may have eased out, but that didn't deter Irfan Pathan from tormenting the hosts.
In the first over itself, Javed Omar was trapped leg before the wicket. The ball pitched just short of length, on the off stump and Omar, who was slow in reacting, gave Pathan his first victim of the day. (Four for 1).
Pathan and Zaheer kept bowling short to Habibul Bashar since he had fallen going for the hook in the first innings. The Bangaldesh skipper hooked Pathan for four but the end was just round the corner. The next ball was another short one, and Bashar instinctively swung his bat and hit it straight to Zaheer at the square-leg boundary. (24 for 2)
The captain disappointed the team with his soft attitude and complete lack of aptitude yet again.
In the same over, Pathan produced yet another unplayable delivery to trap Rajin Saleh in front of the stumps. (24 for 3).
In his fourth over Pathan rattled Mohammed Ashraful with a short ball that smashed into the visor of the batsman's helmet.
Ashraful looked shaken from the blow and was shifting on his back foot, expecting another bouncer, when Pathan cleverly pitched the ball up and trapped the young Bangladeshi leg before wicket. The ball seemed to hit the batsman just outside the off-stump but once Pathan asked the question, umpire Jeremy Lloyd quickly complied.
The English umpire had now ruled seven batsmen out leg before wicket off the bowling of Pathan.
The left-armer picked up his next wicket - that of Khaled Mashud - by producing an outgoing delivery that resulted in an easy catch to wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik. (36 for 5).
The youngster from Baroda had claimed all the Bangaldeshi wickets that had fallen. His performance takes one back to his spell of 9-18 against Bangladesh in the Junior Asia Cup in Pakistan in 2003.
Post Tea session
With Indians packing the slip cordon and bringing the field up, Nasif Iqbal and Rana decided to go for their shots. 34 runs came in the seven overs after tea.
With the pacemen tiring, Ganguly introduced spin from both ends. But the 19-year-old Iqbal continued in the same vein. Kumble's erred in line and length and was cut to the fence with ease.
The right-hander soon reached his maiden Test fifty with a sweep to fine leg. He ran the first run hard and came back for the second run amidst loud cheers from the crowd.
Kumble's pace was easier to pick, but Harbhajan made the ball stop and jump off the pitch. The doubt induced by Harbhajan in the batsmen's mind paid dividends at the other end.
Iqbal (54 from 111 balls) had played a brave innings but completely mis-read Kumble's quicker one. He played forward and close to the pads, but the umpire, Lloyd again, thought the ball was heading for the stumps.
Iqbal was out immediately after raising Bangladesh's 100. The youngster had been able to keep the fight going with his fearless batting display. After starting his innings slowly, he hit a flurry of fours rocking on to the back foot off Zaheer and Kumble. (100 for 6)
Iqbal and Rana featured in a 64-run partnership for the sixth wicket.
Harbhajan, finally got his reward for a good spell, when a big turner had Mushfiqur Rahman pushing to first slip. (117 for 7).
The Indian spinners now found their rhythm and as if to illustrate this, Kumble picked the wicket of the veteran left hander Mohammed Rafique (11). Rafique had a go at a flighted delivery outside the off stump and spooned a catch to Virender Sehwag at short cover. (133 for 8)
The Indian bowlers kept attacking, but Rana and Tapash Baisya, the new batsman, denied them victory.
Rana, who had hit a gritty 24 in the first innings, was again holding fort for Bangladesh. With a little help from Tapash Baisya, he saw the day through for the team.
He scored his first fifty in Tests with a push to mid-on in the last over before bad light forced the players off the field. His 96-ball innings of patience and character was laced with eight boundaries.
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