Shahadat Hossain and Junaid Siddique were the heroes as Bangladesh had thebetter of the second day of the opening Test in Mirpur
The Bulletin by Dileep Premachandran23-Feb-2008
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Shahadat Hossain was sensational on his way to career-best figures of 6 for 27 © AFP
Shahadat Hossain and Junaid Siddique were the heroes as Bangladesh had thebetter of the second day of the opening Test in Mirpur. Having establisheda 22-run first-innings lead, they were then indebted to Siddique for astodgy unbeaten 64 that stretched it to 147 by stumps. Dale Steynproduced another superb new-ball spell as Bangladesh slumped to 29 for 3before tea, but a 56-run partnership between Siddique and MohammadAshraful thwarted South Africa for a fair while in the final session.Shahadat, who bowled at a lively pace and with tremendous control forcareer-best figures of 6 for 27, may have been the main man but thetalking point of the day was provided by Ashraful. By the time he broughthimself on shortly before lunch, the momentum had swung towards SouthAfrica, with AB de Villiers riding his luck to 46 and Johan Botha offeringstout resistance.But it all changed in the space of one ball. And what a ball it was.Ashraful is no Shane Warne, and after the ball left his fingers, itbounced twice before reaching de Villiers. He chose to play it from thecrease, but could only top-edge it back to the bowler. Cue massivecelebrations from Bangladesh and no movement from de Villiers, who wasconvinced that it was a dead ball. Steve Bucknor finally sent him on hisway though, much to the dismay of the South African dressing room.Botha’s 91-ball vigil ended soon after, trapped lbw by Shahadat, and whenMornè Morkel followed on the stroke of lunch, Bangladesh were poised totake a slender lead. They did too, with Shahadat trapping Mark Boucher infront and then bowling Makhaya Ntini to complete an impressive spell.Bangladesh weren’t in the ascendancy when de Villiers was going strong.Coming to the crease after a shambolic mix-up sent Ashwell Prince on hisway in the second over of the day, he quickly signalled his intent withdrives, cuts and powerful pulls through midwicket. There was an element ofgood fortune too, with Ashraful, running back from mid-off, dropping acatch off Mohammad Rafique when de Villiers was on 30.On a pitch where the odd ball stayed exceptionally low, concentration wascrucial, and Botha played his part in a partnership that got South Africaback into the contest. He let de Villiers do the bulk of the scoring, butthere was also a lovely on-drive off Rafique and an impudent reverse-sweepoff Shakib Al Hasan in his innings of 25.There was a phase in the session where the South Africans were becalmedfor more than five overs, but once de Villiers smacked Shakib for a bigsix over midwicket and then took him for two fours in an over, the tideappeared to be turning. A bizarre dismissal though put paid to that.South Africa needed breakthroughs quickly and Steyn provided them. TamimIqbal was cleaned up by a quick one, and after Shahriar Nafees had playeda couple of lovely strokes square of the wicket, Steyn got one to shapeback and catch him in front. Habibul Bashar, whose career is in free fall,followed soon after in similar fashion and Bangladesh were once again indanger of squandering a promising position, as they had in Multan againstPakistan in 2003 and later in 2006, against Australia in Fatullah.But Ashraful and Siddique eschewed flamboyance for the most part to put onsome crucial runs. Ashraful, who was in one-day mode in the first innings,was remarkably controlled, showing his big-hitting prowess only with ahuge six over midwicket off a listless Botha.Ntini finally picked up his first wicket of the match, getting Ashraful toedge one behind, but Aftab Ahmed and Siddique saw it through to stumpswith a few dollops of luck. Edges fell short of slip and flashy drivesevaded fielders as Graeme Smith was reduced to trying out even NeilMcKenzie’s innocuous medium pace. It wasn’t South Africa’s day and unlessthey improve dramatically on Sunday, the cream of the Bangladeshi crop mayjust reprise their Under-19 team’s heroics in Malaysia.