Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das produced a stunning fightback and a record-breaking unbroken sixth wicket partnership as Bangladesh posted 277 runs losing five wickets on day one against Sri Lanka in the second and final Test in Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium Monday.
The entire day’s play can be divided into two segments where Sri Lanka were absolutely on top in the first 10 overs in the first hour and then in the remaining overs of the day Mushfiq and Liton created history.
Bangladesh were forced to make two changes in their playing XI as injured pacer Shariful Islam and off-spinner Nayeem Hasan were replaced by pacer Ebadat Hossain and middle-order batsman Mosaddek Hossain.
Skipper Mominul Haque elected to bat first as expected but the start was horrible for the Tigers.
Lankan pacer Kasun Rajitha rattled the stumps in just the second ball of the match as opener Mahmudul Hasan Joy got clean bowled.
Experienced Tamim Iqbal also went for a duck in the next over against Asitha Fernando.
Fernando then picked up the out-of-form Mominul Haque’s (nine) wicket in the sixth over and Bangladesh were already on the backfoot.
Rajitha then initiated a double blow in the fourth and fifth ball of the sixth over as Nazmul Hossain Shanto (eight) and Shakib al Hasan (nought) fell prey to inswingers from round the wicket.
Tigers batting was trembling at that point as the score was 24 for five in the seventh over when Liton defended the hat-trick ball from Rajitha.
But since then, it was a completely different story for Bangladesh.
Both Mushfiq and Liton batted well in the remainder of the morning session and halted the slide and were watchful until the lunch session.
And then, it was a masterful batting display from both Mushfiq and Liton as these two produced a record-breaking stand.
Mushfiq and Liton’s partnership is a world record in Test cricket as it became the highest sixth wicket partnership where five wickets have fallen for 25 runs or less.
The previous record was 86 formed by Pakistan batsmen Wallis Mathias and Shujauddin against the West Indies in Dhaka in 1959.
The partnership is still going strong (253) after day one and along the way Liton picked up his third Test century while Mushfiq registered his ninth.
At stumps Liton was batting on 135 with 16 fours and one six while Mushfiq was unbeaten on 115 with 13 boundaries.
This is the best sixth wicket stand for the Tigers beating the previous 191 against the same opponents back in 2007 by Mohammad Ashraful and Mushfiq although that effort in the second innings after being asked to follow on could not even save the ignominy of an innings defeat.
The stand currently is fifth highest in Bangladesh history and the duo will surely look to add 107 more runs to make it the highest ever in country’s history and they will need another 147 runs to make it the best ever sixth wicket stand in Test history.