BANGLADESH SLIP CLOSER TO DEFEAT

Aminul failed to fend off a hostile yorker from Shoaib Akhtar, only to see his stumps completely shattered. The veteran batsman returned to the pavilion, making only 2 and leaving his team at a shaky 41 for 4.

However, the fall of quick wickets could not restrain Bashar from going for attacking shots on the loose deliveries. He took chances quite often to hit boundaries in almost every over he faced. Sanwar Hossain, on the contrary, defended sensibly at the other end.

Bashar got to his fifty, his ninth in Test cricket, by dispatching Saqlain Mushtaq to the third man fence,facing only 47 deliveries in the process. The last 69 runs had, in a complete reversal of the run of play thus far in the Test, came from 11 overs, the bulk off Bashar’s willow.

The way Bashar played could only be compared to a blitzkrieg, crowd-pulling one-day innings, as he was repeatedly taking risks to score his runs instead of batting cautiously. His aggression proved to be all too short-lived. Saqlain induced him to play on the front foot; the batsman mistimed it and offered a simple catch to short square leg. He made 51 off 49 balls, striking nine fours. Bangladesh lost their fifth, perhaps most precious, wicket at 110.

Sanwar Hossain (30) followed Bashar soon, adding only 18 runs with Khaled Masud. He fell victim to a wily Saqlain delivery, poking outside the off-stump only to edge the ball to first slip.

A fearsome Shoaib Akhtar took the next two wickets in his 11th over. He clean-bowled both Enamul Haque and Fahim Muntasir within a single ball of each other, beating them both by formidable pace to shatter their stumps.

With Masud fighting alone on 14, Bangladesh were 147 for 8 at tea.

WAQAR ON THE RAMPAGE

Javed Belim, shaky against the first four deliveries outside the off-stump, finally edged a delivery to Latif for a duck in the opening over. The diminutive opener, however, seemed to be unsatisfied with the umpire’s decision.

Though Al-Sahariar and Mehrab HOssain struck a few boundaries, they were never wholly comfortable against Waqar or Shoaib Akhtar. Waqar renewed his attack with vigour again in the seventh over of the innings. He induced an edge from Mehrab in the fourth ball, and Latif exultantly grabbed the catch. Aminul Islam faced the fifth ball to take a single.

In the next ball, Waqar removed Al-Sahariar in an identical manner. The ball was far outside the off-stump, and Al-Sahariar brought about his doom trying to reach it. At 23, Bangladesh had lost their third wicket.

Habibul Bashar, after two unsuccessful innings, started off with a scintillating four off Shoaib. He hammered another off the same bowler in his following over.

At lunch, Bangladesh were struggling at 39 for 3, with Aminul batting on 1 and Bashar 14.

YOUHANA GETS HIS SECOND TEST DOUBLE CENTURY.

Youhana carried on with Shoaib Akhtar and added another nine runs before Manjural sent Shoaib back for 2, putting the prospects of Youhana's double century in considerable doubt.

Danish Kaneria clung to his wicket while Youhana farmed the strike. They added 18 runs between them, with Youhana scoring most of those runs.

The stalwart batsman reached his second Test double hundred in fashion, hooking a short-pitched delivery off Sharif over deep midwicket for a six. With that, Waqar declared his innings at 465 for 9, having a comfortable lead of 317 runs.

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Date-stamped : 18 Jan2002 - 18:53