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PAK vs BAN 2024, PAK vs BAN 1st Test Match Report, August 21 – 25, 2024

Lunch Pakistan 256 for 4 (Rizwan 89*, Shakeel 86*) vs Bangladesh

Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan batted through a wicketless session and extended their overnight partnership from 44 to 142, easing Pakistan past the 250 mark as the Rawalpindi Test took an attritional turn on the morning of day two. Conditions were far more amenable to batting than they had been at the start of the match, when Bangladesh had made full use of the new ball and early moisture to reduce Pakistan to 16 for 3, and Shakeel and Rizwan were largely untroubled as they went to lunch with the three-figure mark in their sights.

For most part, the session was all about waiting and hoping, for Bangladesh, and their bowlers plugged away with defensive fields, waiting for an opening that didn’t quite materialise. The one exception was a spell of fast, short-pitched bowling from Nahid Rana, where he occasionally made the batters look awkward but at a cost: his five overs in the morning went for 32 runs.

Rizwan scored most of those runs, including back-to-back falling ramps over the slips off bouncers angling into his body to go from 46 to 54. In Rana’s next over, he showed more of his range against the short ball, hooking him for a six over backward square leg.

Rizwan was by far the quicker scorer of the fifth-wicket pair, adding 65 off 100 balls to his overnight 24. Shakeel had less of the strike, and made quieter use of it, scoring 32 off 77 without adding to his five boundaries from day one. By lunch, Rizwan had overtaken Shakeel having started the day 33 runs behind.

Their methods may have been different, but their effect on Bangladesh was similarly dispiriting. Shakeel’s defence, in particular, looked unbreachable at times; he was beautifully balanced at all times, and invariably met the ball right under his eyes with the bat’s full face.

For all their lack of success, Bangladesh will be aware that the scorecard still says Pakistan are 256 for 4, and are still some way from a safe first-innings total. Bangladesh will also be pleased with the efforts of their spinners Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who put a difficult first day – they had gone for a combined 36 from their six overs – behind them and performed an admirable holding job. Much of their day-one despair had been related to Pakistan’s clinical use of the sweep. They responded by attacking the stumps far more, and bowling a touch quicker too, with protection in the deep square on the leg side.

Shakib bowled 11 overs in the morning and conceded just 23, while Mehidy bowled four overs and conceded eight.

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