Debutant Zakir Hasan reached 82 as Bangladesh went into the tea break on the penultimate day of the first Test against India on 176-3, chasing 513 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Saturday.
After not losing a wicket in the morning session, Bangladesh lost three wickets in the post-lunch session, losing Najmul Hossain Shanto, Yasir Ali and Liton Das for 67, five and 19 runs respectively.
But Zakir’s resilience is keeping Bangladesh somewhat in the contest, as the hosts need another 337 runs to pull off an incredible win with four sessions to go.
Earlier, Bangladesh resumed the second session on 119-0, with Shanto and Zakir batting on 64 and 55 respectively.
But the duo could only add five runs post-lunch, before Shanto was brilliantly caught by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
Shanto edged the ball from Umesh Yadav to Virat Kohli at first slip. But Kohli made a mess of the chance and ended up deflecting it towards Pant, who dived and took the catch in a flash.
Yasir’s poor run with the bat then continued as he completely missed the line of an Axar Patel delivery, which crashed onto his off stump.
Zakir was then joined by Liton and together they formed a 42-run stand, which looked primed to take Bangladesh into the tea break without any further damage.
But that wasn’t to be, as Liton miscued his attempt to hit Kuldeep Yadav over the mid-off fielder for a boundary and gave an easy catch to Yadav.
Mushfiqur Rahim (two not out) then joined Zakir and the duo hung on till the end of tea.
Earlier, Bangladesh resumed the day’s play on 42-0, with Shanto and Zakir batting on 25 and 17 respectively.
India, on the third day, declared their second innings on 258-2 after Bangladesh got bundled out for 150 in reply to India’s first innings score of 404.