Wicketkeeper batter Litton Das who played a crucial role in Bangladesh’s series victory against Pakistan reveals the motive behind his match-winning knock in the first inning.
During the Bangladesh tour of Pakistan 2024, a total of two tests were scheduled to be played between August 21 and September 3 in Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi. Bangladesh who never won a test game against Pakistan registered a series victory by beating Pakistan in the two test games.
Bangladesh took the lead by winning the first test by 10 wickets and went on to win the second test by 6 wickets.
Litton Das in the second test scored an impressive 138 when the visitors were six wickets down for just 26. With his 100-plus crucial runs, Bangladesh finished their first inning with a score of 262 which is just 12 runs behind Pakistan’s first-inning score.
Apart from Das, Bangladesh bowlers also played an outstanding inning. Mehidy Hasan Miraz bagged a five-wicket haul in the first inning while Hasan Mahmud bagged a five-wicket haul in the second inning.
With an effective contribution from Taskin Ahmed and Nahid Rana, Bangladesh won the second and last test of the series and scripted history by whitewashing Pakistan in the two-match test series in Pakistan.
For his exceptional inning in the second test, Litton Das was awarded the Player of the Match Award.
While receiving the award, Litton Das said “Just believed in myself, Pakistan bowled well in that spell but me and Miraz wanted to just bat long. He hit a four and a six and then the momentum shifted. When Hasan came, I didn’t have many scoring opportunities, so I took time and wanted to play as many overs as possible. Credit to Hasan as well for batting really well”.
“I like keeping in Tests, that is my role and when I do well behind the wicket, the team does well too. When we came here, things back home weren’t up to the mark, but we came here and practiced hard”.
“It is all about team effort, credit to all and the coaching staff. Not easy playing in this kind of heat”.
Speaking of the game, winning the toss, Bangladesh opted to bowl first while Shafique and Saim Ayub opened the batting attack for Pakistan. Taskin Ahmed who replaced injured Shoriful for the 2nd test made an impressive start in the first inning by dismissing Shafique for a duck in the very first over.
Following his dismissal, Masood and Saim Ayub made a 107-run stand and pushed Pakistan towards a better side. Hasan Miraz broke the 100-plus runs partnership by dismissing the Pakistan captain for 57 runs. Following his dismissal, Pakistan lost their wicket in regular intervals and failed to build a massive partnership.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz with his five wickets haul bundled Pakistan for 274 runs in the first inning. Bangladesh on the other hand made a dreadful start in their first inning by losing six wickets for 26 runs.
While Bangladesh was considered to be finished, Litton Das and Mehidy Hasan Miraz made a 165-run stand for the seventh wicket and pushed Bangladesh towards a better position. With Das’ 138, Bangladesh scored 262 runs for 10 wickets loss which is far better compared to their 26 for six.
Pakistan in their second inning failed to make an impressive start, and continued their failures throughout the inning and managed to score 172 runs. In the second inning, Hasan Mahmud bagged five wickets while Nahid Rana bagged four wickets and helped Bangladesh to contain Pakistan for a low score.
On the other hand, Bangladesh chased the target with six wickets remaining and registered a historic win. 185 by Bangladesh is their third-highest successful chase behind 215 vs West Indies in St George’s in 2009 and 191 vs Sri Lanka in Colombo PSS in 2017.
Pakistan have now gone ten Tests at home without a win (six defeats and four draws) – the longest such run for a team in home games except Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in the current century.
