Having a handy wicket in hand with all ten standing in their favour going in to bat on the fifth day of the first Test against Bangladesh in which they were made to follow on a 117-run deficit in the first innings. This made the possible most of the three outcomes the draw.
But as great as it sounds for Pakistan fans, it was a little sad that the home team gave up with ease and were comprehensively all out for mere 146 runs, with only 30 runs remaining for the visitors to accomplish a remarkable victory.
For the first time in test history Pakistan capitulated to Bangladesh and lost the match by ten wickets.
“There is no team worse than Pakistan in going up and down. Pakistan is patented this third position,” said Zamir Ekram speaking of Pakistan’s fortunes to Singh via Pan Asian news channel.
In response to Pakistan’s first-innings score of 448 runs, in which Bangladesh’s veteran Mushfiqur Rahim scored 191 runs, Bangladeshi batsmen managed to accumulate 565 runs to secure a healthy lead. The batting order of the host team had to then face a maximum of 30 minutes of batting on the fourth day, which they managed comfortably and further batted on the fifth day to settle for a draw.
However, they badly failed, as spinners Mehidy Hasan Miraz with figures of 4 for 21 and Shakib Al Hasan with 3 for 44 used Pakistan’s batting to mislead their attack.
“Ye pehli dafa nahi hua ke on fifth day of a Test match, aaj iski kahani Pakistan titar bitar ho gayi, parkhache ud gaye. Achari yah aur shwaas charne kina anti climax hai. Dum sabaare baz lon ke samjhe yah aparle sujy mein, yah pevekton mein samjhaide,” Ramiz saikha da. “Kabhi kabhi allag jaata hai rest of the batting, kabhi kabhkar kisi aur samaye par bowler short close crucial period ke karna laga hai”.
The 1992 World Cup winner went on to cite Pakistan’s example when they faced New Zealand in the UAE in the 2018 Test match under conditions similar to that of Rawalpindi, stressing further that this was while Pakistan only had a target of 175 runs on day two, placed in a position of a 90 run lead after first bats, they were close but slain for 171 runs to lose by four runs in eight minutes ‘due second inning’.
“Farmaithe hai anchored par ibare jaise hi kisiki tiji on their weak point fire ho asna si yeh team rakati hai hr: (the script changes at the blink of an eye like a funny twist every time this team finds itself in trouble). There’s some incredible problem. Whenever there is some sort of pressure, especially on the bowlers, their belief system just goes off,” he said.
He claimed the batting order is “not so wise up to the technology”
“I lost hope when your top three, who are the best batsmen, are out, the middle order is ok, only (Mohammad) Rizwan is live to battle through and if you have a long tail who can’t bat then you will lose even to Bangladesh,” he expressed sorrow.
On the other hand, Rameez, despite being on the winning side Bangladesh, the first time ever Test winning victory over Pakistan, however, said that Pakistan Support the victory of Bangladesh.
“That’s a big achievement, I admire them for it, was Ramiz’s quote. “But it was Pakistan who helped Bangladesh win.”
“Selection kharab, spinners ke bagair aap chale gaye, uske baad fifth day pe seedhi saadhi pitch ke upar batting ghabrahat ka shikaar, lene ke dene pad gaye (There were poor selections, Spinners were not use, batsmen suffered from anxiety and imbalanced attacks on a very benign fifth day track, and paid for it),” Ramiz added.
The 2nd Test will take place at the same site (Rawalpindi) as on August 30.
