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DHAKA — Bangladesh ended the fourth day in Dhaka in a strong position in their bid for a series-levelling win, reducing Zimbabwe to 76 for 2 at stumps.

Mahumudullah’s first Test hundred in eight years allowed them to declare their innings for the second time in the match and set Zimbabwe a target of 443, or – more realistically – four sessions to survive.

Either result seemed unlikely when the visitors lost Hamilton Masakadza and Brian Chari before the close, with Taijul Islam and Mehidy Hasan Miraz extracting significant turn to trouble the visiting batsmen.

Faced with a Herculean task, Zimbabwe’s openers cobbled together stand that stretched to 68 as Bangladesh’s seamers created a couple of chances, but weren’t backed up in the field.

Mehidy was the first to strike, removing Masakadza for 25 with a regulation bat-pad catch by Mominul at short leg. Chari then missed a paddle sweep against Taijul to be lbw for 43, the Zimbabwe opener failing to get the decision overturned on review.

With close-in fielders surrounding the batsmen and the light starting to fade, Taijul and Mehidy bowled in tandem, getting the ball to bite and spit at Brendan Taylor and Sean Williams. They managed to survive, but the signs for the batting team were ominous.

Bangladesh had decided not to enforce the follow on in the morning, and their batsmen had struggled in similar fashion against Zimbabwe’s new-ball bowlers. It took a 118-run fifth-wicket stand between Mohammad Mithun and Mahmudullah to repair the innings after they had slipped to 25 for 4, with Kyle Jarvis and Donald Tiripano picking up two early wickets apiece.

Mithun’s debut had got off to a shaky start with his four-ball duck in the first innings, but in the second dig he applied himself much more effectively.

Mahmudullah played the more adventurous role early in the partnership. He had gone 10 Test innings without a fifty before this one, and finally reached the mark from 70 deliveries.

Mithun had also reached his own maiden Test fifty by then, from 91 balls, and with the partnership pushed beyond 100 the time came to step on the accelerator.

Mithun fell in the pursuit of quick runs, and after Ariful Haque was quickly bowled around his legs, Mahmudullah found an able partner in Mehidy, and they added a further 73 as Bangladesh’s lead ballooned. Mahmudullah continued to take on Zimbabwe’s spinners, hitting his second six off Mavuta and then slicing an uppish drive through point off the final delivery of the second session to bring up his ton.

With that came the declaration. Despite a gritty opening stand from Zimbabwe, Bangladesh will go into the final day confident that they can pick up the remaining seven wickets, with Tendai Chatara’s injury making him unlikely to come out to bat. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, need a miracle.

And as they face a mammoth task of batting out the fifth day to save the Test match in Dhaka, their coach Lalchand Rajput offered a blueprint for survival.

First, Rajput turned to recent history for an example of what is required. In October, Australia were faced with a similarly daunting task in the first Test against Pakistan in Dubai before Usman Khawaja’s ton (and Nathan Lyon’s pluck) secured an unlikely draw.

“Cricket is a game of uncertainties. You never know what will happen. It just takes one or two big partnerships. It’s happened. If you look at a game like Pakistan/Australia, they really saved a Test match. Khawaja batted the whole day. So we hope somebody stands up and bats a session, because it’s just a question of three sessions. If you can bat one session, then slowly we can [do it].”

There’s a little more grip in the Shere Bangla surface than there was in Dubai, but Rajput’s advice to his batsmen was to put the wearing track out of their minds and play each ball on merit.
“We don’t think about the pitch now,” he said.

“You just have to go to a mindset that you play on the merit of the ball. The pitch is not in our control, it’s uncontrollable, so back your defence, back your instinct, play the ball on merit. If the ball pops up or something, it’s unfortunate, but at least you’re there to try and defend.”

“Definitely any team will try and put pressure on the batsmen with close in fielders,” he said. “Some odd balls are jumping, it’s turning, and on the fifth day you can’t expect a true wicket. But that’s the skill level, that’s the mental aspect of the game. You’ve got to be really prepared for that. Whatever happens with that ball, you’ve just got to forget and keep on concentrating on the next ball. It takes a lot of character. If you show that character, only then you can survive in Test cricket. We all know that Test cricket tests the character of a player, and that will really test our character.”

Rajput advised that an insurmountable problem can appear much more achievable if it’s broken up into lots of little challenges.

“Have small sessions, one hour and then the lunch break,” he said. “And then concentrate for another hour. Small sessions will do a world of good for us. The first hour will be very key. If Brendan [Taylor] and Sean Williams can bat through that, then the pressure will be on the fielding side. And if we play the first session, then it becomes easier for the next two.”

Match Summary
Zimbabwe 304 (Taylor 110, Taijul 5-107) and 76 for 2 (Chari 43, Taylor 4*, Mehidy 1-16) need another 367 runs to beat Bangladesh 522 for 7 dec (Mushfiqur 219*, Jarvis 5-71) and 224 for 6 dec (Mahmudullah 101*, Mithun 67) — Cricinfo.