Gutsy Mushfiqur flourishes battling India

Bangladesh are cornered in the one-off Test against India but Mushfiqur Rahim has continued his fine form with a fighting century on the penultimate day.

On Sunday, he worked Umesh Yadav down fine leg to switch ends. Ishant Sharma’s misfield gifted Rahim a boundary and brought up his fifth Test century so far.

Mushfiqur’s determined look gave way to a broad smile as the strapping Taskin Ahmed embraced his diminutive skipper.

Mushfiqur went on to score 127 and was the last to fall as Bangladesh folded up for 388.  India could have but did not enforce the follow-on.

The 29-year-old Rahim displayed a never-say-die approach to his batting as wickets tumbled regularly at the other end.

India dented the visitors’ hopes as early as the first over of the day when Mehedi Hasan Miraz, fell to Bhuvneshwar Kumar who went through his gate.

Taijul Islam, too, soon perished to leave Bangladesh eight wickets down, prompting Mushfiqur to step the run rate up. He pulled Ishant for a six.

His century came off 235 deliveries, laced with 12 boundaries and the six. It was his second century against India.

He surpassed Mominul Haque and Shakib Al Hasan, who have four centuries each. Mohammad Ashraful with six and Tamim Iqbal with eight centuries are the only two ahead of Rahim in scoring centuries for the Tigers.

Each of Mushfiqur’s centuries has been in different countries. The first was against India in Chittagong, 2010. He then scored his first Test double century ( also a first for a Bangladeshi batsman) against Sri Lanka.

The next one was in West Indies, 2014. Before this century in Hyderabad, Mushfiqur smashed a brilliant 159 against New Zealand in Wellington in January.

No other Bangladesh batsmen have scored centuries in more than three countries. Tamim scored five of his eight hundreds on home soil; two in England and another in West Indies. Ashraful too got his centuries in three separate countries – three of them in Sri Lanka.

Shakib scored two in Bangladesh and as many in New Zealand while all of Mominul’s knocks were at home.

Mushfiqur is the third batsman to score centuries in back-to-back Tests, matching Tamim (against England in 2010, Zimbabwe in 2014) and Mominul (against New Zealand in 2013).

After reaching his hundred in Hyderabad , Mushfiqur kept up the fight, cracking Ravichandran Ashwin for a four and a six off consecutive deliveries. His 262-ball knock contained 16 fours and two sixes.

The talismanic India spinner later exacted his revenge, however, and sent Rahim back to end the Bangladesh innings.