Dhaka Test: Fear of Shaheen Afridi Where did this Sajid Khan come from?
When Bangladesh started their first innings on the fourth day of the Dhaka Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh, the eyes were on Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hassan Ali who are famous for turning the tide but who knew that this time it was not both but 28-year-old off-spinner Sajid Khan will catch the Bangladeshi batsmen in his net.
At the end of the game, Sajid Khan had six of the seven wickets for Bangladesh falling to 76 for which he had conceded only 35 runs.
Thus, Bangladesh is still 224 runs behind Pakistan's score.
Waiting again for Azhar and Babar
Due to the rain, both the teams could not get a chance to come to the ground from the hotel on the third day of the match. It's been a long time since they've played a three-digit innings.
But when the rain stopped falling on the head of Dhaka and the weather allowed the game on the fourth day, Babar Azam and Azhar Ali could not do what they wanted. The two digits could not be converted into three and thus the long wait for both remained.
Pakistan started the first innings at 188 for 2 with Babar Azam at 71 and Azhar Ali at 52 not out. On the first day, a game of 57 overs was possible. On the second day, only 6.2 overs could be played, after which the third day was completely rained out.
Azhar Ali's hopes of advancing positively through the fours in the next over after playing the first over maiden of the day ended in the same over when he caught wicketkeeper Lytton Das in an attempt to play up.
Azhar Ali's 52-run knock means he has played seven innings without a century since scoring a century in the Harare Test against Zimbabwe in April this year.
Azhar Ali and Babar Azam added 123 runs for the third wicket partnership.
After Azhar Ali, the host team did not have to wait long for the important wicket of Babar Azam. When the umpire raised his finger on Khalid Ahmed's LBW appeal, Babar Azam pointed to the review but the arrow had hit the target and the Pakistani captain had to return to the pavilion with a score of 76.
It was also Khalid Ahmed's first wicket in three years.
The wait for a century for Babar Azam has become longer than that of Azhar Ali.
He last played a brilliant 143-run innings in the Rawalpindi Test against Bangladesh last year, after which he has crossed the half-century mark six times in 18 innings but has not been able to convert any innings into a century.
Mohammad Rizwan had to save the wicket by taking a review twice during his innings.
Fawad Alam was lucky in the sense that Ibadat Hussain's ball went to Lytton Das taking the edge of the bat but surprisingly no one appealed for a catch.
Another moment of frustration for Ibadat Hussain came when Mohammad Rizwan's catch was dropped on the Square League boundary.
Babar Azam was waiting for Fawad Alam's half century so that he could declare the innings. Three hundred runs of Pakistan's innings were also completed for four wickets with one run with the same half century.
This is the second half century of Fawad Alam who has scored five centuries in Test matches.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan, who has consistently scored runs in the T20s, also had an idea that he owes a big innings. After his first century in the Pindi Test against South Africa, he has now managed to reach a half-century in his eighth innings.
Both Fawad Alam and Mohammad Rizwan are close to completing 1,000 runs in Test cricket.
Sajid Khan looted the festival
When Bangladesh started the first innings, they faced one blow after another from Pakistani bowlers, especially off-spinner Sajid Khan, who became a mystery to the host batsmen.
The impression that Sajid Khan created from his first over lasted till the end of time. In the first over, Mahmood Al-Hassan caught Babar Azam in the slip and then in his fourth over, Shadman's catch was caught by Hassan Ali.
Captain Mominul Haq's disappointing batting streak is not going away. Hassan Ali's direct throw showed him the way back to just one run.
In this difficult time, the Bangladesh team was looking for two reliable batsmen Mushfiqur Rahim and Lytton Das but both of them failed to get out of Sajid Khan's grasp.
The Bangladesh team had become a picture of complete helplessness as the wickets of Najam Hussain and Mehdi Hassan fell. There was no easy way out for Shakib Al Hasan, an experienced veteran at one end.