Bangladesh recorded its biggest-ever test victory in terms of runs after beating Afghanistan by 546 runs at Mirpur on Saturday. It’s the third biggest win in test cricket history in terms of runs, and Bangladesh dominated from start to finish with a strong performance from their pace attack. Taskin Ahmed led the way with career-best figures of 4-37, while Najmul Hossain helped set the tone for the win with hundreds in each inning, becoming the second Bangladesh batter to achieve that milestone. Bangladesh’s previous biggest win was by 226 runs against Zimbabwe in 2005.
The pace attack, a rarity for Bangladesh at home, claimed 14 wickets in the match, breaking through in the third over on Day 4 when Nasir Jamal nicked to the wicketkeeper as fast bowler Ebadot Hossain straightened one off the pitch to take the outside edge. While Rahmat Shah made a team-high 30, Bangladesh’s fast bowlers kept striking, with left-arm paceman Shoriful Islam getting a double breakthrough in consecutive overs.
Shoriful, who returned figures of 3-28, had Afsar Zazai caught at gully with a short-length delivery and then dismissed Bahir Shah, who was substituted in when skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi was unable to continue after being hit by a Taskin bouncer on Day 3. Taskin broke the defense of Rahmat, who was caught behind with Afghanistan on 91-6. He also got the better of Karim Janat and Yamin Ahmadzai to stand on the brink of his first five-wicket haul in an innings, but drama unfolded as last batter Zahir Khan survived twice in consecutive deliveries.
Despite a counterattacking 146 by Najmul and being dismissed for 382 in their first innings, Bangladesh decided against enforcing the follow-on when Afghanistan, playing its first test since 2021, was dismissed for 146 in reply. Najmul posted 124 in the second innings, making him the second Bangladeshi batter to hit centuries in each innings of a test. Mominul Haque ended a two-year century drought with 121 not out, helping his side reach 425-4 before declaring and setting Afghanistan an improbable 662-run target.
The teams will play three ODIs and two T20s in the next month. It was an amazing win for the Bangladeshis, Liton Das said after picking up a victory on his captaincy debut. Now we can say we have a quality pace attack. The spinners also bowled well. It was a good team game but credit to Najmul Hossain, Zakir and Mominul. Najmul got two centuries, which was not easy in this heat. Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah said, It didn’t go our way from the start of the match but we had some positives. The thing was we played after a long break in tests. We will learn much more as we play test cricket.
