Lunch Bangladesh 170 for 3 (Shakib 74*, Mushfiqur 53*, Adair 2-18) trail Ireland 214 by 44 runs
This is their fifth century stand, equalling the Bangladesh record for most 100-run partnerships in Tests. Habibul Bashar and Javed Omar also have five century stands.
Ireland made an early breakthrough when Mark Adair took out Mominul Haque’s leg-stump in the third over of the day. Shakib though hardly allowed the Ireland bowlers to settle down. He struck Adair for a cover-driven four first ball. He then played out a bit of time, but kept going at the bowlers before finding regular boundaries since the eighth over of the morning.
Shakib had a cluster of boundaries going through the covers and midwicket. He didn’t need a second invitation to free his arms but the Ireland bowlers were quite average too. He also used the bowlers’ pace well, finding half of his boundaries through fine-leg and short third.
Mushfiqur was his perfect foil, turning over the strike regularly but also getting six fours and a straight six. He latched on to every chance to sweep the ball behind and in front of square on the leg-side, but was also quite adept at seeing off anything pitching on a good length.
On the second evening, Bangladesh had lost two wickets in ten overs. Andy McBrine had Tamim Iqbal caught at second slip off the last ball of the day, after Mark Adair had Najmul Hossain Shanto bowled off the inside edge. Ireland had earlier been bowled out for 214 runs, with Harry Tector scoring 50, and Curtis Campher and Lorcan Tucker getting out in the thirties.
Taijul Islam took his eleventh five-wicket haul while Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Ebadot Hossain took two wickets each. Ireland escaped from getting bowled out for a low score thanks to the lower order adding 90 runs for the last four wickets.