Afghans just four wickets away from a historic victory
The visitors can become the joint-fastest to winning two Test matches along with Australia, if they win this Test.
Rain permitting, history beckons for Afghanistan who are only four wickets away from defeating Bangladesh in the one-off Test match at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.
The visitors can become the joint fastest to winning two Test matches along with Australia, if they win this Test.
Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan was once again among the wickets, taking three of the six Bangladesh scalps.
For Bangladesh, opener Shadman Islam played a patient knock of 41 from 114 balls and showed great application in the crease while he was there.
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan is still there on 39 from just 46 balls and is the last bit of hope for the home side, of eking out a positive result.
Shakib was in pretty good spirits after the match during the post-day press-conference, and there he made the tongue-in-cheek comment that a win is still theoretically possible.
“We need two players to score big hundreds since we’re 260 odd runs away. It’s not impossible, and there is always the rain that could come and save us, so let’s see what happens,” said the all-rounder with a grin.
Earlier in the day, Bangladesh bundled out Afghanistan for 260 runs setting themselves a target of 398, which would be a record chase for the home side if they successfully managed it.
Shakib ended with three wickets to himself while Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam and Nayeem Hasan all ended with two wickets each.
In reply, Bangladesh started with a changed batting order of Shadman Islam and Liton Das - who had been promoted up the order - to create a left-right combination for the opposition.
Liton however, could not make use of that opportunity and was out for just nine runs to a Zahir Khan delivery that trapped him in front.
Mosaddek Hossain, who played well in the first innings was then promoted, to keep that left-right combination but he too perished after scoring just 12.
The right-hander played a really poor and unnecessary shot in the end and was caught chasing a wide Zahir Khan delivery at wide long-off.
Mushfiqur Rahim was in next and he looked comfortable against the spin, playing his shots freely but he ended up misreading a Rashid Khan googly and was gone after scoring 23 off 25 balls.
Things got worse for Bangladesh, as the person who usually bats at number three, Mominul Haque came in and lasted just eight deliveries before being lbw to Rashid Khan.
The right-left combination plan had failed, and playing Mominul out of his usual batting position also didn’t work as the left-hander scored just three runs.
Shadman and Shakib then batted on to take the score past 100 before Shadman was trapped in front by Mohammad Nabi.
The opener tried to play a straighter delivery across the line but ended up missing it and becoming Nabi’s first ever Test wicket in Nabi’s final Test.
At that moment, the score read 106-5 after 36.4 overs and things were looking dire for the home team.
Shakib then started to play his shot and tried to counter the bowling, but his new partner Mahmudullah was caught at short leg by Ibrahim Zadran from a Rashid Khan googly after scoring just seven runs.
Rain then came in to ensure no further Bangladesh wickets fell, and that would be their best chance of saving an otherwise embarrassing defeat at the hands of new boys Afghanistan.