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Mominul-Ctg love affair continues
photo: FIROZ AHMED
Bangladesh Test skipper Mominul Haque raises his bat after scoring his 10th century while spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz celebrates the wicket of Shayne Moseley during the fourth day of the first Test against West Indies at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram yesterday.
Mazhar Uddin from Chattogram
Mominul Haque’s romance with the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram continued as Bangladesh’s Test captain recorded his seventh Test century at the venue yesterday.
It seems that whenever Mominul crosses 50 in Chattogram, he converts it into a hundred. And his comfort after settling is captured by statistics. The left-handed batsman has only once failed to convert a 50 into a century at the venue, during a 224-run loss to Afghanistan in 2019.
There was some pressure on the skipper in Shakib Al Hasan’s absence after it became clear that he would be unlikely to bat before Bangladesh resumed the fourth day on 47 for three with the intention of posting a big target.
Mominul absorbed the pressure after the Tigers suffered three early blows, remaining calm after resuming the day on 31. The left-hander started off with a gorgeous onside drive to pacer Shanon Gabriel and followed it up with another boundary in the next over to Kemar Roach.
He reached his fifty off just 84 balls and, although Mushfiqur Rahim fell at the other end, Mominul kept his composure and added 133 runs with Liton Das for the fifth wicket before the latter departed after scoring 69.
The 29-year-old capably negotiated the short-ball strategy from the West Indies pacers before laying into the visiting spinners.
Mominul reached the milestone with a single off Rahkeem Cornwall towards the offside after facing 173 balls, making it the slowest of his centuries. He eventually departed for a 182-ball 115 when he was caught at the boundary line going for a big shot against Gabriel.
There was a dilemma about whether the Cox’s Bazar native would take part in the ongoing two-match Test series after he injured his right thumb during the Bangabandhu T20 Cup and underwent surgery. But Mominul not just recovered, he also played a valuable knock to put Bangladesh on the verge of winning the first Test against the West Indies under his leadership.
HIGHLIGHTS
Mominul Haque struck his 10th Test ton and now has the most number of hundreds in Tests for Bangladesh. It took him 76 innings to reach the feat, surpassing Tamim Iqbal’s nine hundred in 117 innings. Mushfiqur Rahim has seven, Mohammad Ashraful hit six and Shakib Al Hasan scored five Test hundreds.
He is also the fastest to reach 3000 Test runs for Bangladesh alongside Tamim Iqbal. Both the left headers took 76 innings to reach the milestone. It took 85 innings for Shakib and 95 innings for Mushfiqur to achieve the landmark.
The Tigers Test skipper continued his fine run at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram as the left-hander smashed his seventh hundred in this venue.
Mominul now sits at number four in the list of scoring seven hundreds in a particular venue alongside Michael Clarke, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Jayawardene leads the chart with eleven hundred that he scored at the SSC ground in Colombo.