10th January 2005: A first for Bangladesh in the longest format

On this day, 14 years ago, Bangladesh recorded their first-ever victory in the longest format against Zimbabwe in the first Test of the two-match series at Chittagong. It took Bangladesh 35 matches and four years (since their Test debut) to win their first match.

Batting first, the hosts posted a huge total of 488 on board with skipper Habibul Bashar top-scoring with 94. Rajin Saleh, Nafees Iqbal and Mohammad Rafique all slammed respective fifties for the Bangla Tigers. Chris Mpofu scalped four wickets for the visitors.

Riding on captain Tatenda Taibu’s heroics (92), Zimbabwe reached 312 before getting dismissed. Rafique starred with a five-wicket haul while Mashrafe Mortaza scalped three for his team.

Bashar then hit his second fifty of the match as his 55 powered Bangladesh to 204/9d, giving Zimbabwe a target of 381 runs in the fourth innings.

Bangladesh bowlers kept chipping away with wickets at regular intervals and despite Hamilton Masakadza (56) holding the innings from one end, the visitors were dismissed for 154, losing the match by 226 runs. Enamul Haque jnr ended the innings with outstanding figures of 6/45 while Mortaza and Tapash Baishya scalped two wickets each.

First Published: Jan 10, 2019 16:12 IST