Mushfiqur Rahim's century brings Bangladesh within reach of first-innings parity

At lunch, Bangladesh is at 389 for 6 with Mushfiqur Rahim scoring an unbeaten 101 and Mehidy Hasan contributing 17*. They are currently trailing Pakistan's first innings total of 448 for 6 declared by 59 runs.

Switching gears with a mix of patience and controlled aggression, Mushfiqur Rahim scored his 11th Test hundred to lead Bangladesh through the first session of the fourth morning that brought down their deficit to 59 at lunch. Even though he started slowly in the first hour with Litton Das, Mushfiqur hit the pedal after the drinks break, especially when Pakistan brought on spin from both ends just before lunch. Mushfiqur and Mehidy Hasan Miraz put on a confident and unbeaten stand of 57 runs in 16.1 overs when lunch was taken. Even though the visitors inched towards Pakistan's score of 448, they had only four wickets in hand, which meant the advantage was with neither team and the chances of a draw kept growing.

As opposed to the 67 runs they had scored in the last 11 overs of the third day, Bangladesh scored slowly in the first hour of the fourth day before Mushfiqur and Mehidy picked up pace to punish the hosts in hot and humid conditions. Mushfiqur resorted to an extremely patient approach when play started, and so did Litton, as the duo brought up their century stand in the second over of the day. Both batters presented the straight bat in abundance against Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Ali. With nothing on offer from the pitch for the bowlers, they defended the length balls with ease, steered them square when they were pitched short, and pushed down the ground when slightly fuller, showing no hurry to score runs.

Ali brought about the first celebration for Pakistan when he used the angle from wide of the crease to trap Mushfiqur, on 59, lbw but a review overturned the on-field decision. Just past the half-hour mark, Ali jagged one sharply into Mushfiqur with the help of movement off the pitch to trap the batter in front of leg stump that saw the umpire raise his finger. Mushfiqur, however, reviewed with success with ball-tracker showing the ball missing leg stump. Bangladesh had started the day with all three reviews intact while Pakistan had none left in the bank.

Pakistan didn't have to wait long for a wicket though. Success came with a bowling change when Naseem Shah struck in his first over of the day. As opposed to the other bowlers, Naseem quickly used the short ball outside off which Litton failed to get on top of while trying to cut, and edged behind to the wicketkeeper after adding just four runs to his overnight score of 52.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz began steadily

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PCB

With six batters dismissed, Pakistan would have thought they had a better chance of taking a lead, but Mushfiqur and Mehidy poured water on those hopes by picking up the run rate.

Mehidy's technique wasn't as compact as Mushfiqur's, but he collected runs without taking much risk and was even tested by Khurram Shahzad's bouncer. Mehidy, however, stood tall to reply with a handsome pull the next ball when Shahzad banged one short again which brought about the first boundary of the day. He scored the second four in Shahzad's next over through the gully region and passed on the baton to Mushfiqur, who was now in the 70s. Mushfiqur punished Shahzad for two more fours in an over - a deft steer through gully and a punch through the covers - before also driving Afridi straight for four in the next over, to race from 73 to 88 in just nine balls.

With Bangladesh's deficit down to 78 and Pakistan desperate for wickets, Shan Masood brought on spin from both ends with 12 minutes left for lunch and Mushfiqur cashed in on the part-timers. He smote Saim Ayub for back-to-back fours, first against the turn over midwicket and then to the long-on rope, to reach 96, and in the next over nudged one to the leg side for two to spark off animated celebrations for his first Test hundred against Pakistan.