B’desh beat Afghanistan by 546 runs for its biggest ever Test victory

Mirpur: Bangladesh beat Afghanistan by 546 runs on Saturday to record its biggest ever Test victory in terms of runs.

It’s the third biggest victory in Test cricket history in terms of runs, and Bangladesh appeared to do it easily.

Fast bowler Taskin Ahmed claimed career-best figures of 4-37 as Afghanistan was dismissed for 115 on Day 4 after being set a daunting target of 662.

Najmul Hossain helped the hosts set the tone for the victory with hundreds in each innings, becoming the second Bangladesh batter to achieve that milestone.

Bangladesh’s biggest previous win was by 226 runs against Zimbabwe in 2005. The margin in Mirpur was lower only than England’s 675-run win over Australia in 1928 and Australia’s 562-run win over England at The

Oval in 1934.

Bangladesh’s pace attack dominated at the ground which has tended to assist spin in the past. As well as the wickets tumbling, Afghanistan had to deal with two batters being unable to continue their innings after being hit by rising deliveries including last batter Zahir Khan.

“It was amazing to see the way bowlers responded in this heat,” Liton Das said after picking up a victory on his captaincy debut.

“Now we can say we have a quality pace attack. The spinners also bowled well. It was a good team game but credit to Najmul Hossain, Zakir and Mominul. Najmul got two centuries which was not easy in this heat.”

Taskin led the three-pronged pace attack, a rarity for Bangladesh at home, which claimed 14 wickets in the match.

“It didn’t go our way from the start of the match but we had some positives,” Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah said. “The thing was we played after a long break in Tests. We will learn much more as as we play Test cricket.”

The teams will play three ODIs and two T20s in the next month.