Chits From Chittagong
After a solid ending to the second day of the first Test, the expected crowd of cricket fans was not seen in the morning.
The makeshift ticket counter of AB Bank at the entrance of the Chittagong Divisional Stadium was almost empty during the first session of play.
The scenario inside the galleries was also frustrating as the members of the law enforcement agencies were higher than the viewers while school students occupied one of the galleries since the authority offered the opportunity to enjoy the match free of cost for them.
But, the scenario started changing after the lunch break when Tamim Iqbal and Moshfiqur Rahim showed their resilience after the Tigers were stranded at 49 for four wickets.
The galleries started to pack up with cricket fans, who were earlier frustrated with the performance of the top-order batters of Bangladesh.
After the fall of Tamim for 33, yesterday's hero Shakib stonewalled the wickets and his responsible batting taking Mushfiq on the crease mitigated the sorrow of the viewers to a great extent.
UNLUCKY SIX
When Naeem Islam was batting on six, most of the viewers were praying to help the all-rounder to pass the digit as it turned out to be quite an unlucky number for Bangladeshi batsmen yesterday.
The digit earned the bad impression yesterday since three of the top order batsmen of the Tigers went to the pavilion with their individual scores on six.
First victim of the digit was Zunaed Siddique who had previously dismissed the visiting New Zealanders in the first ODI of the Brac Bank Series scoring 85 runs.
The second 'victim of six' was Rajin Saleh who was picked for the Test match for his good performance in the domestic cricket recently.
Later, the best performer of the first innings, Mehrab Hossain was also stuck at six playing 18 balls when Patel grabbed his wicket.
PRAISE FOR TRIO
Tamim Iqbal's fans were tensed when the attacking batsman opened the second innings of Bangladesh yesterday as he had to compromise with his character of hitting ball.
He kept his commitment to the country as his talented batting contributed 33 runs off 100 balls featuring five boundaries yesterday.
The local hero didn't take any risk yesterday considering the conditions of the match while his four teammates left him at the crease before touching double-digits.
On the other hand, the responsible batting of Mushfiq, who added 79 runs to his career in the first innings also showed his class and gave support to Shakib to bring the score at 127 runs conceding six wickets.
He fell to O'Brien after scoring 32 runs off 121 balls featuring four boundaries yesterday.
The debutant Naeem Islam also played well yesterday scoring 19 runs off 70 balls, after earlier contributing 14 runs in the first innings.
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