Even going on Day 1

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim cuts the ball on way to a well-crafted 60 on the opening day of the second Test against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club ground yesterday. Photo: AFP

It was a day of ordinary but exciting Test cricket as Bangladesh seemed not to have learnt lessons from the first Test while Zimbabwe appeared to have forgotten the virtues that won them the first match. The net result was that Bangladesh held the slight edge, batting at 300 for six at close of play on the first day of the second Test at the Harare Sports Club yesterday.
Nasir Hossain and debutant Ziaur Rahman were batting on a quickfire 37 and 8 respectively, after a 123-run fifth-wicket stand between Shakib Al Hasan and skipper Mushfiqur Rahim threatened to take the game away from Zimbabwe.
The match started after a one-minute's silence in observation of the national mourning day for the Savar disaster.
"We are very saddened by the events in Savar, and on behalf of everyone I am expressing sympathy to all the affected families. Everyone should do what they can to support the victims, and we will also do so when we return to Bangladesh. A lesson to take from this tragedy is that we should be more careful in the future," said Tamim before speaking on the match in the post-play press conference.
Earlier, after being sent in to bat, Tamim raised hopes of an auspicious return to the team, and his short innings showed what a difference he can make to the Bangladesh side. Zimbabwe bowlers were on high alert when Tamim was at the crease, doing their best to disturb the opener with unnecessary throws to the keeper that whistled past the batsman's face or feet. The effect was that the bowlers,
in their nervous eagerness, served up a spate of half-volleys that Tamim happily creamed to the cover and extra cover fence.
But after lunch, he seemed anxious to score runs. On 49, off the last ball of the 29th over, Tamim pushed the ball just beyond the non-striker's stumps and set off for a non-existent run, resulting in the third gifted wicket of the day. Before his dismissal Jahurul Islam and Mohammad Ashraful, and after his departure Mominul Haque and Shakib, all fell to unnecessarily aggressive shots; at odds with their stated intent of learning from the follies of the first Test.
"There is no excuse for the way I got out. I played very well till I scored 49, but coming back to the team after a break there were some butterflies. I will take a lesson from this and in the future try not to be hurried in my approach," said Tamim.
Tamim agreed that the tradition of gifting wickets was worrying. "We have talked about this in the dressing room. Only Mushfiqur's dismissal was to a good ball. But if you look at the others, they were batsmen's errors. There are a lot of areas to improve, but this is the area we have to improve fastest. We shouldn't fall to batsmen's errors."
Tamim tipped his hat to opposition skipper Brendan Taylor's batting in the first Test as an example of what he and his teammates were lacking yesterday. "He did not make any mistakes on his own, which is why he could score centuries. You should have only one type of mindset if you want to succeed on this wicket. You can't think that you will leave now and hit later. You can think that you will struggle now and score later or set yourself to wait and punish the bad balls, which is what Taylor did in the first Test."
After the four early wickets, Shakib and Mushfiqur put on the first real partnership of the tour. Mixed with some trademark drives and cuts during Shakib's 118-ball innings however, were some wild edges that flew through third slip and some reaching for very wide balls. He needed only 19 to reach his hundred when he jumped out to slog Elton Chigumbura and gave a catch to the wicketkeeper.
Mushfiqur was the only batsman who dug in and set his stall to play a long innings. He survived a close leg-before shout off Keegan Meth early in his innings, and was also the recipient of a dropped sitter late in his innings. But his luck ran out when, armed with the second new ball, Kyle Jarvis brought one back to trap the visiting skipper in front for a 165-ball 60.
The first session tomorrow, in light of a much-improved batting surface according to Tamim, will be crucial.
"If we lost only four wickets then I would say the day belonged to us, but now I would say it's even. On this field 350 is like 370 because the outfield is slow. Nasir and Ziaur are capable, and if we can score a 100 more, then we will be in a position of advantage," added Tamim.