‘He must’ve prayed for me to get out’

Tamim Iqbal became only the second Bangladesh player to register a triple hundred after Raqibul Hasan and the latter was actually the first one to congratulate him after the left hander took a single off the bowling of Shuvagata Hom to reach the milestone. Tamim said later that Raqibul did not sledge while he was batting on 299 but joked that the latter must have been praying for him to get out.

Tamim went on to surpass Raqibul's score of 313 runs to register the highest individual score in Bangladesh's first-class cricket with an unbeaten 334.

"He didn't sledge but I am sure he must have prayed for me to get out," a smiling Tamim replied when asked if Raquibul was sledging from the slip cordon.

The opener said that the triple ton would have a special for him. "Scoring 300 against any opponent and in any level of cricket is special. It's very difficult, since if it was easy then you might have seen someone scoring a triple hundred every month. It will have a very special place in my heart for sure," the left-hander said.

Tamim, who struck 42 fours and three sixes on his way to reach the milestone where he faced 426 balls and spent over nine hours at the crease, tried to keep things simple and played proper cricketing shots. The left hander also informed that he didn't even think of reaching triple hundred until he reached 280 runs as it might have hampered his mindset after the way he was building his innings.

"To be honest I never thought that I have to score a triple hundred. Whenever we talk about triple hundred it was only Raqibul who did that so we always thought how patient he has been. It's not easy to score triple hundred especially in our wicket which normally remains slow. It [Raquibul's triple hundred] was also a big discussion in the national team as well on how he did it as he also played over 600 balls," Tamim remarked.