Nazmul Hossain Shanto continued his attacking but fluent batting approach and Zakir Hasan also turned up to support well, as Bangladesh took a sizable 370 lead at the end of the second day with nine wickets in hand in the one off Test against Afghanistan.
At Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium Mirpur, after the early hour batting collapse on second day, Tigers bounced back strongly with ruthless bowling attack and then aggressive batting from opener Shanto and one down Zakir Hossain.
Shanto following his brilliant 146 runs in the first innings remained unbeaten with a confident 54 off 64 balls when accompanied by Zakir snubbed Afghanistan bowling attacks to finish the day for 134 for one.
Zakir Hossain, who played only two balls in the first innings to score just one run, justified himself as an ideal replacement of Tamim Iqbal with playing consistently at same rhythm with Shanto.
Both the batters scored 54 runs each and played as many 64 balls each on their way to score 117 runs in second wicket partnership.
Bangladesh could also not start their second innings with a happy note when Amir Hamza got opener Mahmudul Hasan Joy out for 17 off 13 balls, 18 runs on the board.
Joy, who scored 76 runs from 137 deliveries with hitting only nine boundaries, went on attack from the very third ball with a four and smacked four boundaries in his 13 balls knock but could not last a long when Amir Hamza stopped him on 17.
After the initial setback of losing the opener for 18 runs, Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Zakir Hasan dealt with the ordinary bowling attacks of the visitors.
Earlier, Tigers failed to capitalize the imposing 362 runs overnight score with five wickets in hand to set a big score that could be a chance to force the visitors to follow on.
But the Afghan seamers Nijat Masood, accompanied by Yamin Ahmadzai wrapped up Bangladesh's first innings in 45 minutes on the second morning when the Tigers could add only 20 runs more to their overnight score 362 for five before being all out for 382 in their first innings.
Bangladesh lost their last five wickets for only nine runs when Masood extended his feat to have five wickets haul at debut following having first wicket in Test cricket in his very first ball of Test career.
The Afghan fast bowler Masood bagged five wickets to figure his spells 5-79 in 16 overs.
However, Afghan bowlers who labored hard in the first day to take five wickets for 362, bowled out the hosts before an hour mark of the second day’s play when Yamin Ahmadzai and Nijat Masood shared the last five wickets in 3.4 overs.
Mehidy Hassan Miraz was the first victim with Ahmadzai having his first wicket to initiate the Tigers collapse when Amir Hamza took a good catch at gully. A half-heartedly drive away off an overpitched ball around the stump but was a bit too early on the shot and ball went to gully.
Miraz added only seven runs with his overnight score of 41 and Mushfiqur Rahim followed him to get out adding only four runs just in a span of two runs.
Mushfiqur Rahim, the most experienced batter among Tigers, offered his wicket to Masood who struck with the new ball, Nasir Jamal took the simple catch at slip, as Mushfiqur missed out on a fifty by three runs. He scored 47 from 76 deliveries.
Rest of the story of Bangladesh innings was falling of three wickets for seven runs with Taskin Ahmed scoring two runs, Shoriful six and Taijul Islam going out for a duck.
Afghanistan had a very good morning with booking Bangladesh by seven overs for only 20 runs, but could not make any impressive start with the bat, as after a disastrous start they were bundled out for only 146 runs when apart from Nasir Jamal and Afsar Zazai's resistance the visitors succumbed to Bangladesh’s disciplined bowling.
After the middle order the tail enders’ failures at the beginning of the second day, Bangladesh fast bowler Ebadot Hossain along with his seam partner Shoriful and spinners Taijul and Mehidy Hassan Miraz triggered the Afghan collapse to hit back with quick strikes.
Bangladesh’s bowling started with fiery spells from seamers Shoriful and Ebadot Hossain as Afghanistan slipped to 51 for four wickets.
Nasir Jamal, Afsar Zazai and Karim Janat could only struggle at the middle but finally forced to fold the innings for only 144 when spinners Taijul and Miraz joined them to share wickets with them.
After losing four wickets for 51, Nasir Jamal and Afsar Zazai looked a bit confident to bring the Afghans recovering the damage but the hope ended in two balls when Mehidy Miraz came into action and Ebadot struck again.
Mehidy Miraz sent Nasir Jamal back for 35 and Ebadot got Zazai for 36 with the Afghanistan scorecard reading 116 for six wickets.
Karim Janat, the other batter who also made his Test debut worked hard to defend but could stay for 47 balls to score 23 runs before Miraz made him the second victim.
