Chennai. Mushfiqur Rahim achieved a historic feat in the ongoing first Test against India at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Saturday as he surpassed Tamim Iqbal to become Bangladesh's alltime highest runscorer in international cricket.
Rahim, who scored 13 runs before being dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin in the final session of the third day, has scored 15,205 runs in 464 matches across all formats including 20 centuries and 82 halfcenturies. Earlier, former captain Tamim Iqbal held the record for most runs for Bangladesh with 15,192 runs in 387 matches including 25 centuries and 94 halfcenturies.
Veteran allrounder Shakib Al Hasan is third on the alltime list with 14,701 runs in 446 matches with 14 centuries and 100 fifties. He is currently unbeaten on six and will resume his innings on Sunday along with skipper Nazmul Hossain Shanto (51*) as they chase a mammoth target of 515 runs to win the match.
In the first innings, India's lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Rahim for eight and returned with figures of 450 to bundle out the visitors for 149 on Friday.
Earlier in the day, centuries from Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill allowed Rohit Sharma to declare the second innings at 2874 in the second session of the day.
After getting out for a duck in the first innings, Gill led India with a brilliant unbeaten 119, including 10 fours and four sixes. In his comeback Test, Pant scored a brilliant 109 – taking some time before unleashing aggressive shots, including 13 fours and four sixes.
The two demoralised the Bangladeshi bowlers by putting on 167 runs for the fourth wicket. The main interest in the second session was always on when India would declare their innings.
Pant reached his hundred first by hitting Shakib for a six and then sweeping for four. He then cut Mehidy Hasan Miraz for a boundary and then hit two through longoff to complete his hundred in 124 balls. With his sixth Test century, Pant has now equalled MS Dhoni for the most hundreds by an Indian wicketkeeperbatsman in the longer format.
After hitting two boundaries, Pant in an attempt to be more aggressive was caught straight back to Mehidy. Gill exploited Shakib's poor length to hit consecutive boundaries and then completed his third Test century in his last five Tests off 161 balls.
KL Rahul also played four freeflowing boundaries and remained unbeaten on 21 before Rohit Sharma came out of the dressing room, called the batsmen to declare India's second innings.
Bangladesh will resume their innings on the final day of the match at 1584 after bad light forced early stumps on Saturday. They are still 357 runs behind the target.
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– / Written By Top News Bulletin
Image Credit: KhasKhabar.