The toothless bowling of Bangladesh bowlers pushed them to the back foot in the one-off Test as it handed touring Ireland a 131-run lead at stumps on the third day at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Thursday.
With Lorcan Tucker hitting 108, his maiden Test ton, and Andy McBrine remaining unbeaten on 71, alongside 56 runs coming from Harry Tector Ireland amassed 286-8 in their second innings in reply to Bangladesh’s 155.
Taijul Islam scalped four wickets while Shakib Al Hasan claimed two, and Shoriful Islam and Ebadot Hossain took one wicket each.
However, Shakib’s unwillingness to come in bowling put a question mark on his national commitment, as the ace all-rounder bowled only six overs on the day three play.
The southpaw, who bowled three overs in the day’s initial session, came for just one over before the lunch break, followed by the remaining two overs in the day’s final session.
Ireland resumed their innings on 27-4 with the overnight batsmen Harry Tector and Peter Moor, who remained unbeaten on 8 and 10 runs, respectively.
However, the ineffective bowling of the hosts, alongside an early catch drop of Tector for 9, by their wicketkeeper Liton Das, paved their way for going untroubled until the day’s initial hour.
Just immediately after that Bangladesh saw their day’s initial breakthrough with Moor giving a catch behind the stumps for 16 runs by the pacer Shoriful Islam that gave the Tigers a hope, rattling the Irish inside the day’s tea session as they went for the lunch break on 93-5.
However, their all expectations were in vain after Tector and in coming Lorcan Tucker shared a crucial 72 run stand in the sixth wicket that provided the former his successive two fifties before he fell to Taijul that allowed them to go to the day’s second break on 123-6.
In the day’s final spell Bangladesh went all attack with their six bowlers however couldn’t be instrumental enough to earn a breakthrough for the side that suffered them greatly.
Tucker alongside his partner McBrine stood tall against the Tiger bowlers that provided the latter his first Test hundred before he was eventually removed by Ebadot after the hosts were handed the new ball.
The Irish batting line up looked never ending as despite the dismissal of the opponent’s set batsman the Irish tail enders McBrine and Mark Adair added another 31 runs to take lead surpassing the Tigers 155 runs lead.
Adair finally fell for 13 after Taijul impelled him to give a catch to Das.
However, McBrine continued single-handedly and added another 21 runs with Graham Hume until the final delivery of the day.
