Bangladesh batsman and former Test captain Mominul Haque conveyed his contentment after he overcame his prolonged lean patch by hitting 12th hundred in the second innings of the one-off Test against their Afghanistan counterpart at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Friday.

Mominul, who was dismissed for 15 in the first inning, remained unbeaten on 121 on the third day of the game, that guided the hosts to manage 425-4d, which set up a massive 662-run target for the visitors.

‘If you take a look at my last four innings, I don’t think that I had a dismal run. You might consider it as bellow per as you expect to hit me 200 runs in each innings,’ said Mominul in Mirpur.

The southpaw went 25 months without a Test hundred, having scored 11 hundreds in the first eight years of his Test career.

The former Test skipper hit his last hundred in April, 2021 against Sri Lanka in Pallekele. Then he had gone 13 Tests and 27 innings without reaching the three-figure mark. 

‘Yes, I was regretting when I failed to extend my innings that I was used to. By the grace of almighty eventually I could make it that helped my side,’ he added. 

However, he further lauded his fellow teammate Najmul Hossain Shanto thanks to his straight two hundreds of 146, 124 that paved the way for the Tigers to hand the visitors a mammoth target that still trails them by 617 runs. 

‘Shanto’s innings make us feel like we can play the game. I also wish to do the same. But it is tough for me to see him the way he does. Shanto can even turn a bad ball to a hundred. Hitting a hundred under such scorching heat is a great achievement.’ 

Bangladesh put up 382 in its first innings before dismissing Afghanistan for 146. Instead of enforcing follow-on, Bangladesh chose to bat for the second time in the match, potentially to avoid batting in the fourth innings.