Veteran Bangladesh batsman Mushfiqur Rahim, who scored an unbeaten double-hundred against Zimbabwe in the one-off Test at the Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, said Bangladesh desperately needed the win which is their first in Test cricket in 15 months.
“We badly needed a win as a team. We haven’t played as a team in the last 5-6 Tests. The bowlers set it up by dismissing them for 260 and then the openers gave us a good start. When someone is set and is playing a long innings it makes it easy for the new batsman coming in,” Rahim was quoted was saying by IANS after the match.
“Mominul batted really well and it was our plan to convert a start into a big score. We played well in all three departments and that should give us confidence going into the next Test but we have a white-ball series before that and all the boys are eager to do well,” added Rahim, who was adjudged the man of the match for his third double-century in red-ball cricket.
The 318-ball knock from the 32-year-old helped Bangladesh to post a mammoth total of 560/6 in response to Zimbabwe’s score of 265 in the first innings. Rahim shared a 222-run partnership with skipper Mominul Haque for the fourth wicket as the latter played a 234-ball knock of 132 runs.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Liton Das also made 53 to give the hosts their highest-ever total against Zimbabwe. Mominul declared the innings soon after Mushfiqur reached the 200-run mark after Ainsley Ndlovu past extra cover for a boundary.
The former Bangladesh captain Rahim reached another milestone courtesy his innings against Zimbabwe. While batting at 195, he overtook Tamim Iqbal to become his country’s highest Test scorer with 4,413 runs from 70 matches.