Bangladesh pacers Shoriful Islam and Taskin Ahmed struck early in the final session to reduce Afghanistan to 45-2 at stumps on the third day of the one-off Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur on Friday (June 16).

The visitors were trailing the hosts by a massive 617-run in the second innings before the day’s play was called off 26 to minutes earlier due to bad light.

Rahmat Shah and Nasir Jamal remained unbeaten on 10 and 13 runs respectively after Afghan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi retired hurt on 13 runs by a bouncer from Taskin.

Earlier banking on Najmul Hossain Shanto 124 and Mominul Haque’s undefeated 121 Bangladesh declared their second inning on 425-4.

Thus, Mominul ended a prolonged lean patch with his 12th Test century as Bangladesh set Afghanistan a mammoth target of 662 runs for victory.

Captain Liton Das stayed unbeaten on 66. Bangladesh had scored 382 in their first innings while Afghanistan were bowled out for 146 in reply.

Mominul 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 the three-figure mark.

However, he ended that lean patch in style, bringing up his 12th ton in his 105th innings, the century coming off 123 deliveries.