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| April 14, 2006 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1427 |
Ponting spearheads Australian great escape
FATULLAH (Bangladesh) April 13: Captain Ricky Ponting conjured one of Australia's great escapes by scoring an unbeaten century to salvage a three-wicket win over Bangladesh in the first test on Thursday.
Ponting finished unbeaten on 118, nursing the tailenders on the final day to steer the world champions past a victory target of 307 and deny Bangladesh only their second win in 43 Tests.
Australia, tired after their tour of South Africa, were in desperate trouble after the first two days when Bangladesh, the lowest-ranked side in Test cricket, scored 427 in their first innings before dismissing the visitors for 269.
The Australian attack then tore through the Bangladesh batting in the second innings to bowl out the hosts for 148.
Resuming at 212 for four on Thursday, Ponting received solid support from fast bowlers Brett Lee (29) and Jason Gillespie (seven not out) after wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist, who scored a century in the first innings, and Shane Warne had fallen early to give Bangladesh a scent of victory.
Ponting, who has been in superlative form since the 2005 Ashes series, batted for more than six hours, facing 253 balls and hitting 13 fours in his 31st test century.
Crucially he was dropped on 97 at fine leg by paceman Mashrafe Mortaza after top-edging a pull shot with 24 runs still needed. “This match is another example that the team is capable of getting out of any trouble. It was a very, very good Test match,” Ponting told reporters.
“They (Bangladesh) probably played better than I expected them to, they probably played better than we all expected especially on the first couple of days.
“They should be pretty happy with the way things went for them.”
Spinner Mohammad Rafique was Bangladesh's most successful bowler with figures of four for 98 including the wickets of Gilchrist and Warne. Rafique took nine wickets in the match.
Bangladesh lost their two previous tests against Australia in 2003 by an innings.
“I am satisfied we could push the world champions into a fifth day and that was our moral victory,” Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar said.
They had won only one of their previous 42 Tests since 2000, that victory coming over a depleted Zimbabwe side.
The second and final Test in Chittagong starts on Sunday.
Scoreboard
Bangladesh (1st innings): 427 (Shahriar Nafees 138, Habibul Bashar 76, Rajin Saleh 67, S. MacGill 8-108).
Australia (1st innings): 269 (A. Gilchrist 144, Rafique 5-62).
Bangladesh (2nd innings): 148 (Shahriar Nafees 33, Rajin Saleh 33, Gillespie 3-18, Warne 3-28)
Australia (2nd innings) (overnight 212-4):
M. Hayden run out 72
M. Hussey b Haque 37
R. Ponting not out 118
D. Martyn b Rafique 7
M. Clarke c Mashud b Rafique 9
A. Gilchrist b Rafique 12
S. Warne lbw b Rafique 5
B. Lee c Mashud b Mortaza 29
J. Gillespie not out 7
Extras (b4, lb7, w1, nb2) 14
Total (for seven wickets) 310
Fall of wkts: 1-64, 2-173, 3-183, 4-205, 5-225, 6-231, 7-277
Bowling: Mortaza 22-7-54-1, Hossain 20-5-67-0, Rafique 38-6-98-4, Haque
27-5-80-1
Man-of-the-match: Adam Gilchrist (AUS)
Umpires: Aleem Dar (PAK) and Nadeem Ghauri (PAK)
TV umpire: Nadeer Shah (BAN)
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)
Next match: In Chittagong from April 16 (Sunday).—Agencies
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