SYLHET, Bangladesh (AP) — Taijul Islam finished with six wickets as Bangladesh dismissed Pakistan for 358 on Wednesday for a 78-run win in the second cricket test and a 2-0 sweep of the series.
The left-arm spinner took two of the three wickets to fall on Day 5 and returned 6-120 from 34.2 overs, clinching the series after helping reduce the tourists to 316-7 on Day 4.
Pakistan added 42 runs on the fifth morning before losing three wickets without addition to the total in 13 deliveries as Bangladesh rushed to victory.
“Our bowlers did a great job in hot conditions, on a flat wicket,” Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto said. “In the batting sometimes (in the past) we lost too many wickets, but nowadays we have brilliants partnerships. Our tailenders also contribute a lot. Those are the things we wanted to improve and I hope we continue.”
Bangladesh won the first test by 104 runs.
The victory marked Bangladesh’s second successive series sweep against Pakistan, having previously completed a 2-0 victory in 2024.
The end of Mohammad Rizwan’s defiant, 166-ball innings signaled the end of Pakistan’s hopes of chasing down an improbable victory target of 437.
Rizwan (94) struck Nahid Rana (2-71) for consecutive boundaries in the third over of the day to make Pakistan’s intention clear. Sajid Khan also scored freely to maintain pressure on the bowlers from the home team.
But Taijul’s breakthrough, dismissing Sajid for 28, ended a 54-run partnership, marked his 18th five-wicket haul in test matches and hastened the result.
In the next over, Rizwan cut a Shoriful Islam delivery straight to gully. Taijul wrapped up the Pakistan innings in the subsequent over by removing Khurram Shahzad for a duck.
“When you make 360 runs in the fourth innings of the game you kind a expect to be on the right side of it, but I think in the three innings we had quite a lot to reflect on,” Pakistan captain Shan Masood said. “There were things we didn’t do well enough in the first three innings and that’s why the effort on the fourth and fifth days didn’t really materialize into a win.”
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