Captain Masood Ayub lead Pakistan to 99-1 at lunch against Bangladesh in 2nd Test

Rawalpindi (Pakistan), Aug 31 (AP) Pakistan recovered through aggressive batting by captain Shan Masood and Saim Ayub to reach 99 for one at lunch in the second Test against Bangladesh here on Saturday. After the opening day's play was washed out due to persistent rain, Bangladesh had Pakistan in early trouble when Taskin Ahmed hit the top of Abdullah Shafique's stumps in the first over on Day 2 off a delivery that swung back into the right-hander. Najmul Hossain Shanto won his second successive toss and elected to field on a wicket which has plenty of grass, but both left-handers survived early seam movement of Ahmed and Hasan Mahmud before counterattacking the pace.

Masood completed his 10th Test half century before lunch and was unbeaten on 53 off 62 balls while Ayub was not out on 43 that featured two sixes and three boundaries. Masood kept the scoreboard ticking by consistently rotating the strike before he reached his half century with a straight drive for two runs against Mahmud before lunch. Bangladesh fast bowlers -- Nahid Rana and Mahmud -- both bowled plenty of short of length deliveries and Ayub didn't spare Rana when he pulled the tall pacer for a six over fine leg.



Bangladesh is chasing a rare away win in a bilateral Test series as it leads the two-match series 1-0 after it notched a historic 10-wicket win at the same venue last week. Pakistan made two bowling changes and brought in specialist spinner Abrar Ahmed in place of struggling Shaheen Shah Afridi. In a surprise move Pakistan rested new-ball bowler Naseem Shah and included left-arm fast bowler Mir Hamza on another green-top wicket.

Bangladesh brought in Ahmed after Shoriful Islam was ruled out for the decisive test of the two-match series due to groin injury. Both teams are languishing in the bottom half of World Test Championship standings with Bangladesh at No. 7 and Pakistan at No.

8, just ahead of last-place West Indies. (AP) UNG 7/21/2024.