Afghanistan's Sediqullah Atal scripts history with maiden Test ton: Stats
What's the story
Afghanistan's Sediqullah Atal scored his maiden Test century on Day 5 of the one-off match against Bangladesh in Abu Dhabi. His innings was instrumental in keeping Afghanistan's hopes alive as they chased a target of 479 runs. Atal became the first Afghan cricketer to score a century in the fourth innings, reaching his milestone with a pull shot off Hasan Mahmud. Here are further details.
Knock
A fine hand from the batter
After a strong Day 4, Bangladesh were in a commanding position with just seven wickets away from victory.
However, Afghanistan showed resilience on Day 5. Atal added vital runs alongside Hashmatullah Shahidi (36) and Ikram Alikhil (33) to keep his team in the hunt.
On the previous day, he had added 82 runs with his skipper Rahmat Shah (51).
Stats
Atal shines in Bangladesh against all odds
Atal went down as the seventh batter, ending up scoring 111 runs off 332 balls - his maiden 50-plus Test score.
He recorded nine fours and three sixes.
At the age of just 25, Atal has made a name for himself in Afghan cricket.
Before this match, he had played two Test matches and scored only 62 runs.
In First-Class cricket, Atal has completed 984 runs at 26-plus. This was also his maiden ton in red-ball cricket (50s: 5).
Summary
How did the game pan out?
In the first innings, Bangladesh posted a mammoth total of 346/10.
Afghanistan managed to score only 240 runs in their first innings, with captain Rahmat Shah scoring an impressive century.
Bangladesh declared their second innings at 372 runs for the loss of seven wickets, with Litton Das scoring a century.
This set a huge 479-run target for Afghanistan to chase.