Liton, Mushy break record held for 63 years

Liton kissed his helmet and raised his bat. The smile said it all. Having missed out on a hundred after a classy knock, the wicket-keeper batter dispelled the blues of Chattogram by notching a magnificent ton at Dhaka on day one of the first Test against Sri Lanka today.

He pulled one short delivery towards backward square leg with a fielder placed there for grabbing any opportunity when the ball is in the air. While on 47, Liton got a lifeline when Kamindu Mendis failed to hold onto a miscued pull shot. Sri Lanka have tried the short ball strategy for a while to both Liton and Mushfiqur Rahim and while the latter was keener on ducking to most of them, Liton got on top of quite a few. 

While Liton was on 95, Asitha Fernando tried the short stuff again and Liton was not shy of pulling. The ball fell just short of the fielder and Liton ran off a misfield. The fielder tired a hit at the stumps only for the ball to roll away for four overthrows, thus giving Liton his ton.

Overall, the duo showed an approach fitting for the disaster that they had to overcome. The duo came together after Bangladesh lost five wickets for just 24 runs within the first hour and within seven overs. The partnership has reached 202 at the end of the 68th over while Liton was unbeaten on 117 and Mushfiqur was nearing his ton, batting on 88, at the time of filing this report.

This is the record for a sixth-wicket partnership after a team had lost five wickets under 25 runs. In the process, Liton and Mushfiqur broke a 63-year record. The previous record had been held by Pakistan's Wallis Mathias and Shujauddin Butt who put on a 86-run stand against West Indies in 1959 after the team slumped to 22 for five. Incidentally, Wallis and Shujauddin had made the record at Dhaka. Mushfiqur and Liton's stand is also Bangladesh's highest sixth-wicket stand in Test cricket, going past the 191-run stand by Mohammad Ashraful and Mushfiqur, set in 2007 at Colombo against Sri Lanka.