Centurion Atal continues to block out Bangladesh as a sixth wicket falls at the other end

Sediqullah Atal’s maiden Test century held Bangladesh up through the middle session of the final day in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, even as Afghanistan lost two wickets.

The visitors reached tea on 265/6 in 108 overs, chasing 479, with Bangladesh four wickets from victory.

Afghanistan resumed after lunch on 203/4, needing 276, with Atal on 66 and Ismat Alam scoreless.

Hasan Mahmud returned with the second new ball, and Atal edged past the slips for four, but scoring was slow, with just four runs from the first four overs.

Bangladesh spurned a chance in the 86th over. Atal, on 70, came down the track to Taijul Islam, and the ball turned in with extra bounce.

Litton Das failed to gather it cleanly, letting a stumping chance go.

Ismat Alam, meanwhile, had played a pure survival innings. He finally got off the mark with the 45th ball he faced, at 233/4 after 94 overs.

England’s John Murray holds the record, waiting 80 balls for a first run in 1963.

Atal completed his century in the 97th over with a boundary off Hasan Mahmud. It came from 277 balls, with eight fours and three sixes, and was his first in first-class cricket and the first by an Afghan batter in a Test fourth innings.

Ismat’s vigil ended in the 98th over after a 40-run stand of 123 balls. Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s delivery found an edge that struck Litton’s knee and looped up, with Najmul Hossain Shanto running back to take the catch. Ismat made four off 60 balls.

Hashmatullah Shahidi, who had retired hurt in the morning, returned to the crease and enjoyed early fortune.

In the 99th over a Hasan Mahmud delivery took his outside edge but dropped just short of Shadman Islam at third slip, running away for four.

Shahidi then struck Taijul Islam for a 90m six over long-on and a cover-driven four in the 103rd over, which cost 11 runs.

It lifted the scoring in a session that yielded just 62 runs from 29 overs.

Shahidi’s innings ended with seven minutes left to tea, when he danced down the track at Mehidy Hasan Miraz, mistimed a big hit and picked out Hasan Mahmud at mid-on.

He made 36 off 69 balls with four fours and two sixes.

Atal closed the session unbeaten on 105 from 299 balls, with Yamin Ahmadzai on nought, after Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s maiden to end it.

Afghanistan have now batted over 100 overs in an innings only seven times in Tests, and never before in a fourth innings.

Bangladesh had gone into the break on the back of Litton Das’s diving catch to remove Ikram Alikhil off Ebadot Hossain, his ninth dismissal of the Test, which made him the first wicketkeeper to pair two Test fifties with nine dismissals in a match.