OTD 2005: Bangladesh record their maiden Test victory

The year Bangladesh achieved Test status was 2000. This was the start of the cricketing era of one of the biggest underdogs in international cricket who went on to surprise the cricketing world with some iconic performances and gave birth to future legends of the game.

There have been plenty of moments when Bangladesh proved to the world that they were a team that could do the impossible. Some of the iconic moments include beating India in the 2007 World Cup and knocking out England from the 2015 World Cup. Though Bangladesh were not known to be one of the most consistent teams in Test cricket they have still managed to fight hard and record historic wins in red-ball cricket.

January 10, 2005 was the day when Bangladesh’s journey began to show promise in Test cricket. At this stage, Bangladesh were yet to win their first Test going into their 35th Test match which they were set to play against Zimbabwe in Chattogram. Though the Zimbabwe team was way past their prime they were still much more experienced in international cricket and still had promising players in their ranks like Brendan Taylor, Graeme Cremer, and Elton Chigumbura.

Also Read - Champions Trophy 2025: Bangladesh’s predicted squad

It was Bangladesh who won the toss and elected to bat first and went on to put up a big total of 488 in the first innings with crucial knocks from skipper Habibul Bashar (94 off 128 deliveries), Rajin Saleh (89 off 182 deliveries), Mohammad Rafique (69 off 98 deliveries) and Nafees Iqbal (56 off 122 deliveries) along with crucial cameos from Khaled Mashud (49 off 120 deliveries) and Mashrafe Mortaza (48 off 44 deliveries).

The Zimbabwe team did try their best to get back in the game but were eventually bowled out for 312 despite solid innings from Tatenda Taibu (92 off 241 deliveries) and Chigumbura (71 off 164 deliveries).

Though Bangladesh batters struggled a bit in the second innings Bashar played well to score a half-century to make sure that they set a steep target of 381. This turned out to be a big ask for Zimbabwe as they were bowled out for 154 with Bangladesh left-arm spinner spinner Enamul Haque Jnr recording figures of 6/45. He was also adjudged the Player of the Match for his match-winning spell.

The home team won the game by 226 runs, thereby winning their first-ever Test match.