Mushfiqur Rahim's advice helped me to claim Smith's wicket: Mehidy Hasan

The Steve Smith-led Australian side is certainly having a testing time in the spinning sub-continent conditions, for the second time in this year. Australia is currently playing a 2-match Test series against hosts Bangladesh. The Australian batters were once again exposed to their inabilities of tackling the spin bowling in the 1st Test match at Dhaka. The visitors suffered a crucial blow when their skipper Steve Smith got dismissed cheaply in the second innings, by a superb delivery bowled by young off-spinner Mehidy Hasan.

The Tigers side was bowled out for 260 runs in the first innings, after electing to bat first in the 1st Test of the series. In reply, the visiting Aussie side didn’t get off to a perfect start as they lost 3 quick wickets, with only 14 runs on the board at the end of first day’s play. However, the visitors still were confident of chasing the target, but their hopes were shattered when Mehidy Hasan got Smith dismissed early in the second day’s play. The 21-year old spinner who also claimed the wicket of Aussie vice-captain David Warner credited his skipper Mushfiqur Rahim for picking up the important wicket of Steve Smith.

Idea was to bowl around the wicket

The Aussie skipper is considered to be a good player of playing spin bowling, as he was the leading run-getter in the Test series against India, earlier this year. “Mushfiqur bhai told me that if I could bowl around the wicket to Smith, then he will get stuck, he won’t be able to play that he wants and he won’t be able to use his feet. He likes to go forward and come down the track, so if the ball turns there will be a stumping chance or a catching opportunity. That is what I tried to do, follow Mushfiqur bhai’s advice,” said Mehidy at the end of second day’s play, as quoted by the source Daily Star.

Huge achievement for Shakib

One of the most experienced Bangladeshi cricketer and the best all-rounder presently, Shakib Al Hasan yet again showed the world a proof of his capabilities with an all-round performance in the ongoing Test match against the Aussies. Shakib scored an important knock of 82 runs with the bat and also took his 16th five wicket-haul in the longest format. The left-arm spinner also became only the fourth bowler to claim a five-wicket haul against all Test playing nations. He joined the list along with some of the great names of the game including Muttiah Muralidaran, Dale Steyn, and Rangana Herath.