Shakib smashes another milestone

Fastest to score 4000 runs and take 200 wickets in Tests

Premier allrounder Shakib Al Hasan has achieved another career milestone as he became the quickest player to reach the elite club of players with 4000 runs and 200 wickets in Test cricket.

After scoring a team-highest of 33 in the first innings of the Dhaka Test yesterday, Shakib was 34 runs short of the landmark on his 59th appearance for the Tigers in the longest format. And with a inside-out drive to Sajid Khan for a boundary in the 56th over of the second innings, the champion performer finds himself among the illustrious company of the likes of Sir Garfield Sobers (80 Tests), Kapil Dev (97 Tests), Daniel Vettory (101 Tests ) , Jack Kallis (102 Tests) are other great all-rounders in the list.The left-hander, currently batting to salvage a draw for his side against the odds on the final session of the Test against Pakistan, took 10 Tests fewer than Botham, who achieved the double feat from 69 appearances.  Despite being wicketless in the ongoing Test, Shakib boasts 215 wickets in his tally so far, 20 short of Sobers.

Meanwhile, yet another disappointing performance from Bangladesh batsmen saw them collapse to 76 for seven after day four in reply to Pakistan’s 300 in the first innings in Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium Tuesday. Bangladesh batting looked clueless against a decent spin attack of Pakistan as batsmen lost their wickets cheaply amid the overcast condition in Mirpur. The condition was ideal for pacers but Pakistan's Shaheen Shah Afridi managed to bowl only one over, the first one, in the innings due to insufficient light. But Pakistan spinners were enough to run havoc in the Bangladesh batting order as the Tigers lost seven wickets in just 26 overs. Pakistan off-spinner Sajid Khan was the chief destroyer as he took six wickets from 12 overs, with the other dismissal affected by a run out.