Pakistan Still Standing — But Only Just

Pakistan ended day four of the second Test in Sylhet at 316 for 7, still needing 121 runs to avoid defeat. Three wickets in hand. Mohammad Rizwan at the crease. And Bangladesh’s bowling coach Shaun Tait sounding pretty calm about the whole thing.

“We’ll bowl them out on the fifth day,” Tait said after stumps. Simple as that.

A Hot Day That Made Bangladesh Work Hard

It wasn’t easy. The Sylhet pitch flattened right out, and Pakistan scored close to a hundred runs in each session. Babar Azam and Shan Masood put on 92 for the second wicket. Rizwan and Salman Agha then built a 134-run stand for the sixth. The kind of partnership that makes dressing rooms twitchy. But Bangladesh didn’t crack.

The Litton Das Moment That Sparked the Dugout

One of the big moments of the day came off Taijul Islam’s bowling — Litton Das intercepted a Babar glide down leg side, and the Bangladesh team erupted. Tait was full of praise. “Litton’s keeping at the moment is just absolutely world-class,” he said. “It makes the kind of difference that doesn’t show in the scorecard.”

Tait added that Litton’s glovework has been getting proper credit inside the change room — and that as a complete cricketer right now, he’s “probably at the top of his game.”

The Run-Out That Almost Was

A Mushfiqur direct hit nearly caught Agha short in the 73rd over. Didn’t quite happen — but Tait said the dugout went electric. “There was some excitement,” he noted. That breakthrough came anyway, through Taijul, with 15 minutes left. Agha gone. Then Hasan Ali. The room changed.

Tait on the Pitches — and the Critics

There’s been chatter about the Sylhet surface. Tait wasn’t interested in it. “The pitches are producing some pretty good cricket,” he said, pointing to the recent white-ball series too. Thing is, a flat deck that still produces a 437-run chase with genuine tension deep into day four isn’t really a bad pitch.

What Day Five Looks Like

Rizwan remains, with three wickets still to take. Bangladesh are one day from a first-ever Test series win over Pakistan.

Tait put it plainly: “You don’t know what can happen, right? So if you bowl well enough, you stay in the contest long enough.” They’ve stayed in it long enough. Now they finish.