Mahmudullah ton, spinners put Bangladesh in sight of series-levelling victory

In reply, Zimbabwe reached 76/2 at stumps on day four, with Brendan Taylor (4*) and Sean Williams (2*) holding fort. Opening batsmen Hamilton Masakadza (25) and Brian Chari (43) were dismissed in the final session.

Leading by 218 runs at the start of day four, with Zimbabwe bowled out for 304 at stumps the previous evening in reply to the hosts' 522/7 declared in the first innings, Bangladesh declined to enforce the follow on, instead opting to search for quick runs from the outset so as to provide their bowlers sufficient time to bowl Zimbabwe out a second time.

The start, however, was far from what was needed as Bangladesh lost three wickets for 10 runs in the first six overs as Kyle Jarvis and Donald Tiripano sent back the Bangladesh top three.

Liton Das (6), Imrul Kayes (3) and Mominul Haque (1) were all back in the pavilion and the trouble was compounded when the double-centurion from the first innings, Mushfiqur Rahim, was dismissed by Tiripano for seven, leaving Bangladesh tottering at 25/4.

With the lead just 243, a partnership was the need of the hour and that was provided by captain Mahmudullah and debutant Mohammad Mithun who added 118 runs for the fifth wicket, thereby taking the lead past 300 and dragging the team out of trouble. The duo took Bangladesh to lunch at 78/4.

Mithun played 110 balls in his innings and hit four fours and a six while Mahmudullah, who was cautious early on, bloomed as the partnership grew and brought up his century off just 122 balls with eight fours and two sixes.

Mehidy Hasan played a quick cameo of 27 off 34 with two fours to push the Bangladesh lead past 400 and give the bowlers four full sessions and a minimum of 120 overs to bowl Zimbabwe out, as the declaration came right at the stroke of tea.

With the pitch taking appreciable turn by the end of day four a 443-run target was always going to be a tough ask. And Bangladesh deployed Taijul Islam, who took a five-wicket haul in the first innings, early on, who nearly provided the team a breakthrough when Masakazda was given out caught at silly point by the on-field umpire.

However, Masakadza reviewed and replays showed that the ball hadn't hit the bat. Masakadza and Chari thrived thereafter, taking Bangladesh past 50 and riding their luck on occasion – Mehidy dropped Masakadza at gully off Khaled Ahmed – and successfully played out the new ball.

In doing so, Masakadza also passed Guy Whittall's tally of 2207 runs to become the fourth highest run scorer in Test cricket for Zimbabwe. The partnership was finally broken by Mehidy, who got Masakdza caught by Mominul at short leg for 25.

Taylor, the centurion from the first innings, joined Chari at one-down but the duo could only add two more runs before Taijul trapped Chari lbw to give Bangladesh the second wicket at the score of 70.

Williams joined Taylor and the duo took Zimbabwe to 76/2 in 30 overs when bad light forced the umpires to draw the stumps. Zimbabwe need 367 runs to win the Test match on day five with eight wickets in hand.