Bangladesh finished the opening day of the first of the two-Test series on a high with a wicket off the last ball to restrict Ireland to 270-8 in 90 overs at the Sylhet International Stadium on Tuesday.
Between debutant Hasan Mahmud trapping Ireland skipper Andrew Balbirnie on the fourth ball of the day and Taijul Islam doing the same to debutant Jordan Neill on the last, the day swung both ways where Ireland chose to bat first.
Paul Stirling and debutant Cade Carmichael responded well after the early blow in the morning as they formed a 96-run partnership for the second wicket while going to the lunch break unscathed.
Nahid Rana and Mehidy Hasan Miraz then struck twice to remove Stirling and Harry Tector in the first two overs after the interval to bring the hosts right back into the game.
Stirling, who was dropped twice on eight and 10 runs by Shadman Islam and Mehidy, respectively, both at slip cordon, was finally caught by Shadman after making 60 off 76 with nine fours. Tector was trapped lbw after Bangladesh reviewed successfully.
Ireland鈥檚 next fightback came from the duo of Carmichael and Curtis Campher, who added 53 runs before Mehidy broke through for the hosts by removing the former.
Carmichael, who also got a reprieve on 10 when Taijul dropped him at the short mid-wicket off Hasan Mahmud, played a fighting knock of 59 in his first-ever Test innings while hitting seven fours.
A three-wicket session made the hosts happy as they were hinting to crawl back.
However, Campher and Lorcan Tucker were defiant in their 53-run partnership for the fifth wicket. But a collapse followed as they slipped to 222-7 from 203-4 in the final session.
Campher was caught at slip as Shanto finally held on to one to hand Murad his first wicket in Test cricket. Campher missed out on his fifty by six runs.
Tucker was undone by some sharp work from Litton Das behind the stumps off Murad after making 41. Andy McBrine, who played 34 balls to score five, finally ran out of patience as he ran down the wicket to get stumped off Mehidy.
At that point, Bangladesh looked to wrap things up quickly. But Neill and Barry McCarthy did the last vigil for the Irish with a 48-run stand before the former fell on the last delivery.
Neill, who looked solid in his 30-run innings, was seemingly despondent after throwing away a solid start, while the hosts were jubilant.
All five Bangladeshi bowlers were among the wickets for the hosts, with Mehidy being the pick of them with 3-50.
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