Half-centuries from Imrul Kayes and Mominul Haque put Bangladesh on top after a slow first day of their two-Test series against Pakistan.

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Patient batting throughout the day saw the hosts to 236 for four in Khulna, with Kayes making 51 before Mominul took charge with 80 until his late dismissal. Mahmudullah added 49 and though four different bowlers took a wicket apiece, dropped catches plagued Pakistan.

Kayes survived a leg-before review off the third ball of the match and Zulfiqar Babar failed to pick the ball up with a chance to run out Tamim Iqbal in the eighth over. It took almost nine overs for the score to reach double figures, when Kayes pulled Junaid Khan for the first boundary.

Yasir Shah misjudged a boundary chance to allow Kayes to move from 12 to 16 and Tamim was dropped on 16, Mohammad Hafeez putting down a tough one-handed catch at short leg. Tamim fell three overs before lunch for 25, caught off bat and pad by Azhar Ali as spinner Yasir survived a no-ball review, and Kayes was dropped at short leg as the interval arrived with the score 60 for one.

Mominul Haque was hit on the helmet by Junaid but hit his next ball for four, and Kayes reached a 129-ball half-century but went no further as he chipped the next ball straight back to bowler Hafeez – the off-spinner’s first Test wicket since having to remodel his action following a ban from bowling. 

Babar dropped Mominul off his own bowling when the batsman was on 17 and Mahmudullah edged Wahab Riaz between the two slips.

Mominul did well to avoid an accidental beamer from Wahab and was on 35 to Mahmudullah’s 31 at tea, with Bangladesh 150 for two. Mominul’s fifty arrived from 108 balls with a single off Babar but Mahmudullah failed to follow, falling one short when wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed showed his team-mates the way with a diving right-handed catch off Wahab.

An appeal next ball against Mominul was rejected, a decision supported by DRS, and he and Shakib Al Hasan took their side past 200. Mominul took successive boundaries off Hafeez but was pinned lbw by Babar from the penultimate scheduled delivery of the day.