Tanvir’s five wickets put Bangladesh Emerging on top

Tanvir Islam was the star of the show on day one of the four-day match between the Bangladesh Emerging team and Ireland A.

The left-arm off-spinner took five wickets for 55 runs to do the bulk of the damage and restrict the visitors to just 151 runs ar the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram. 

In reply, Bangladesh were 81/1 with opener Tanzid Hasan looking solid in an innings of 41 from 39 balls before being dismissed. 

Having won the toss, Ireland A decided to bat first and got off to a steady start as their openers James McCollum and Jeremy Lawlor saw off the opening bowlers Khaled Ahmed and Ebadot Hossain without losing a wicket.

It was when captain Saif Hassan decided to bring on Tanvir, that the first wicket of McCollum fell in the last ball of the 15th over as the opener was out lbw for 19 with the team score at 34. 

Khaled was brought back by his skipper for a second spell and he bowled with pace and fire to dismiss the other opener Lawlor. 

In the 22nd over as he was caught by Yasir Ali after scoring 13 and with the team's score on 42. 

Two balls later, the Ireland captain Harry Tector was got for a golden duck and it was Tanvir who caught the edge as it went into the safe hands of the wicketkeeper Akbar Ali. 

The first session ended with another wicket for Bangladesh as pacer Ebadat uprooted the stumps of Stephen Doheny after he scored 14 runs with Ireland in dire straits at 62/4. 

The visitors then started the second session a lot better as Curtis Campher and Lorcan Tucker formed a partnership to take the team past 100.

But this time it was the captain who brought himself onto the attack with his part-time off-spin and got the breakthrough by dismissing Tucker for 20 as Ireland's score read 111/5. 

Tanvir Islam then struck again to claim his third scalp, the wicket of Mark Adair for 9 runs but Campher was a happy camper, scoring runs on the other end.

With Camper on 39, Saif once again got the breakthrough as Mahmudul Hasan Joy took a neat catch and peg Ireland further back at 127/7. 

Two more wickets fell in quick succession as Tanvir had his fourth wicket - that of Gareth Delany (4) - and Ebadot had his second as he clean-bowled Jonathan Garth for a duck. 

Peter Chase, the last batsman, played some shots to stay not out on 14 and take his team past 150, but Tanvir had the last laugh, taking his fifth wicket, that of Graham Hume for 10. 

Captain Saif and Joy remained not out on 22 and 18 respectively as the hosts ended the day in a strong position.