• This was the 1655th Test match in cricket history.
• This was the fourth Test between these two sides. Pakistan have won all four.
• Maohammad Hafeez,Yasir Hameed, Umar Gul,Shabbir Ahmed (for Pakistan) and Rajin Saleh (for Bangladesh) were making their Test debut. Pakistan and Bangladesh have now given Test caps to 176 and 33 players respectively.
• Bangladesh’s first innings total of 288 was their highest ever against Pakistan. Their previous highest was a paltry 160 in the Dhaka Test of 2001-02 series.
• The duck in first innings was tenth in Inzamam-ul-Haq’s career. He became second specialist Pakistani batsman to aggregate 10 ducks after Salim Malik who had 12 ducks in 103 appearances.
• Taufiq Umar completed his 1000 runs in Test career, when his score reached 32 in first innings. He became 38th Pakistani and 386th batsman in Test chronicles to accomplish this feat.
• By taking only 14 Tests to reach this landmark, Taufiq became the third joint fastest among Pakistani batsmen to do so. Saeed Ahmed had taken 11 Tests for his 1000 runs and Sadiq Mohammad 13, while Javed Miandad and Saeed Anwar also completed 1000 runs in their 14th Tests.
• Yasir Hameed became ninth Pakistani and the 76th batsman to make a century on first Test appearance. Khalid 'Billy' Ibadulla was the first Pakistani to hit a century on Test debut when he made 166 against Australia on the very same ground in 1964-65. Ibadulla’s innings was the highest by a Pakistani debutant. But Yasir, the 25-year-old Peshawar-born right-hander, not only made a century on first Test appearance, but also bettered Ibadulla's landmark by four runs.
• Habibul's 108 in the second innings equalled his only other three-figure knock, made against Zimbabwe at Chittagong in November 2001, and was Bangladesh's fourth century in 22 Tests. The country's other centuries were scored by Aminul Islam (145 against India in Bangladesh's inaugural Test at Dhaka, November 2000) and Mohammad Ashraful (114 on debut against Sri Lanka at Colombo's SSC Ground, September 2001).
• Shabbir Ahmed (5-48) became the seventh Pakistani to claim five or more wickets in an innings on Test debut. His match figures of 8 for 109 were also the third best by a Pakistani player on debut after Mohammad Zahid’s 11 for 130 (vs New Zealand at Rawalpindi in 1996-97) and Mohammad Sami’s 8 for 106 (vs New Zealand at Auckland in 2000-01).
• Yasir Hameed became only the second batsman in Test history to score century in both innings on debut when he followed his first innings 170 with 105 in the second. West Indian Lawrence Rowe launched his career with 214 and 100 not out against New Zealand at Kingston in 1971-72.
• The 25-year-old right-hander, in the process, also joined compatriots Hanif Mohammad, Javed Miandad and Wajahatullah Wasti in the twin-century club which now has 45 members and 53 instances. Several members have achieved the coveted milestone more than once with Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar the only one to do so thrice in the 1970s.
• Yasir Hameed's contribution in the game was unambiguous since he made almost half - 48.85 per cent - of the total runs Pakistan scored. Yasir's domination of the Bangladesh's bowling can be gauged from the fact that his combined share was 64.70 per cent while he was at the crease in both innings.
• Bangladesh have now lost 21 matches out of a total of 22 – including an unbroken sequence of 16 consecutive defeats since 15 November 2001.

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Rajneesh Gupta)