Sediqullah Atal's marathon century and some inspired lower-order resistance inspired Afghanistan to a dramatic draw in the one-off Test against Bangladesh on Tuesday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Opener Atal, playing only his third Test, batted for eight-and-a-half hours for his 332-ball 111 before number nine Qais Ahmad hit an unbeaten 49 in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Having started the final day on 132-3, Afghanistan survived to finish on 346-8, from a total of 142 overs, after being set a nominal 479-run target to win.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
When Atal fell to a close-in catch off left-arm spinner Taijul Islam soon after tea with the score at 281-7, Bangladesh were in sight of victory.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
But Qais and fellow tail-ender Yamin Ahmadzai (19 off 85 balls) batted for 110 deliveries in a valiant 45-run stand for the eighth wicket to resist Bangladesh's spinners.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Even when Ahmadzai fell to Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Bangladesh had five overs to enforce a win but Qais and number 10 Zia-ur-Rehman hung on, although not without drama.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
There were two missed run-out chances in the final session and a dropped catch, while Qais gave his teammates watching from the boundary some heart-stopping moments.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The leg-spinner mixed solid defence with a penchant for dancing down the pitch, even hitting the second ball of the last over for six.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The Bangladesh players were less than impressed with Qais when he went down with an apparent hamstring injury and received treatment after playing a forward defence with 10 minutes remaining.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
With a famous draw already secured, he hammered the final delivery of the match deep over midwicket for another maximum, falling to the turf in celebration.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Pacer Ebadot Hossain took 3-50 and off-spinner Miraz finished with 3-73, but it was not enough for Bangladesh.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto praised Afghanistan's resilience.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"It is disappointing not win, but Afghanistan played brilliantly," said Shanto. "I expected the spinners to come into the match. They tried but Afghanistan played very good cricket."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Atal earlier reached his century with a boundary off Hasan Mahmud, becoming the first Afghanistan batter to reach three figures in the fourth innings of a Test.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Hashmatullah Shahidi also scored 36 and helped Atal defy the Bangladesh bowling, but holed out to mid-on attempting a big shot down the ground, just seven minutes before tea.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Ismat Alam batted for 60 deliveries for his four -- scoring his first run off his 44th delivery -- before Miraz had him caught by Shanto.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
With under two hours left, Bangladesh were finally rewarded with Atal's wicket as the left-hander pushed a turning delivery from Islam and a thick edge was well caught at short-leg by Tanzid Hasan.<\/p>\r\n\r\n