Useful wickets taken by Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav down the order and great bowling from pacer Mohammed Siraj and spinner Kuldeep Yadav put India in the lead at the end of day Two of the first Test against Bangladesh at Chattogram on Thursday, with the scoreboard reading 133/8 for the hosts in their first innings.
At the end of the day’s play, Mehidy Hasan Miraz (16*) and Ebadot Hossain (13*) were unbeaten for Bangladesh. India are in a commanding position with a 271- run lead in the match. After tea, Bangladesh resumed the play at 37/2 with Zakir Hasan (9*) and Litton Das (24*). In the first ten overs, Siraj dismissed Litton and Hasan for 24 and 20 respectively. Bangladesh was reduced to 56/4.
Following this, spinner Kuldeep Yadav spun a web Bangladesh couldn’t understand. He didn’t let Bangladesh get a steady partnership by dismissing skipper Shakib Al Hasan (3), Nurul Hasan (16), Mushfiqur Rahim (28), Taijul Islam (0) with Bangladesh reduced to 102/8.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Ebadot Hossain made sure that the hosts did not lose any more wickets for the remainder of day two.
Bangladesh was shaken on the first ball of the inning as Mohammed Siraj dismissed Najmul Hossain Shanto. The pacer bowled a ripper to get an edge which a diving Rishab Pant caught behind the stumps.
The hosts had hardly recovered from the first wicket when Umesh Yadav removed Yasir Ali (4) who looked to play away from his body only to drag the ball onto the stumps. Bangladesh were reduced to 5/2 inside the fourth over
Litton Das looked fluent in his brief stay before tea as he played some eye-pleasing strokes and guided Bangladesh to 37/2 at the end of the second session on day two. The hosts looked to rebuild and recover as Litton Das played two stunning shots to Umesh Yadav that found the fence and Debutant Zakir Hasan too struck Ashwin for two boundaries in the next over, accumulating much-needed runs.
Umesh leaked runs again as Litton struck three boundaries in one over of the pacer before the Bangladeshi pair took the team to 37/2 at tea.
Resuming the second session, Ashwin got to his 13th test match fifty and added 92 runs for the eighth wicket before India were bowled out for 404 in their first innings. Chestehwar Pujara (90) top-scored for the team. The lower order chipped in with commendable knocks, coming from the bats of Ravichandran Ashwin (58) and Kuldeep Yadav (40).
