Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: With their bowlers dismissing Bangladesh for just 149 after their lower-order helped India post 376 in the first innings, the hosts swelled their lead to 308 and extended their dominance over the visitors on Day Two of the first Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on September 20.
India decided not to enforce follow-on and at stumps, reached 81/3 in 23 overs of their second innings. With Shubman Gill (33 batting) and Rishabh Pant (12 batting) at the crease, India will be aiming to bat Bangladesh out of the game after having another brilliant day at Chepauk.
On a day in which 17 wickets fell, India could add just 37 runs to their overnight total in the first hour against the second new ball as their first innings ended in 91.2 overs. In reply, fast-bowling Jasprit Bumrah picked 4-50 in a relentless and searing bowling show to dismiss Bangladesh cheaply and help India take a 227-run lead.
As he does mostly, Bumrah was in just a different realm to be the standout bowler for India. Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep and Ravindra Jadeja complemented him by keeping the pressure on to take two scalps each as Bangladesh crumbled in the face of baptism by fire from an exceptional Indian bowling attack.
Bangladesh began Day Two by taking the second new ball and stuck to bowling at a good length area. Ravichandran Ashwin got India’s innings to resume from 339/6 with a thick edge going over the slip cordon for four. Taskin struck in his second over of the day by shaping the ball into Ravindra Jadeja and taking a faint edge on his tentative poke straight to the keeper.
The dismissal of Jadeja on 86 ended his 199-run partnership with Ashwin, as the left-handed batter missed his century by 14 runs. Akash threw the kitchen sink at the balls towards him to hit four boundaries, including being dropped by Shakib Al Hasan on eight, before his slog off Taskin took a top-edge and was caught by mid-off for 17 off 30 balls.
Taskin got his third wicket of the day when Ashwin didn’t time his drive well and gave a catch to mid-off to fall for 113 off 133 balls and got a standing ovation from the sparse Chepauk crowd.
Mahmud ended India’s first innings in just over an hour of Day Two by having Bumrah edging to third slip to pick five-wicket hauls in consecutive Test matches. The pacer also became the first bowler from Bangladesh to take a five-wicket haul in Test matches in India.
Bumrah struck in the opening over as he changed his angle to come around the wicket and get one to nip back in and go past a shouldering Shadman Islam to hit the top of the off-stump. With Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj bowling attacking lengths, there was no room to breathe easy for the Bangladeshi batters.
In the final over before lunch, Akash knocked down the middle stump of Zakir Hasan with a nip-backer coming in from wide of the crease. On the very next ball, he castled Mominul Haque with a nip-backer going past the batter’s forward defence to hit the off-stump.
Post lunch, Siraj got a ball to hold its line and take the outside edge off Najmul Hossain Shanto’s bat straight to third slip. In the next over, Bumrah bombarded Mushfiqur Rahim with questions before getting him to poke to second slip.
With the ball not doing much movement, Litton Das and Shakib Al Hasan stitched a 51-run stand for the sixth wicket. The duo brought out sumptuous drives off Bumrah, Siraj and Akash before Shakib latched on loose deliveries from Ashwin and Jadeja to get more boundaries.
But in a rush of blood moment, Das tried to sweep off an outside off-stump ball from Jadeja, but it took the top edge to substitute fielder Dhruv Jurel at deep backward square leg. In Jadeja’s next over, Shakib tried to reverse-sweep, but it deflected off his shoe and Rishabh Pant ran forward to take a comfortable catch.
Mahmud and Mehidy Hasan Miraz hung around for hitting three boundaries before Bumrah got the former to poke at an outside off delivery and the thick outside edge was grabbed by second slip at the stroke of tea.
Shortly into the final session, Bumrah landed a perfect yorker to rattle the middle and leg stumps of Taskin, before Nahid chopped onto his stumps off Siraj to end Bangladesh’s first innings at a run below 150.
In their second innings, India got going with three boundaries, before captain Rohit Sharma was dismissed cheaply as Taskin extracted an outside edge and flew to the hands of the third slip. Yashasvi Jaiswal constantly tried to play at deliveries outside off-stump and eventually nicked behind one off Rana.
Gill looked solid in his back-foot punches, pull and sweep to collect quick boundaries. But India lost Virat Kohli, who was trapped lbw while trying to clip through the on-side off Mehidy.
Interestingly, replays showed a feather edge on ultra edge, making many wonder what would have happened if Kohli had taken the review. Pant swept Shakib Al Hasan for four and followed it up by dancing down the pitch to slam a six over long-on fence to ensure India’s lead crossed 300 till the second day’s play came to a close.
