Bowlers rule roost as India complete series sweep vs B’desh
Kanpur, Oct 1: Ravichandran Ashwin drew first blood, Ravindra Jadeja ripped the heart out while Jasprit Bumrah put the final nail in Bangladesh’s coffin as India routed the visitors by seven wickets in the second Test to complete a record-extending 18th series win at home here on Tuesday.
It was one of the most exhilarating performances by the Indian team despite losing more than 200 overs of play with two days of complete wash-out. The outright victory consolidated India’s pole position in the ICC World Test Championship Table (WTC) with 74.24 percentage points.
Bangladesh needed a resolute fightback on the final day to salvage a draw but they collapsed to 146 after resuming the day 26/2. Bumrah (3/17 in 10 overs), Ashwin (3/50 in 15 overs) and Jadeja (3/34 in 10 overs) shared bulk of the spoils.
India scored the required 95 runs in 17.2 overs with ‘Player Of The Match’ Yashasvi Jaiswal (51) scoring his second fifty of the match.
For Bangladesh, opener Shadman Islam (50) and former skipper Mushfiqur Rahim (37) were the only batters who offered some resistance while others succumbed to relentless pressure from the home bowlers after a top notch batting performance to make a match of it.
The biggest disappointment was Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto’s reckless reverse sweep off Jadeja that opened the floodgates.
After Ashwin removed first innings centurion Mominul Haque in the firsts few minutes, Jadeja broke the back of Bangladeshi middle-order with his sizzling performance, while Bumrah also contributed to the win with his incisive bowling that resulted in three wickets.
India, who had a 52-run first innings lead, knocked off the required 95 runs in 17.2 overs after losing Rohit Sharma (8) and Shubhman Gill (6) to off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz .
Jaiswal and Virat Kohli (29 not out) shared a 58-run stand for the third wicket.
Like the first inninngs, Rohit and Jaiswal went after the Bangladeshi bowlers even as the home skipper departed early when his sweep off Miraz landed straight into the hands of Hasan Mahmud. Gill was also trapped by Miraz.
Kohli worked the ball around to go steady, while Jaiswal also batted with maturity to complete his second successive half-century. With just three runs required to complete the win, Jaiswal went after Taijul Islam and ended up giving a catch to Shakib al Hasan at extra cover. Rishabh Pant (4) finished the game in style with a boundary off Taijul.
India have not lost a match to Bangladesh in Test cricket and the fact that they won this contest in a mere six sessions after losing two full days to rain, speaks volumes of the gulf between the two teams.
‘We didn’t react quickly
to India’s aggression’
Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe on Tuesday admitted that his team was blown away by India’s “not-seen-before” aggressive batting that eventually forced a result in the weather-hit second Test.
Eight sessions were lost in the first three days due to persistent rain and it seemed that the game would just meander to a dull draw.
However, after bowling out Bangladesh for 233, India destroyed the visitors’ attack to take a 52-run lead, all in just 34.4 overs.
The approach opened up the game. Then India kept Bangladesh under the pump, bowling them out for a mere 146 in the second essay and raced to the 95-run target in 17.2 overs.
“This approach was not seen before and we did not react quickly. Credit to Rohit (Sharma) and his team for taking such an approach and making a game out of it,” Hathurusinghe said.
Understandably, Hathurusinghe said the defeat was painful, especially coming to these shores after a 2-0 series win over Pakistan. (PTI)