Rahi heroic ruined by toothless colleagues
Image : BCB
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladeshi bowling unit paid the price of toothless bowling despite making early inroads, courtesy Abu Jayed two wickets in quick succession as India ended the second day on a dominating note by taking a 343 runs first innings lead with four wickets in hand.
Jayed was brilliant as he picked four wickets while others failed to compliment in right proportion as India are literally on top after day two of the opening Test match.
Bangladesh, who was shot out for 150 runs, had the chance to claw back after Abu Jayed picked wickets of Chetashwar Pujara and Virat Kohli on quick succession.
Resuming the day on 86-1, India was troubled by Bangladesh pacer Jayed, who scared them for a while, dismissing overnight unbeaten batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and captain Virat Kohli for naught in his consecutive overs.
Puajara was dismissed on 52, while Kohli’s 0 was his 10th duck in Test cricket and the second in this year.
In the opening session, there was an eerie silence that engulfed the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore briefly, much in contrast to the hubbub on the opening day.
The Indian skipper Virat Kohli made his walk back to the pavilion for a two-ball duck as he played across the line to Jayed and missed a slightly shorter ball completely to be trapped leg-before.
The on-field umpire thought otherwise but Bangladesh was rewarded for their call for a review.
With India at 119-3, Bangladesh, which was bowled out for 150 in its first innings sensed a golden chance to claw back into the match but Agarwal and Rahane shattered the hopes by systematically tormenting the bowlers and kept the visitors wicket-less in whole post-lunch session and that laid the platform to post total of … runs with a lead of …
While Rahane’s game was based on pure classical shots, Agarwal just had taken Bangladeshi bowlers in disdain.
He was particularly harsh on the spinner’s duo—Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam and the duo added 190 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Rahane was eventually dismissed by Abu Jayed, who created the stir early on.
The line of the bowlers looked far from their best with spinners operating from both ends, the pair, already good players of spin, ended up toying with them.
Bangladesh were out of ideas as the pair's unbeaten 190-run stand put India in firm control of proceedings, despite Mayank needing timely attention from the physio, presumably for cramps, on his way to the marathon innings.
Mayank and Rahane, however, ensured the scales tipped back in India's favour, keeping Bangladesh at bay since.
Abu Jayed's lion-hearted effort didn't go unrewarded earlier, despite India's scoring rate in the opening hour being on the higher side.
Two dropped catches off his bowling in the innings didn't deter him as he kept running in and hit the deck hard. Pujara was dropped early on in the session off him when a slash flew to gully where Mehidy Hasan managed to get fingertips but was unable to hold on.
The drop didn't cost Bangladesh a lot though, as Pujara was snaffled in similar fashion a few overs later. All the talk for the need of Bangladesh's bowlers to bowl the fuller length, which they failed to do consistently yesterday, showed its relevance once again when Pujara, like Rohit Sharma, was undone by a fuller delivery bowled by Jayed as he lured into the drive and only managed an edge that was caught by a substitute at gully for 54 while it was followed by the dismissal of Virat though the jubilation did not lasted long as Bangladesh failed to put up combined effort to make the host pay at this point of time but failed to do so as they looked short of plans.
As the wicket grew better with passing times it was need of the day that the visiting bowling unit came up with a planned approach.
When there was nothing in offer all they needed to do was bowl in a certain way that would restrict the batsmen from scoring off easily but instead of that they bowled in such a way that looked to have helped the Indian batsmen leak runs at their will.
They bowled either too short of too fuller instead of going into the three quarter length that could have been more effective for them as it would made the batsmen play their shots on the rise rather than leaning front foot or back foot to dispatch the odd bad balls to boundaries.
Mehidy Hasan, who was introduced very late into the attack, was getting some turn, but the pair used their feet well against him and Taijul Hasan to keep them at bay.
The murderous batting of Jadeja in the end just give India the right kind of momentum that can easily say that the host are on the top.
