Late strikes from spinners – Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja – have put India on top on Day 4 of the one-off Test against Bangladesh in Hyderabad.
After ending the third day at 322/6, Bangladesh could not make any huge difference this morning and were rolled under the carpet for 288 runs, falling short of India’s total by 299 runs. Mehedi Hasan Miraz, the 19-year-old, could not add a single run to his overnight score of 51 and was the first wicket to fall after Bhuvneshwar Kumar breached his defence of the fourth delivery on a fresh day. The tail-enders couldn’t show any resistance although skipper Mushfiqur Rahim continued to fight back.
India skipper Virat Kohli then took a good logical call by choosing to bat for one more time and add more runs to the overall lead instead of underestimating Bangladesh’s batting capability on a dead sort of wicket. The decision saw India come out to bat again and add quick 159 runs to the total in just 29 overs while taking the overall lead to 459. The Indians batted with a sense of urgency which was visible in the way Cheteshwar Pujara scored runs at a quick rate. The right-hander top scored with 54.
With a big task of surviving four sessions and saving the Test, the fourth innings began on a demotivating note as opener Tamim Iqbal lost his wicket cheaply. Things soon looked to have stabilised after Mominul Haque and Soumya Sarkar took charge. They successfully thwarted the Indian spinning duo for a long time and added 61 for the second wicket. But just when it seemed that Bangladesh were heading home safely without any loss, Jadeja and Ashwin snapped both the on-field batsmen in short successions to hand the advantage to India.
While the day turned out to be highly satisfactory for the hosts, Ashwin himself secured a special milestone when he reached the 250-wicket mark with the wicket of Mushfiqur Rahim. The off-spinner spoke about the day in his post-match interview:
“Good to have the [250] record out of the way. It was a delight to watch myself bowl in the second innings. I was a little rusty in the first innings, got into a better rhythm in the second innings straightaway, bowling with the new ball. Today was one of those days when I started enjoying my spell right from the start. It’s going to be an interesting day tomorrow. Wicket is not giving too much help for the spinners, we have to be very very patient in the morning session.”