1st Test, Day 4: Kuldeep, Umesh, Axar strike as Bangladesh reach 176/3 at Tea, need 337 runs to win. Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav and Axar Patel picked up a wicket apiece in the second session as India were able to keep a lid on the scoring rate, with Bangladesh reaching 176/3 at Tea and needing 337 more runs on day four of first Test at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, here on Saturday.
In the second session, there was some sharp turn from the pitch for India, who finally got some breakthroughs though debutant Bangladesh opener Zakir Hasan is still rock-solid at 82 not out.
After four quiet overs at the start, India finally ended the 124-opening partnership when Najmul Hossain Shanto poked at one outside off-stump against Umesh. Virat Kohli fumbled at slip but Rishabh Pant showed quick presence of mind to take the catch on rebound at second attempt.
Three overs later, Axar Patel took another wicket for India when a length ball drew Yasir Ali forward and got to spin past the outer edge to crash into the stumps. The visitors’ could have got another wicket when Umesh went past Litton Das’ outside edge, which was heard by none. Later, UltraEdge showed there was a spike.
Axar continued to create problems by getting sharp turn and bounce to beat Das on the outside edge even as Zakir pulled, steered and lofted beautifully to stand tall and keep Bangladesh in the hunt of chasing down the target.
Litton Das was fantastic in pulling off Siraj off a no-ball and brought out the sweep against Ashwin. He had a huge reprieve on an lbw decision off Kuldeep when DRS showed that impact of the ball was umpire’s call and on-field decision of not out staying.
But two overs before tea break, Das tried to play the flick on a tossed up delivery from Kuldeep, who had been troubling him, got a leading edge and gave a simple catch to Umesh at mid-on, throwing his wicket away as the session fell in India’s favour.
Earlier in the morning, Shanto and Hasan showed tremendous application, resolve and patience to frustrate the Indian bowling attack which found edges, but didn’t translate into scalps and rendered them ineffective by notching up half-centuries on a slow pitch.
Brief Scores: India 404 in 133.5 overs and 258/2 declared in 61.4 overs (Shubman Gill 110; Khaled Ahmed 1/51) lead Bangladesh 150 all out in 55.5 overs and 176/3 in 42 overs (Zakir Hasan 82 not out, Najmul Hossain Shanto 67, Axar Patel 1/22, Umesh Yadav 1/22) by 337 runs
