India got closer to defeating Bangladesh in their one-off Test at Hyderabad after dismissing two of the opposition’s mainstays Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim in the first session of the last day. Bangladesh went to lunch at 202/5, still 257 runs away from their massive target of 459.
Umesh Yadav bowled a storm through the session, getting reverse swing and was unlucky not to have a wicket. but it was Ravindra Jadeja who struck the early blow. On a rapidly deteriorating surface, he got one to jump off from an almost unplayable length to hit the top of Shakib’s bat and lob up to Cheteshwar Pujara at short leg.
Fresh from a century in the first innings, Mushfiqur Rahim started slowly but decided to go on the attack after his first 20 balls or so. He reverse-sweeped Jadeja for his first boundary and then hit Ishant Sharma for a six over long leg. He hit Ravichandran Ashwin for a four through the cover but was outfoxed by India’s premier off-spinner two balls later, mistiming another big shot to get caught by Jadeja.
Around all this, Mahmudullah cut a steady figure, looking solid in defence and even showing his confidence to get the boundaries going. He got to a half-century just before lunch and, along with Sabbir Rahman, put on 40 runs by the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 202/5 (Mahmudullah 58 not out, Soumya Sarkar 42; Ravichandran Ashwin 3/63, Ravindra Jadeja 2/58) and 388 all out trail India 687/6 declared and 159/4 declared by 257 runs
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