India continued their domination in Tests at home as they cruised to a seven-wicket win in the second Test against Bangladesh in Kanpur. This meant that the hosts swept the series 2-0 after winning the first Test in Chennai by 280 runs to cement their place at the top of the World Test Championship rankings.
It was a splendid effort from the Indian bowlers with Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah leading the way to bowl out Bangladesh for 146. Shadman Islam held on to score a solid half-century while Mushfiqur Rahim, lower down the order, helped to add some extra runs before being dismissed by a Bumrah special right before lunch.
With a target of 95 to win, openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma came out with a similar intent as to their first-innings approach on Day 4.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz was the only Bangladesh bowler who managed to make inroads, picking up the wickets of the Indian captain Sharma and Shubman Gill cheaply.
However, Jaiswal along with Virat Kohli ensured that there wouldn’t be any hiccups in the chase. Although Jaiswal fell to Taijul Islam right after he reached his half-century in 43 balls, Rishabh Pant struck the winning runs with a lofted shot for a boundary.
The morning session saw the visitors, except for Shadman and Mushfiqur, put on a less-than-complimentary display of Test batting. Jadeja was the main architect of the collapse that saw Bangladesh lose seven wickets for just 55 runs.
Mominul Haque was unable to repeat his efforts from the first innings while Shakib al Hasan fell in an uncharacteristic manner to Jadeja. Mushfiqur tried to extend the inevitable along with the tail, farming the strike and protecting the likes of Taijul Islam and later on Khaled Ahmed from Bumrah. However, the Indian bowler then struck in the last over before lunch, knocking over the middle stump as Mushfiqur attempted a big swing to bowl out the visitors for 146.
It was Bangladesh’s spin against India’s batting in the afternoon session which saw Sharma and Gill both fall to Mehidy. But the fightback was too little too late from the visitors who were unable to hold back Jaiswal and Kohli as they built a solid partnership for the third wicket to set up a dominating seven-wicket win for India.
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