Finance
Bangladesh’s left-handed opener Zakir Hasan became the country’s fourth Test debut century scorer. But, at the end of day four of the first Test at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, India edged closer to victory, making further inroads to leave Bangladesh at 272/6 at stumps.
India now needs to take four wickets on day five, while Bangladesh needs 241 runs to win. Starting with a wickless first session, the visitors were made to work hard with the ball.
They recovered by taking three wickets in each of the next two sessions, two of which were taken by Axar Patel with the new ball in the 88th over. Resuming from 42/0, Zakir batted the entire first session alongside Najmul Hossain Shanto (67) as the duo brought up Bangladesh’s first hundred-run opening stand against India in Tests.
India found some turn and bounce on a pitch that appeared to have slowed significantly. However, Shanto and Zakir demonstrated tremendous application, resolve, and patience to frustrate and render ineffective the Indian bowling attack.
Shanto began by driving and flicking Mohammed Siraj for back-to-back fours, bringing the opening partnership’s fifty. Siraj got a few hits off Shanto, while Ravichandran Ashwin found the inside edge of the left-handed batters. However, India failed to make a breakthrough as Zakir delivered the shot of the session, going inside-out over cover off Ashwin.
It prompted the off-spinner to alter his strategy, as he switched to bowling from over the wicket and immediately found a turn to beat Shanto’s outer edge. Shanto brought the partnership’s century with a fierce pull off Siraj after reaching his fifty.
Zakir, on the other hand, played a sweep against Kuldeep Yadav before dancing down the pitch and whipping Axar through mid-wicket to reach fifty. He would sweep off Kuldeep again before surviving a lbw appeal off Axar as Bangladesh won the session.
After lunch, India ended the 124-run opening stand when Shanto poked outside off-stump against Umesh. However, Virat Kohli slipped and Rishabh Pant showed quick thinking to take the catch on rebound at second attempt.
Axar got his first wicket three overs later when he got to spin past the outer edge of Yasir Ali and rattle the stumps. The visitors had a chance to get another wicket when Umesh went past Litton Das’ outside edge, but no one heard him. UltraEdge later revealed that there was a spike.
Axar continued to cause problems by getting a sharp turn and bounce to beat Das on the outside edge, while Zakir pulled, steered, and lofted beautifully to keep Bangladesh in the game. Das was fantastic in pulling off a no-ball from Siraj and bringing out the sweep against Ashwin.
He was given a huge reprieve on a lbw decision off Kuldeep when DRS revealed that the impact was the umpire’s call and the on-field decision of not out was upheld. But two overs before tea, Das tried to play the flick on a tossed up delivery from Kuldeep, who had been troubling him. But he got a leading edge and gave a simple catch to Umesh at mid-on, throwing his wicket away.
The final session started with Ashwin beating Mushfiqur Rahim on the outside edge, then the right-hander stepping out to flick the off-spinner through mid-wicket. Zakir swept off Ashwin before attacking Kuldeep with a lofted drive over mid-off. He scored his century by sweeping Ashwin past short fine and soaking in the applause from the dugout and sparse crowd.
His beautifully crafted innings came to an end in the next over when he attempted to defend against Ashwin. The ball, however, took the inside edge and ballooned off the pad towards first slip, where Kohli dived forward for a good low catch.
Shakib Al Hasan made his intentions against Axar clear by smashing him for four and six over the mid-wicket fence. Pant’s one-handed diving catch off Umesh gave Rahim an escape on 22. In the next over, however, he was out when Axar got one to straighten past the outside edge and uproot off-stump.
In the same over, Axar removed Nurul Hasan from the crease, and Pant completed a quick stumping as the batter missed the delivery. As Bangladesh started to panic, Shakib cut through off-side against Axar, and the all-rounder hit two fours off Kuldeep.
Shakib was the one to go after Kuldeep, lofting him inside-out over extra cover for four, followed by a slog-sweep over mid-wicket for six. The duo would hang around for an unbeaten 34-run stand till stumps arrived.
Brief Scores: India 404 in 133.5 overs and 258/2 declared in 61.4 overs lead Bangladesh 150 in 55.5 overs and 272/6 in 102 overs (Zakir Hasan 100, Najmul Hossain Shanto 67, Axar Patel 3/50, Umesh Yadav 1/22) by 241 runs
Source:OCN
