Riding on the back of a classy century by skipper Virat Kohli, India declared their first innings at 347 for 9 having established a lead of 241 runs over Bangladesh which stared at innings defeat on the second day of the day-night pink ball Test at Eden Garden in Kolkata on Saturday.
Seeking to wipe the first innings defeat, Bangladesh in their second innings immediately plunged into trouble losing opener Shadman Islam and captain Mominul Haque in less than three overs with just two runs on the scoreboard.
Both the batsmen falling to pace man Ishant Sharma who took five wickets for 22 runs on Friday.
Neither Shadman, who was trapped leg before in the very first over, nor Mominul, who was caught by wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha in the third over, could open their account. This was the second consecutive duck by Mominul after he failed to get off the mark in the first innings on Friday.
India, resuming their first innings at the overnight score of 173 for 3, dominated the first session this afternoon. Despite spinner Taijul Islam's steady bowling, Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja put on 109 without taking risks. The only wicket to fall in this session was that of Indian Test Vice Captain Ajinkya Rahane and that too was more due to a false stroke than anything else.
Rahane's fine form continued as India resumed their innings as he on-drove Taijul for four and then flicked him for a single to bring up his fourth consecutive fifty, the 22nd of his career in addition to 11 hundreds.
Rahane fell in a most anti-climactic way to Tajul who sent a rank long hop, inviting the batsman to cut it for four. However, the ball bounced more than Rahane expected and the attempted cut lobbed to Ebadot at point. For the first time in the Kolkata Test, a spinner got a wicket.
Kohli brought up his 27th century by flicking Taijul between mid-wicket and square-leg for two. It was the Indian skipper’s 27th Test hundred.
Kohli established total command over all Bangladesh bowlers and was particularly severe on pacer Abu Jayed hitting him for four consecutive boundaries in one over which yielded a total of 19 runs.
It was in the post-supper break that Bangladesh bowlers tasted success taking out four Indian wickets, three of them by pacemen Al-Amin Hossain and Abu Jayed.
Jayed struck with the second ball after the supper break by making Jadeja shoulder arms to a ball that remained straight and hit off stump.
Bangladesh took the second new pink ball after 80 overs and Ebadot Hossain immediately got the prize wicket of Kohli who fell to a fantastic catch by Taijul.
Kohli failed to keep a flick off Ebadot on the ground and Taijul, some distance within from the ropes, leapt to his wrong side and pulled off a two-handed catch. Kohli departed for 136 made of 194 balls with 18 boundaries and India were 308/6 in 80.3 overs.
Ebadot, however, was erratic in the 85th over when he bowled one outside leg that went for four byes and then R Ashwin flicked and pulls him for two fours before he bowled a wide outside off, followed by four byes way, way outside the leg. That over cost Bangladesh 17 runs, raising the question if Ebadot was having problems trying to control the pink ball.
For Bangladesh, Al-Amin Hossain (3/85), Ebadot Hossain (3/91) and Abu Jayed (2/77) took eight of India’s nine wickets while Tajul got just one. Ends
