IND v BAN, One-off Test Day 2 Review: India well and truly on top

Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper was once again in the forefront as he not only went ahead and racked up the runs with his trusted lieutenant Ajinkya Rahane. While Rahane lost his wicket, and perhaps the only wicket to fall, it was quite clear that the spotlight was well and truly on Virat Kohli as well. However, the morning session was dominated by the comedy of errors made by Bangladesh in addition to what happened yesterday with the review.

However, the morning session began with both Kohli and Rahane beginning in earnest with a few massive shots to the fence. The first few minutes saw the duo smash 7 boundaries in the morning session before they went ahead and began playing with a bit of caution when the track began to turn a bit. It was perhaps the only thing that Bangladesh did properly on the day when both Taijul and Mehedi began operating on both ends as well.

However, it was the sublime batting that prevailed as both these batsmen made light work of the visitors and ensured that they also brought up a 200-run partnership, something that is not prevalent in Test matches nowadays. However, despite all of that, Rahane soon fell after that with the track exhibiting a bit of turn. Virat Kohli also barely survived a caught behind as well as a leg-before only for the DRS system to come to his rescue on the day.

Wriddhiman Saha then made his way into the grand scheme of things as he looked to up the ante on the morning only to be one of Mushfiqur Rahim’s stumping victims. However, the decision was overturned when he went ahead and simply did not gather the ball as well as he would have liked. The session ended with Kohli 9 runs adrift of yet another double-century on the day.

While it would only be a matter of time for someone like Virat Kohli to complete a century, the fact of the matter was that the Indians were far from over. Once reaching his double, a wonderful delivery from Taijul ensured that the Indian skipper could do very little about his predicament of falling for a leg-before to the southpaw.

The problems for the Bangladesh bowlers however, was far from over. They now had to deal with Ravi Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha, perhaps India’s best lower middle-order batsmen went ahead and ripped the bowling attack to shreds. However, despite all of this, it was Ashwin who lost his wicket as he attempted one big shot too many, something that brought Ravindra Jadeja to the wicket.

However, Wriddhiman Saha’s impressive batting for India simply ceased to stop as he went ahead and smashed a few sixes as well and concluded the lunch session 17 runs adrift of yet another Test match ton. These runs would eventually be completed in the third and final session with Saha also finishing off in style. This also ensured that there was a lot of impressive batsmanship on the day from the likes of Ravindra Jadeja who helped himself to an impressive 60.

While these two remained unbeaten, there is something about the manner in which Jadeja smashed the sixes, both of which ended up in the second tier of the stands as well. Shortly after, it was India skipper Virat Kohli who took the decision to go ahead and stop the crusade with 687 runs to his name. From the outset, it was Bangladesh who had to make things happen for themselves if they wanted anything out of the encounter.

The Bangladesh innings got off to a decent start on the morning as both Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar ensured that there was little or no room for error in terms of their batting, something that ensured that there was a partnership brewing at the very least. However, there was also an issue when Umesh Yadav made his way into bowl on the day as he struck in his very first over. An inside edge from Soumya Sarkar all the way back to Saha saw no evidence of a wicket.

However, with his gut vibrating as much as it did, the fact was that the review did indeed show that the bat had indeed touched the ball on the way to the keeper. The close of play saw Sarkar as perhaps the only wicket of the session, something that ensured that the Bangladeshis will have their work cut out on the following day’s play.

Brief Scores:

India, 1st innings:  687/6 (V Kohli 204; Taijul 3/156)

Bangladesh, 1st innings: 41/1 (Tamim 24, Umesh 1/2)