The hint of fight that the Bangladeshi pacers showed on Thursday slowly dissipated into an abject capitulation of the batting unit against an Indian attack which didn’t give an inch.
The class of Jasprit Bumrah (4/50) has been way too much to handle for even the best batters in world cricket in recent times, and the brittle Bangladeshi batting lineup merely added a footnote to the long list.
After being bowled out for 149 in their first innings, Bangladesh conceded a lead of 227, which left fans in Chennai with tickets for Saturday’s play ecstatic. The party mood was sullied just a bit late in the day by the back-to-back failures of Rohit Sharma (5) and Virat Kohli (17).
Kohli, though, had got an inside edge as he missed a flick off off-spinnner Mehidy Hasan Miraz to be adjudged leg-before, but strangely he didn’t ask for a referral.
At stumps, entertainers Rishabh Pant (batting 12) and Shubman Gill (batting 33) were at the crease, the lead already going to 308 with seven wickets still in play. While the first half of the morning session didn’t go as planned for India, with Ravindra Jadeja (86) missing out on a deserved century, the rest of the day was a master-versus-novice mismatch.
That Bumrah (4/50) would be dangerous was a foregone conclusion. What made it a difficult watch for those who were looking forward to some competition was the lack of application of the Bangladeshi batters.
The procession started in the first session itself when left-hander Shadman Islam shouldered arms to Bumrah bowling around the wicket and was bowled. The bounce and the movement that Bumrah generated from good length accounted for Mushfiqur Rahim, who edged one to slip, while the tail was merely cannon fodder.
Akash Deep leaves an impression
While Bumrah was doing what he usually does, it was Bengal pacer Akash Deep’s spell that left a mark. It’s true that left-handers Zakir Hasan and Mominul Haque aren’t exactly big-league material, but Akash Deep hit the right length from the word go. The 27-year-old — who is very much in the reckoning for a berth in the Test squad for the Australia series — got the ball to cut back enough and to dismiss Mominul and Zakir as Bangladesh were reduced to 22-3 before lunch.
Bangladesh paceman Taskin Ahmed acknowledged that the batting left a lot to be desired. But he felt that the SG ball, too, played its part in the Bangladesh capitulation. “The Indian players are used to playing with the SG ball. It does quite a bit in the first 10 overs and we probably were unable to adapt. A better performance was expected from our batters,” he said.
With the back of the Bangladesh beating well and truly broken in the first session itself, it was on Litton Das and Shakib Al Hasan to stage a comeback. Both have the experience of playing in India and for a while, the duo seemed to give them a bit of hope. But it’s their tendency to sweep a little too much against spinners which brought about their downfall.
