With 100 still needed, India has two non-professional hitters in the kink, but the first inning heroes of Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer are yet to come.
Even with the lengthening shadows here at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium on Saturday, there was little hint of an outcome other than a win for the Indians.
Of course, the Bangladesh batters held back in the second inning, with Litton Das (73, 98b, 7x4s) and Zakir Hasan (51, 135b, 4x5s) scoring 145 in a spirited play.
But on a pitch that wasn’t necessarily crumbling, scoring below 150 would have been easy. After all, India went 120-81 against the West Indies in Bridgetown in 1997, and he lost only once before chasing such a small aggregate.
But that was until Bangladesh tried to tell a different story: in an insane final hour, the home bowler put a cat inside a pigeon. First India he reduced to 3 to 18, then Virat he added Kohli’s precious scalps to finally leave the visitors he 4 to 45 and the game was appetizing.
India has two unprofessional hitters in the kink as they still need 100, but the first inning heroes of Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer are yet to come.Shakib Al-Hasan and Taijul Right winger Axar Patel, used in fourth to upset a left-arm spinner at Islam, was undefeated with 26 (54b, 3×4) alongside Jaydev Unadkat, who came in when Kohli went down.
The main destroyer was his Mehidy Hasan (8-3-12-3), an off-spinner, who made a habit of showing up fashionably late throughout the tour and destroying parties of visiting teams. Four of the top hitters each died believing in defense.
Skipper KL Rahul became the first player to return to the pavilion on a deserted road, and after Shakib he recorded his seventh consecutive under-25 finish. Both Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubman Gill he continued his distance to Mehidy but found himself in no man’s land and was bewildered by Nurul Hasan.
Kohli leaned forward to defend against offside, but the ball grabbed the cross and went deep into the short leg, where Mominul Hake threw the ball up and drew cheers. Unsatisfied with some of the words that had been said, Kohli protested to Captain Shakib.
Earlier, when Bangladesh were 71-4 at lunchtime, the game appeared to be over as he was still trailing by 16 points. Zakir he held out one end but had little support. However, Lytton’s lively partnerships on the seventh and eighth wickets with Nurul (46 runs) and Taskin Ahmed (60 runs) respectively gave a decent result on aggregate.
India were also inferior in the field, with the usually reliable Kohli missing three clear-cut chances in the first slip, two against Litton and one against Nurul. Nonetheless, at the moment, nothing seemed to be enough to turn Bangladesh around sharply.By sunset, however, the hosts had turned the script upside down, leaving India on shaky ground.