Bangladesh left reeling at 71 for 4 at lunch

Mirpur, Dec 24 (PTI) Indian bowlers made a confident start on third morning getting three Bangladesh wickets as the hosts huffed and puffed their way to 71 for 4 at lunch in the second Test here on Saturday.

The impressive Zakir Hasan (37 batting) fought well but Ravichandran Ashwin (1/26), Mohammed Siraj (1/21) and Jaydev Unadkat (1/11) were all in the business while Axar Patel (1/2) was dangerous as ever during that morning session.

Bangladesh are currently 16 runs short of making India bat again in the second innings.

Najmul Hossain Shanto (5) was trapped plumb in-front by Ashwin to a ball that skidded and beat his defence.

It was the dangerous Mominul Haque (5) who misjudged the length of a Siraj delivery which was pitched on back of length and climbed up to take a faint nick into Rishabh Pant’s gloves.

Shakib Al Hasan (13) tried to drive a Jaydev Unadkat delivery that wasn’t on fuller length and climbed a bit on the Bangladesh captain. The result was a simple catch to Shubman Gill at cover.

It was second time that Shakib had misjudged the length of deliveries and played cover drives to get out.

Unadkat was brilliant in the morning as he got that extra bounce which created doubts in the minds of the batters on a regular basis. Shakib was basically fooled as he bowled three different lengths and he didn’t understand which one was on drivable length.

Only Zakir tried to get under the bounce and hit him over third man for a boundary but the wily Rajkot man changed the length and beat the opener in a nice little duel.

The other Indian bowler who literally tormented the Bangladeshi batters was Axar as he got turn, bounce and also kept his lines straight enough to sow seeds of doubts in their minds.

The batters didn’t know whether to play for turn or straighter one. Mushfiqur Rahim (9) thought he was defending one straight but it came in with angle to catch on the back-foot. Every alternate delivery in that over either turned away or came back in.