India inch closer towards win despite Litton fifty

Mirpur, Dec 24 (PTI) Axar Patel made life miserable for Bangladesh batters as India closed in on a probable third-day finish, reducing the hosts to 195 for 7 at tea on day three of the second Test here on Saturday.

Litton Das (58 not out) celebrated his maiden IPL contract with KKR by hitting some lusty blows but that was more out of sheer defiance as playing defensive cricket wasn’t an option on this track.

Bangladesh are currently 108 runs ahead and it seems India will consolidate their second position in the World Test Championship table with an expected clean sweep against one of the worst Test-playing nations.

With the pitch offering both turn and bounce with the oddball holding up, Axar (3/58 in 19 overs) became a nightmare for the batters as they had no clue if the ball would turn, jump up or come in with an angle.

Axar had Mushfiqur Rahim (9) playing for a straighter one and in turn, being fooled by the inward angle.

On the other hand, Nurul Hasan (31 off 29 balls), who played a breezy counter-attack inning, was beaten by flight and then by the classical outward turn off Axar’s delivery as Rishabh Pant effected a smart stumping.

Ravichandran Ashwin (1/60 in 20 overs ), Jaydev Unadkat (1/17 in 9 overs), Mohammed Siraj (1/21 in 6 overs) and Umesh Yadav (1/32 in 9 overs) were also among wickets despite Bangladesh batters playing positively during the second session where they scored over 100 runs.

The depth of Indian bowling was too much for Bangladesh to handle as their opener and best batter of the series Zakir Hasan (51 off 135 balls) fought well till lunch but then lost concentration to slash Umesh hard only to find Siraj at deep third man.

In the morning session, India got four wickets to set the tone of the proceedings.

First, 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 then 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. However, the ball was not on a fuller length and climbed a bit on the Bangladesh captain. The result was a simple catch to Shubman Gill at cover.

It is the second time that Shakib has misjudged the length of deliveries and played cover drives to get out in this series.

Unadkat was brilliant in the morning as he got the extra bounce which created doubts in the minds of the batters on a regular basis. Shakib was fooled as Unadkat bowled three different lengths with the Bangladesh skipper not understanding which one was at a 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.