Picture : BCCI / X
Talented opener Yashasvi Jaiswal scored another half-century as India in a sensational way beat Bangladesh by seven wickets in the weather-hit second Test to make a clean sweep of the two-Test series .
It was one of the most exhilarating performances by the Indian team despite losing more than 200 overs of play with two days of complete wash-out. The outright victory consolidated India’s pole position in the ICC World Test Championship Table (WTC) with 74.24 percentage points.
India, after dismissing Bangladesh for 146 runs in the second innings, thanks to three-wicket hauls by Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah, achieved the victory target of 95 runs in 17.2 overs, with Jaiswal and Kohli scoring 51 and unbeaten 29 runs respectively.
Earlier, Ashwin (3/50), Jadeja (3/34) and Bumrah (3/17) broke the back of the Bangladesh batting, allowing them the addition of just 120 runs to their overnight total of 26/2.
Overnight batter Shadman Islam was the highest scorer for Bangladesh in the second innings, scoring 50 runs.
The lunch session was extended by nearly an hour to complete Bangladesh’s innings.
Bangladesh were bundled out for 233 in their first innings before India scored a quick-fire 285/9 and declared their innings on Monday in a match in which two days were completely lost due to a wet outfield.
For Bangladesh, opener Shadman Islam (50) and former skipper Mushfiqur Rahim (37) were the only batters who offered some resistance while others succumbed to relentless pressure from the home bowlers after a top notch batting performance to make a match of it.
The biggest disappointment was Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto’s reckless reverse sweep off Jadeja that opened the floodgates.
After Ashwin removed first innings centurion Mominul Haque in the firsts few minutes, Jadeja broke the back of Bangladeshi middle-order with his sizzling performance, while Bumrah also contributed to the win with his incisive bowling that resulted in three wickets.
India, who had a 52-run first innings lead, knocked off the required 95 runs in 17.2 overs after losing Rohit Sharma (8) and Shubhman Gill (6) to off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz.
Jaiswal and Virat Kohli (29 not out) shared a 58-run stand for the third wicket.
Like the first inninngs, Rohit and Jaiswal went after the Bangladeshi bowlers even as the home skipper departed early when his sweep off Miraz landed straight into the hands of Hasan Mahmud. Shubman Gill was also trapped by Miraz.
Kohli worked the ball around to go steady, while Jaiswal also batted with maturity to complete his second successive half-century. With just three runs required to complete the win, Jaiswal went after Taijul Islam and ended up giving a catch to Shakib at extra cover.
Rishabh Pant (4) finished the game in style with a boundary off Taijul.
