India’s left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav ran through the Bangladesh batting order with four wickets in his first six overs to leave the hosts’ reeling at 133/8 at stumps on day two of the first Test at Chattogram on Thursday.
Kuldeep found proper turn and bounce with the ball to pick 4/33, after making a crucial 40, also his highest Test score with the bat. In the morning, after India lost Shreyas Iyer for 86, Kuldeep e shared a 92-run stand with Ravichandran Ashwin (58) for the eighth wicket to take India to 404 in first innings.
In reply, Mohammed Siraj began the proceedings by taking out Najmul Hossain Shanto on the very first ball of the innings and picked two more later, before Kuldeep arrived and pushed India ahead in the match with his four wickets, leaving a cloud of follow-on on Bangladesh’s head as they still trail India by 271 runs.
After a cautious start to the final session, Siraj and Litton Das exchanged a few words with each other. On the very next ball, Siraj got one to jag in slightly and the ball took the bottom edge of Das’s bat to hit the stumps.
Mushfiqur Rahim was solid in his trademark sweep and punch while debutant Zakir Hasan hammered an uppish drive through extra cover off Ashwin. But in the next over, Zakir poked at an outside-off stump delivery and edged behind to keeper.
Captain Shakib Al Hasan did not inspire much confidence in his 25-ball stay at the crease and was caught at first slip off a leg-break being Kuldeep’s second delivery of the match. Nurul Hasan showed signs of aggression with his pulls and lofts, and even got a reprieve when Ashwin shelled a catch at mid-on.
Kuldeep struck when Nurul tried to flick off a leg-break, but Shubman Gill moved swiftly to his right to take a sharp catch at short-leg. In his next over, Kuldeep had two more scalps – spinning past the inside edge of Rahim to trap him plumb lbw on the front pad and cramping Taijul Islam for room with a googly, forcing him to chop on to his stumps.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Ebadot Hossain hit two boundaries each in a 31-run partnership for the ninth wicket to be unbeaten on 16 and 13 respectively at stumps.
Brief Scores: India 404 in 133.5 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 90, Shreyas Iyer 86; Taijul Islam 4/133, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 4/112) lead Bangladesh 133/8 in 44 overs (Mushfiqur Rahim 28, Litton Das 24; Kuldeep Yadav 4/33, Mohammed Siraj 3/14) by 271 runs