India make inroads as Bangladesh reach 176 for 3 at tea

Chattogram: Zakir Hasan batted with dogged determination but Kuldeep Yadav put India ahead by dismissing Litton Das as Bangladesh looked a tad unsettled having reached 176 for 3 at tea on the fourth day of the opening Test Saturday.

Zakir, who had recently played a big role in a drawn ‘Test’ against India A, showed the admirable defensive technique to remain unbeaten on 82.

But it was left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep, who enticed the profligate Litton with a flighted delivery. The batter couldn’t reach to the pitch of the delivery and an ugly scoop landed straight in the hands of Umesh Yadav at mid-on to provide India with an upper hand after a wicket-less pre-lunch session.

Umesh also had a hand in drawing the first blood after a record opening stand of 124 between Zakir and Najmul Hossain Shanto (67).

Umesh finally got the breakthrough as Shanto’s 156-ball resilience came to an end. A fuller delivery outside the off-stump found the left-handed opener poking at it indecisively. Shanto could have still been lucky as the ball popped out of first slip fielder Virat Kohli’s grasp but Rishabh Pant dived full stretch to his left and caught it on second attempt.

The first blood did bring about a second success quickly as Axar Patel  (15-5-22-1) bowled on off-middle channel and the burly Yasir Ali’s wrong technique became his undoing. As he lunged forward to play the forward defensive shot, Yasir didn’t cover his off-stump and was bowled.

Umesh (12-2-22-1)in the post-lunch session bowled a beautiful spell with the old Kookaburra, getting the odd ball to reverse and some of the deliveries that Zakir decided to leave on length could have hit the off-stump but he was lucky.

The second session yielded only 52 runs and belonged to India.

In the first session, Zakir and Shanto batted with a lot of purpose as their gritty half-centuries helped Bangladesh reach 119 for no loss by lunch.

The two left-handers showed a lot more application on a track that still looks good for batting.

Incidentally, the century-plus stand by Zakir and Shanto is the highest by any opening pair against India in Test matches.

Hasan and Shanto hit eight and seven boundaries respectively as the Indian bowling attack didn’t look menacing during the first hour.

Both pacers Mohammed Siraj (15-3-46-0) and Umesh didn’t bowl too many wicket-taking balls.

Umesh, especially bowled short and wide as Zakir slashed him over deep third man while Shanto imperiously pulled the veteran pacer behind square.

Shanto also hit back-to-back boundaries off Siraj — a beautiful on-drive which was followed by a flick towards square leg boundary.

However, the best shot of the morning was played by Zakir when he lofted Ravichandran Ashwin (18-2-55-0) inside out over extra cover to disturb the off-spinner’s length.

With the track not showing any considerable wear and tear, Ashwin, who normally requires a bit of assistance from 22 yards, didn’t really trouble the batters.

Zakir and Shanto didn’t attack Ashwin but also didn’t let him settle down to one length by rotation of strike with singles.

At this point, India doesn’t need to press the panic button but with a little help from the pitch, the worrying factor will be if the home team top-order bats long enough to save the game.

Against Ashwin and Axar Patel, both the openers were plonking their front foot and smothering any little bit of turn that could be on offer.

The only person who is getting some turn is Kuldeep Yadav but wrist spinners are normally known to take pitch out of equation when it comes to deviation of the surface.

The frustration was palpable as Siraj during his second spell of the morning started sledging Shanto, who did the right thing by not retaliating and smiling back at the Indian speedster.