press trust of india
Fatullah, June 14: Ravi Ashwin (5/87) cast his web with his 10th five-wicket haul and was duly complemented by Harbhajan Singh (3/63) before India settled for a draw against an edgy Bangladesh in the rain-marred one-off cricket Test which ended here Sunday.
With more than 250 overs lost during the entire duration of the match, the visitors would definitely feel unlucky that they didn’t even get three full days of cricket which could have decisively tilted the match in their favour.
Virat Kohli’s boys were superior in all departments and would certainly have a psychological advantage going into the three-match ODI series starting Thursday.
In reply to India’s first innings score of 462 for six, Bangladesh, resuming at 111 for three after the opening session was washed out, faced the ignominy of being shot out for 256 in 65.5 overs – seven runs short of the follow-on target.
In fact, Kohli probably wanted to drive home a point by asking Bangladesh to follow-on in what was an inconsequential final hour of play on the fifth day where only two sessions were possible due to overnight rain.
When play was finally called off, Bangladesh were 23 for no loss in the 15 overs that were bowled in their second innings.
Even though Imrul Keyes (72, 139b, 12×4) emerged the top scorer for Bangladesh, it was the young debutant Litton Kumar Das (44, 45b, 8×4, 1×6) who caught the eye with an entertaining cameo. However, his innings came to an end when he failed to keep down a glide down the leg off Ashwin and was caught by Rohit Sharma at backward short-leg. Another youngster, Soumya Sarkar (37, 54b, 7×4) also showed his prowess with the bat but could not convert his start as he fell to a Varun Aaron toe-crusher.
Earlier Ashwin had dismissed Shakib Al Hasan (nine) caught behind by Wriddhiman Saha and then Harbhajan got rid of Keyes. The opener was beaten in flight as he danced down the track and Saha completed the easy stumping.
