close
close

India's batting attack delivers stunning win over Bangladesh in rain-soaked Test | Cricket News

India beat Bangladesh by 146 and then reached 98-3 in 17.2 overs in a match lost to rain for more than two days.

India won a race against time to register a remarkable seven-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the rain-soaked second Test match.

Yashasvi Jaiswal struck 51 as India, needing 95 for victory, reached 98-3 in just 104 balls in the second session of the final day in Kanpur.

A draw became apparent as the game progressed after two and a half days were lost due to bad weather and only 35 overs were played in the first three days at Green Park Stadium.

Jaiswal reached his second fifty of the game in 43 balls, including eight fours and a six, before losing to Taijul Islam and ending a 58-run stand with Virat Kohli.

Former captain Kohli scored 29 and was there at the end when Rishabh Pant reached the winning boundary.

Bangladesh spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz had earlier dismissed Rohit Sharma for eight and Shubman Gill for six.

India capitalized on Jaiswal's 72-run blitz in the first innings to force a result in a game that saw no play on Saturday and Sunday due to rain and a wet outfield.

India captain Rohit said his team wanted to force a result despite the loss of time.

“We had to think a lot to move the game forward,” Rohit said after the game.

Bangladesh continued their second innings at 26-2 but the batting fell apart during the first session with opener Shadman Islam topping the score with 50. The hosts edged Bangladesh by 146 points before lunch on the final day.

Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin came through in the third over of the day when he caught first-innings centurion Mominul Haque at leg slip from KL Rahul for two.

Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, who took his 300th Test wicket on Monday, struck in his first over of the day as he bowled Najmul, who had made 19.

Shadman reached his fifty off 97 balls but almost immediately fell to fast bowler Akash Deep.

Jadeja also took the wicket of experienced all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, catching and bowling without scoring in what could be the former captain's final Test for Bangladesh.

India's bowlers, particularly Jasprit Bumrah and spin duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, smashed 146 against Bangladesh on the final day [Money Sharma/AFP]

“We didn’t bat well,” admitted Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto.

“If you look at all of our batters, they hit 30 to 40 balls and then got out. It’s important for a batsman to score big runs.”

Even after India beat Bangladesh by 233 on the fourth day, few expected a result until India came out to bat for the first time.

Opener Rohit himself led from the front, hitting sixes on the first two balls he faced, and India surpassed Bangladesh's total in 28 overs by a score unprecedented in Test cricket.

At the end of the fourth day, India declared their innings at 285-9 and even eliminated both Bangladesh openers.

“Coming into the fourth day, we wanted to get them out as early as possible and see what we could do with the bat,” Rohit told reporters.

“It was a risk we were willing to take… when you try to bat like that it's very easy to get caught offside even for a low score. Even if we gave it our all with 150 points, we wanted to give ourselves the chance to get a result.”

Earlier on Monday, it was stunning batting as India reached 50 in three overs, 100 in 10.1 overs and 200 in 24.2 overs – the fastest ever by a Test team.

The series win extends India's lead at the top of the World Test Championship rankings over second-place Australia.