India look confident to win Day-Night Test against Bangladesh and clinch Two Match Test Series

After Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rang the clubhouse bell to signal the start of the match, India made Bangladesh all out for a paltry 106 runs in just 30.3 overs about forty minutes after lunch.

Coming to bat India survived an early hiccup as openers Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma made their exits in 5th and 13th over after scoring 14 and 21 runs respectively.

While Mayank was caught by substitute Mehdi Hasan who came to field in place of injured Litton Das, Rohit has adjudged LBW off Ebadat Hossain. But Cheteswar Pujara,  who came one down, and skipper Virat Kohli took the charge and batted confidently to take India to a comfortable position.

With a  nearly capacity crowd watching the historic match being played with pink ball, Pujara and Kohli batted prudently and took the total to 137 adding 94 runs in their third-wicket partnership before Pujara was caught by Shadman Islam off Ebadat Hossain. Pujara  scored  55 off 105 deliveries and hit eight bounderies.

The exit of Pujara saw Ajinkya Rahane joining Kohli and the duo remained not out scoring 23 and 59 respectively. Kohli hit eight bounderies off 93 balls while Rahane sent the ball to fence three times playing 22 balls.

Earlier Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque called correctly and opted to bat. But none of the Bangladesh batsmen could withstand the  Indian pace and swing and fell cheaply at regular intervals.

While Ishant Sharma, who began the Indian attack,  bagged five wickets conceding only 22 runs off 12 overs, Umesh Yadav earned three scalps giving 29 runs off seven overs. 

Local favourite Md. Shami got two Bangla wickets for 29 runs during his bowling for 10.3 rpt 10.3 overs.

However, opener Shadman Islam and veteran Litton Das tried to put up some fight which helped Bangladesh to ross the 100 run mark.

While Islam scored 29, highest by any Bangla batsman in this innings, before he was caught by Wriddhiman Saha in the 15th over, Litton retired hurt after he was hit on his helmet by an Md Shami delivery in the 20th over. Litton , who was playing comfortably till he was hit, made 24.  Litton has been taken to a city hospital for scanning the result of which was not known till filing of this report.

The visitor team received an early jolt when their opener Imrul Kayes was declared LBW off Ishant Sharma in the eighth over of the day with Bangladesh total reading only 15.

The visitors never been able to recover after that and lost wickets at regular interval.

Only Nayeem Hasan, apart from Shadman Islam and Litton Das,  tried to arrest the landslide and was the last visitors’ batsman to be out.  But his effort also came to an end when he was bowled by Ishant Sharma after scoring 19  hitting four bounderies.

After winning the earlier test match at Indore convincingly, India looked confident to force another easy win to clinch the two-match test series here.

(Reporting by Manik Banerjeefrom Eden Gardens)