Virat Kohli became the first Indian cricketer to score a hundred in day-night Test and Ishant Sharma bowled yet another fiery spell as India are on the brink of their fourth successive innings victory in a Test match. At the end of Day Two of the Eden Gardens Test, Bangladesh trail the hosts by 89 runs with four wickets in hand.
Kohli scored 136 as India declared at 347-9 before Ishant took four wickets to leave the visitors reeling at 152-6 in their second innings at the Stumps. At one point they were tottering at 13 for 4 as the Bangladesh top order looked like a fish out of water against the swinging pink ball in the much-talked-about twilight period on Saturday (November 23).
Ishant got the breakthrough on the fifth ball, trapping Shadman Islam before Bangladesh could open their account. The lanky pacer then returned and sent back Bangladesh skipper Mominul Haque, who bagged a pair in this historic Test match.
Soon Umesh Yadav goes into the act and accounted for Mohammad Mithun after tea before Ishant got rid of Imrul Kayes to leave Bangladesh reeling. At that point, the Test match seemed like a two-day affair.
However, from Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim did put up some resistance with a counter-attacking partnership. They played their shots and got runs at a brisk pace. Unfortunately the fifty-run plus stand ended only when the former retired hurt due to a tweaked hamstring.
Mehidy Hasan (15) and Taijul Islam (22) got starts but were removed by Ishant and Umesh, respectively. At the other end Mushfiqur did continue his innings but he was losing out partners. Meanwhile, the former skipper was given out LBW twice before he successfully reviewed it and got the decision in his favour. At stumps, Mushfiqur remained unbeaten at 59.
Earlier, resuming his innings at 59, skipper Kohli looked at his sublime best as he brought up his 27th Test century. His deputy Ajinkya Rahane (51) too looked in good touch, striking his fourth successive half-century.
Rahane was undone in by some extra bounce as he top-edged a Taijul Islam delivery and was caught at point. But Kohli continued to dominate proceedings and become the first Indian skipper to go past the 5000-run mark in the longest format, en route to his 70th International hundred in front of close to 41,000 people at the iconic Eden in Kolkata.
It took a stunning one-handed catch by Taijul in the deep fine-leg region off Ebadat Hossain’s bowling to remove the Indian skipper from the crease.
The home team eventually declared their innings at 347-9, with a healthy lead of 241 runs just as Bangladesh’s pacers were beginning to get some movement with the second new ball.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 152/6 & 106 all out (Mushfiqur Rahim 59 batting, Mahmudullah 39; Ishant Sharma 4/39) trail India 347/9 decl (Virat Kohli 136, Cheteshwar Pujara 55; Al-Amin Hossain 3/85) by 89 runs.
