Aggressive Gill extends India’s lead to 394 against Tigers at Tea
India further bolstered their position by batting with sustained aggression as they reached 140-1 at tea on day three of the first cricket Test against Bangladesh at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on Friday.
At the second interval of the day, they appeared to bat Bangladesh out completely from the Test, extending their lead to 394 runs.
Bangladesh never successfully chased down 300 runs target in Test cricket.
Opener Shubhman Gill was batting on 80 off 119, smashing eight fours and one six with Cheteshwar Pujara on 33.
Captain KL Rahul was the only batter to be dismissed in the post lunch session after pacer Khaled Ahmed had him caught by Taijul Islam at fine leg on 23 with a short-pitched delivery.
Before being out, Rahul added a 70-run partnership with Gill, who dominated the proceeding after a slow start.
Bangladesh’s situation was also worsened by injury concern as the team’s two vital bowlers—pacer Ebadot Hossain and captain Shakib Al Hasan—were unable to bowl a single over in India’s second innings.
But India made a cautious start after bowling Bangladesh out for 150 and taking a handsome 254 runs lead. India, which put up 404 in their first innings, had an option to enforce follow-on but they chose to bat again in order to throw Bangladesh out of the game completely.
Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam though beat both of the batters quite a few times, was not lucky enough to get any wicket.
Rahul however hit offspinner Mehidy Hasan two boundaries in the last over of the morning session to pace the innings.
But he didn’t last long as he squandered his start again, by being out in 20s for the second consecutive time.
India took little time to remove two Bangladeshi batters early in the morning with Kuldeep Yadav registering his career-best 5-40.
After Bangladesh resumed on 133-8, Kuldeep had Ebadot Hossain stumped for 17 runs to complete his third five-for in test cricket.
Axar Patel (1-10) then wrapped up Bangladesh’s innings, dismissing Mehidy Hasan Miraz for 25, also via stumping.
Source: BSS
