India wrapped up the one-off Test against Bangladesh in some style as the Virat Kohli-led side brushed aside the visitors by 208 runs. The Indian spinners came to the fore on the tiring fifth-day pitch as the visitors found it hard to cope up with the pressure.
Middle-order batsman Mahmudullah was the lone fighter for Bangladesh, but once he was dismissed the rest of the batting fell away in a jiffy and India got to the finishing line on the stroke of Tea.
Captain Virat Kohli was adjudged Man of the Match for his superlative double-century in the first innings.
Here are all the talking points from the day’s play.
#5 Mushfiqur Rahim’s ugly hoick to be dismissed
Bangladesh depended a lot on their captain to save this Test match but Mushfiqur Rahim threw it away on the fifth day with an ugly swipe off the bowling of Ravichandran Ashwin.
Mushfiqur who had scored a fighting and defiant century in the first innings would have to take the blame for this horrendous stroke at a time when his team needed him to dig in and keep the Indian bowlers at bay. He has the game to counter spin and pace and in these conditions, he would have been the ideal batsman for Bangladesh, especially when they had lost Shakib Al Hasan early in the morning.
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However, Rahim looked to play his strokes and ended up playing one stroke too many and perished to wild slog which spelt doom for his side.
#4 Kamrul Islam Rabbi’s blockathon
The right arm seam bowler displayed tremendous defensive technique and in many ways, he showed the top order how to keep out the blowers when one is attempting to draw a Test match.
Kamrul came out to bat at number 9 and he brought to the fore a defensive bat and scored 3 runs in 70 balls and remained unbeaten. He offered a simple technique as he plonked his front foot forward and offered a defensive bat to almost anything and proved to be a real menace for the Indian bowlers.
#3 Ishant Sharma’s spell
On a pitch which offered assistance to the spinner Ishant Sharma stood out as a seamer owing to his relentless accuracy and potent swing, which were both conventional and reverse. He troubled almost all the batsmen after lunch and gave a proper working over to Mahmudullah.
He first accounted for Sabbir Rahman with an in-dipper and found him right in front of the wickets.
He then dished out a barrage of short-pitched deliveries to Mahmudullah and eventually dismissed him with an accurate bumper at the body as the right-hander decided to go for the hook but ended up top edging it and Bhuvneshwar Kumar gobbled it up and fine leg.
Also, he could have got the wicket of Mehedi Hasan Miraz, but Murali Vijay dropped an easy chance at first slip.
#2 The Ashwin-Jadeja combination strikes again
As has been the template all season Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja once again wreaked havoc and the combination picked up 8 wickets in the second innings and kept up the pressure all through and the Bangladesh batsmen had nowhere to go.
With the new ball, Ashwin kept bowling from close of the stumps and looked for the pads or the stumps and as the ball got old he gave the ball a lot more flight which enabled the ball to grip the surface and spin sharply.
Jadeja kept targeting the footmarks outside the left-hander’s off stump and along with the skills of Ashwin they befuddled the batsmen and this combination once again showed why they would be more than a handful to the Australian team which is arriving today.
#1 India’s remarkable run in Test cricket
With this win India has now won their 6th consecutive series and in the process have gone past the previous record of five series wins in 2008-10 under MS Dhoni.
Since August 2015 the Virat Kohli-led Indian side have won away series against Sri Lanka and West Indies, and have beaten South Africa, New Zealand, England and Bangladesh at home.With Australia coming up, India could well extend this amazing record.
Also, the Indian team have gone through 19 consecutive Tests without a defeat, which makes it the fifth-best streak in Test history. West Indies still top this list as they 27 Tests without defeat from 1982 to 1984.
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