Bangladesh go down fighting against India

FE Team | Published: January 22, 2010 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Mushfiqur Rahim exults on reaching his maiden Test century-fastest ton for a Bangladeshi.

CHITTAGONG, Jan 21 (BSS): Mushfiqur Rahim's century went in vain as India stamped their authority as a superior team when they recorded a 113-run victory in the first Idea Cup Test on the fifth and final day at Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium here today.
The second test will begin at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka on January 23.
Bangladesh, set 415 to win, resumed their chase today at 67 for two wickets, needing 348 for victory while India needed eight wickets to go one up in the two-match series.
One thought it would be a tall order for Bangladesh to score round 350 against a seasoned India attack on a wearing pitch. To make things worse some of the Bangladesh batsmen's approach with the willow was pathetic.
Only the diminutive vice captain Mushfiqur Rahim showed everyone if you have determination you can play to excel. Despite his knock - the fastest hundred for a Bangladesh player - alongside the tail, they could not last until the final session.
If only some of the earlier batsmen showed some responsibility probably Bangladesh could at least have drawn the first test and throughout day the pitch looked pretty good for batting only if anybody wanted to apply himself and it was quite evident there was no demon on the wicket.
It would not be wrong to say that it was the batsmen who let the Bangladesh bowlers down. Bowlers did their part to restrict India's first innings to 243 but Tiger batsmen playing some real ordinary shots allowed India bowlers to wrap up the innings from 228 for seven to 242 all out.
In the second essay, none of the batsmen showed either the aptitude or the inclination to bat out long periods on a flat pitch and on a day where bad light was bound to cut the day short if only they would have batted for an hour.
Bangladesh started the day showing some efforts to prolong their innings. Overnight batsman Mohammad Ashraful survived two slashes and edges in the first three overs, but failed to take any lesson and lazily drove an Ishant delivery and Dravid at the slip made no mistake to hang on the offering by the former Bangladesh skipper for 27 runs off 27 balls, not allowing the crowd to understand whether he was batting in test or ODI.
Raqibul Hasan showed the willingness to fight it out, even taking a blow on the elbow, but Ishant's turned out to be too good for him as he was trapped plumb in front for 13.
Opener Tamim Iqbal, known for his flamboyant innings, concentrated hard and quelled his natural game for the first hour. But just before the lunch break, Tamim played a lazy shot off Sehwag to spoil all his good work. He scored 52 off 122 deliveries.
India 243 (Tendulkar 105, Sehwag 52, Shakib 5-62, Shahadat 5-71) and 413 for 8 dec. (Gambhir 116, Laxman 69, Mishra 50) beat Bangladesh 242 (Mahmudullah 69, Zaheer 3-54, Mishra 3-66) and 301 (Mushfiqur 101, Tamim 52, Mishra 4-92, Ishant 3-48) by 113 runs.