Weather plays foul on day two

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Shahadat Hossain celebrates his five-wicket haul.

CHITTAGONG, Jan 18 (BSS): Weather played foul on the second day as only 24.5 overs was possible as murky condition forced play on the second day of the first test between Bangladesh and India to be abandoned at Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium here today.
When the play was called off, Bangladesh in their first innings were staggering at 59 for three wickets despite making a bright start of 49 for no loss. Sadly a total of 90.1 overs were lost on the first two days.
Before Bangladesh started their batting campaign, it was India that resumed their first innings at overnight 213 for eight. Two things were in everybody's mind whether Sachin Tendulkar would be able to reach another milestone and carry his team into a challenging total (105 not out). While from Bangladesh's point of view one question was in everybody's mind whether Tigers will be able to polish off the Indian tail.
Skipper Shakib started the day with a set plan. He decided to attack the number nine, number ten and number eleven batsmen instead of maestro Sachin Tendulkar. Well the plan worked well as they managed to expose the Indian tailenders to Shahadat and Shakib.
Tendulkar left no stone unturned to stamp his class as he marched on to his 44th Test century, scoring 29 of India's 30 runs on the second day.
Bangladesh efforts to go after Ishant Sharma failed as Tendulkar protrected him well allowing him only six balls to face. Ishant showed that he was not rabbit with the bat as he negotiated those six deliveries quite comfortably as the master batsman (Tendulkar) wasted no time to march on to his deserving century.
Shahadat then decided to change the angle came to bowl round the wicket and that move did the trick as Ishant chased an out going ball and Mushfiqur Rahim made no mistake to gobble it up. Ishant faced 24 deliveries for his one run but provided the much needed support to Tendulkar to complete his milestone.
Shakib Al Hasan, with his sixth five-wicket haul in 15 Tests, quickly polished off the tail, as Sreesanth did not stay long as India were bowled out for 243 runs, their lowest test total against Bangladesh.
Shakib with five for 62 and Shahadat with five for 71 share the Indian spoils.
Tamim Iqbal with 31 and Imrul Kayes with 23 looked in good touch but Indian pacers- Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma came back to reduce the game into balance. Shariar Nafees last only for 4 runs.
One can say honours were shared equally on day two, and none can say they are on top and tomorrow (Tuesday) will be the day with both sides trying to take control of the proceedings.
India 1st innings:
G Gambhir 23, V Sehwag 52, R Dravid 4, SR Tendulkar 105*, VVS Laxman 7, Yuvraj Singh 12, A Mishra 14, Z Khan 11, Sharma 1, S Sreesanth 1.
Total: (all out; 70.5 overs) 243
Bangladesh 1st innings:
Tamim Iqbal 31, Imrul Kayes 23, Shahriar Nafees 4, Mohammad Ashraful not out 0, Raqibul Hasan 1.
Total: (3 wickets; 17 overs) 59.