India, Bangladesh share dull day's spoils by Jinu Sabastian

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Ground:	Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong
Scorecard:	Bangladesh v India
Player:	Shakib Al Hasan, SR Tendulkar, Shahadat Hossain
Event:	India in Bangladesh 2009/10

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DateLine: 18th January 2010

 

Bangladesh and India shared the honours on a truncated day, the second of the first Test. Hosts Bangladesh managed to dismiss India for 243 while the Indian bowlers struck back to reduce them to 59 for 3 before bad light halted play.

 

Earlier, resuming at 213 for 8, the Indians were on the lookout for some quick runs. Sachin Tendulkar farmed the strike expertly and when the opportunity presented itself, he opened up. He reached the nineties with a brace of boundaries and when Ishant Sharma edged an untiring Shahadat Hossain behind the stumps. The medium-pacer claimed his second five-wicket haul and it seemed that Tendulkar might be stranded. Sreesanth kept his head as he kept out Shakib and then Tendulkar reached his 44th Test century when he guided a Shahadat delivery past gully. Sreesanth soon was dismissed when he got a leading edge of Shakib as the stand-in captain claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his Test career.

 

Bangladesh in reply, got off to a flier as Tamim Iqbal (31, 45 balls, 6x4) went after the bowling. The belligerent left-hander was harsh on Indian spearhead Zaheer Khan as he took the veteran apart with some cracking boundaries through covers. Imrul Kayes took his time to gauge the pace of the pitch and once he settled down he too took on the Indian bowlers. The opening pair added 53 in 14.4 overs when the Indian bowlers got their line and length right.

 

Zaheer and Ishant did their part in slowing down the scoring with some tight bowling as the Bangladeshi batsmen began to get restless. Finally Zaheer nailed Imrul (23, 46 balls, 5x4) with a fuller one right in front of the stumps and the Ishant got into the act. In the very next over he squared up Shahriar Nafees who edged to VVS Laxman at second slip. The trouble did not end there for Bangladesh as Zaheer then rattled Tamim's furniture as Bangladesh suffered a familiar collapse.

 

The light soon deteriorated. No play was possible post tea and play was eventually called off.