Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer will be ruing missed hundreds and a chance to put India in complete control of the second Test in Dhaka on Friday after Bangladesh took quick wickets to keep alive their chances of levelling the series.
Star all-rounder Shakib al-Hasan stepped up to claim three wickets in the final session on day two just when his side could see the game slipping away.
India finished their innings on 314, squeaking out an 87-run lead, but would have expected a much bigger tally when they resumed after tea on 226-4 with both Pant and Iyer having posted half-centuries.
Bangladesh reduced that lead to 80 by stumps, ending the day without losing a wicket with openers Najmul Hossain Shanto on five and Zakir Hasan on 2.
“If we could have given less runs during that pe-riod even without getting a wicket we could have been in a better place,” Bangladesh spinner Taijul Islam, who cleared the top order to make 4-74, said of the second session.
“Still, I would say we are not in a very bad posi-tion,” he told reporters.
Pant and Iyer hit aggressive half-centuries to take India past Bangladesh’s first innings total but both fell agonisingly short of their hundreds as India lost their last six wickets for 61 runs.
Their partnership came to an end after they guided India to 253, with Pant hitting 93 off 104 balls and Iyer amassing his 87 off 105 deliveries.
Pant had been at his best, hitting five sixes and seven fours in his 11th Test fifty, before edging Mehidy Hasan for a sharp catch behind the stumps.—AFP
