Spoilsport Rain leads to an Imminent Draw, India v Bangladesh, Test - Match Report

Spoilsport Rain leads to an Imminent Draw, India v Bangladesh, Test – Match Report: The first and the solitary test of the series between Bangladesh and India had been mostly intervened by the showers from the Rain Gods. And, thus the test was led to an imminent draw despite and audacious attempt by the Indians to sneak victory on the final day from the slightest of the chances. But time coupled with weather turned out to be the barrier for the Indian team. However, there has been a number of positives gained by both the teams in the test match.

Winning the toss, India opted to bat first at Fatullah. But there were darkening forecasts of rain playing the spoilsport and things went as forecasted. We had limited amount of cricket in the test to witness a decider. Only 183 overs could be played in the test. The opening partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay was simply phenomenal and they managed to attack the Bangladeshi bowlers right from the word go. Rain intervened a number of times in the first day but there were bulk of Cricketing actions being witnessed in the day. Dhawan played brilliantly and out of the 56 overs, India managed to crunch in 239 runs for no loss on the board. It was a sensational double centurion partnership by the two, their second in the history. Dhawan became the sole player after Virender Sehwag to score over 150 runs for India in the first day of the test. India made up for the lost overs by their intensified aggressive instincts with the bat.

However, when cricket comes up against the rain, the rain always ends up being on the winning side. There was no play in the second day of the test, courtesy of the dark clouds that hovered above the ground and the water that they spill over. There were some interrupted sessions of play on the third day of the test and India carried on with the aggression. The first wicket for India fell at the score of 283 runs when Dhawan was dismissed for 173 runs off 195 deliveries with 23 boundaries.

Murali Vijay went onto score a brilliant century. Shakib managed to sneak in a couple of breakthroughs for Bangladesh in real quick time. Just when the Indians were looking to get troubled, Ajinkya Rahane stood up and played his part with a blistering knock. On a rather unfortunate note, he missed his century by just 2 runs and the right handed middle order batsman was dismissed at the score of 98 runs from 103 deliveries.

Finally, India were poised at 462 runs for the loss of 6 wickets at stumps of the day. Without wasting any time in the next day, India declared their innings at the score. And were up for all attack to sneak in a victory from minimal of the chances. But there were a number of rain stoppages even in the fourth day’s play. Bangladesh were poised at the score of 111 runs for the loss of 3 wickets at stumps on day 4.

On the fifth day, there was play, spot on right from the first session. India upped the ante and the spinning duo of Harbhajan Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin kept the batsmen under acute pressure. Harbhajan took 3 wickets in the innings and became the 9^th highest wicket taker in tests with 415 wickets by his name at the moment. Ashwin’s fifer managed to bundle the Bangladeshi innings for a total of 256 runs. Follow on was being enforced over the Bangladesh and with around 20-25 overs of play, India bounced onto grump into the flickering chances of victory.

However, they failed to strike a single wicket in the first 15 overs and after that play was called off and the test ended in a draw.

It was rather disheartening from the perspective of the Indians that they lost the chance to fetch an obvious victory. However, as per Bangladesh’s perspectives, they advance statistically as a result of this test. India and Bangladesh have played 8 tests so far as of now and 6 of them has been won by India and Bangladesh managed to draw two of them, including this one.

Shikhar Dhawan was adjourned the Man of the Match for his sensational knock.

Match Summary:

India – 462/6 dec. in 103.3 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 173, Murali Vijay 150, Shakib Al Hasan 4/105)

Bangladesh – 256/10 in 65.5 overs (Imrul Kayes 72, Ravichandran Ashwin 5/87)

Bangladesh – following on, 23/0 in 15 overs (Tamim Iqbal 16*)

Match Drawn