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India have put up a completely commanding performance with the bat on the opening day of the second test at Mirpur. The visitors are stunningly placed at 326 for no loss. One might think that the two opening batsmen might have been there unbeaten with big hundreds. But that wasn’t the case at the Shere Bangla National Stadium. India had to use four batsmen to reach that huge score because its openers were done in by the extremely humid conditions at Dhaka. Wasim Jaffer was the lone centurion of the day.
Heavy rains yesterday cast a doubt over the match to start on time but fortunately because of excellent drainage facilities and with the help of the sun and the groundstaff, the second test started on time. Habibul Bashar did the right thing in inserting the Indians to bat first on a track that had some initial help for the pacers. There was the moisture in the wicket to aid lateral movement and there was a cloud cover to begin with to assist some swing bowling. Bangladesh brought in a couple of changes – Mohammad Sharif, a medium pacer coming in for Enamul Haque Jr and Shahadat Hossain falling sick to be replaced by left arm swing bowler Syed Rasel. India gave test match debut for the 18-year-old Ishant Sharma of Delhi by dropping VRV Singh.
It was a good start from the new ball pair of Mortaza and Rasel as they moved the ball around but not with much pace. Wasim Jaffer was a relieved man to get off the mark finally on this tour. Dinesh Karthik had struggled early on with his scoring rate but he did the right thing in biding his time. Karthik got a life when he was on just 2 as he played a Rasel delivery away from his body but a straight forward edge was dropped by Saqibul Hasan at second slip. That was enough to spoil the morale of the bowler and Bangladesh started to leak runs as the Indian batsmen got settled in. Mortaza though was very economical conceding less than a run in his overs. The two openers grinded the bowling to take their team to a solid looking 67 for no loss in the 26 overs bowled in the morning session. Jaffer was getting extremely confident in his strokeplay as he took his score to 40, Karthik was living dangerously on 17.
The post lunch session saw a totally different Dinesh Karthik as the little man started to play freely as he drove constantly on the up. Bangladesh dropped their second catch when Rafique couldn’t hold onto a sitter off his own bowling with Jaffer playing little too early in his backfoot drive. After that lapse, Jaffer tightened up the screw to get past a half century which even Karthik had done. For Dinesh Karthik, it was his fourth half century much to the delight of his wife Nikhita, who was with Wasim Jaffer’s wife Ayesha watching the men put up a century stand for the first wicket. Bangladesh ran out of options, once the ball got old, there was no reverse swing happening from the pacers and the spinners found no joy either. Dinesh Karthik should have been given out caught behind when he had chased a wide delivery when he was on 74 from Mohammad Sharif but Umpire Daryl Harper failed to pick the thin edge. Karthik’s train had finally come to a halt just at the stroke of tea when he had decided to retire hurt owing to cramps and dehydration. Dinesh Karthik left with a personal score of 82 from 153 balls with 12 fours with India at 175 for no loss in the 53rd over.
After Tea, Jaffer, who was on 86 was joined by Rahul Dravid. Jaffer brought up his fourth hundred with his bread and butter flick shot off Rafique for a boundary. The tall right hander showed his fitness levels as he never really looked tired playing ball after ball. Jaffer is known for playing the long innings at the domestic level but even the Mirpur humidity was too good for him as he started to dehydrate quickly. He was on his knees helplessly having got a strokeful 138 from 229 balls with 17 fours. He was replaced with Sachin Tendulkar in the 77th over. Jaffer put on 106 runs with Dravid for the same opening wicket.
At stumps, Rahul Dravid remained unbeaten on 88 from 131 with 11 fours and a six off Ashraful along with Tendulkar, who is on 9 from 31 balls. Bangladesh did a favour by taking the second new ball which has helped the ball to come onto the bat. Having said that, Mashrafe Mortaza had bowled a nice testing spell, working speeds of 135kmph mark to trouble Sachin Tendulkar with a few sharp rising deliveries. The Indians collected as many as 151 runs in the 37.1 overs that were bowled in the final session. At 326 for no loss, India has all the batting powers in the world to bat Bangladesh out of the match. The Indian batsmen have shown the patience and the endurance to play the long innings, now the question is whether the Bangladeshi batsmen can do something like that? The wicket might be flat but the conditions will be testing the batsmen and also the fact that India certainly got a better bowling attack.