India 285 for 9 dec (Jaiswal 72, Rahul 68, Mehidy 4-41, Shakib 4-78) and 98 for 3 (Jaiswal 51, Kohli 29*, Mehidy 2-44) beat Bangladesh 233 (Mominul 107*, Bumrah 3-50) and 146 (Shadman 50, Bumrah 3-17, Jadeja 3-34, Ashwin 3-50) by seven wickets
Less than 24 hours after sparking off a near-unthinkable push for victory in a game in which only 35 overs had been bowled in the first three days, India’s batters completed the task they had started by smashing down their target of 95 in just over an hour. The highlight of India’s performance on Tuesday came from another record-breaker from the fourth day; Ravindra Jadeja‘s triple-strike started a slide for Bangladesh in an extended first session, in which they were bowled out for 146. India lost three wickets in pursuit before Rishabh Pant hit the winning runs in the chase set up by a 43-ball fifty from Yashasvi Jaiswal, and extended their lead at the top of the WTC points table with a 2-0 series sweep.
The 312 balls India batted for in this Test is the second-fewest they have faced – and the fourth-fewest overall – to win a Test match, behind the 281 against South Africa in Cape Town earlier this year.
Bangladesh started the day on 26 for 2, and with Jadeja starting things off in the company of Akash Deep, suffered a collapse of 7 for 55. R Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah also finished with three each. Jadeja first broke the stubborn stand of 55 between Najmul Hossain Shanto and Shadman Islam when he struck in three successive overs, also sending back Litton Das and Shakib Al Hasan. Bangladesh went from 91 for 3 to 94 for 7. After that, Bumrah wiped out the tail. There were no demons in the pitch, no vicious turn, just tight and skiddy bowling from Jadeja and the mounting pressure.
Bangladesh were trailing by 26 when the day of 98 overs started and it was Ashwin who struck first. After using the sweep effectively in his unbeaten century in the first innings, Mominul Haque fell to the same shot when he handed a catch to leg slip for 2. Many might have expected Bangladesh to buckle under pressure but Shadman replied with a string of boundaries against Ashwin. He struck three confident cover drives and a back-foot cut for four fours in seven balls against Ashwin, which gave Bangladesh confidence and the lead.
A few loose deliveries from Mohammed Siraj leaked a few more boundaries; he was struck for two fours each by Shadman and Shanto in his opening spell, although one of them would have been a chance had third slip been in place.
It’s possible Jadeja was the last one to get the ball because only left-hand batters had been at the crease. But it took him only two balls to strike. Shanto missed a reverse sweep on his first ball against Jadeja to lose his leg stump before the bowler extracted extra bounce on a pitch that has been keeping low to have Litton caught behind on the cut for 1. Between those two overs, Akash Deep pitched one up to Shadman soon after the batter’s half-century, and the push to gully ended his 101-ball stay.
Jadeja was all over Bangladesh by now. In his third over he sent back Shakib with an innocuous delivery bowled slow through the air, which Shakib only chipped back to give Jadeja figures of 2.2-1-3-3 early in his spell.
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With Bangladesh seven down for 94, Rohit Sharma brought back Bumrah and the spearhead did his job straightaway. His third ball of the fresh spell was a beauty that got Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s edge. It was only Mushfiqur Rahim who delayed the inevitable, extending the lead towards 100. He saw off the quicks and belted two back-to-back fours against Jadeja.
Bumrah trapped Taijul Islam lbw to extend the first session at the stroke of lunch before Mushfiqur frustrated the hosts further. He started to farm the strike with only one wicket left but again it was Bumrah who made the difference. Back for one over before lunch, his slow offcutter at 125kph went through a big swing from Mushfiqur on the last ball of the session as he put to waste all his hard work.
India again came out all guns blazing as Bangladesh didn’t use any pace in search of wickets. Rohit missed a big swing to the leg side in the first over and when he middled a sweep, he found deep backward square-leg in Mehidy’s second over. Shubman Gill was trapped lbw for 6 by Mehidy to a delivery similar to the one that kept low and dismissed Rohit on Monday. Otherwise India cruised in their chase thanks to Jaiswal’s third half-century of the series. He muscled his back-foot punches and sweeps and came down the track to smash a few boundaries, including a six, down the ground. His brisk partnership of 58 with Virat Kohli nearly saw India through except that Jaiswal miscued a swing to the off side with only three runs required.
