India beat Bangladesh by 208 runs in the one-off Test between both the teams at the RGIS in Hyderabad. With this win, Virat Kohli takes his unbeaten run as a captain to 19 matches.
Chasing 459 to win, Bangladesh ended day 4 on 103/3 and started day 5 in a disastrous way as they lost the wicket of their experienced campaigner Shakib-al-Hasan early on day 5. Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah stitched together a partnership before a brain fade from Rahim gifted Ashwin his third wicket of the innings before lunch.
After the Lunch interval, Ishant Sharma bowled one of the best spells bowled by an Indian pacer in the recent past as he trapped Sabbir Rahman plumb in front of the stumps before dismissing Mahmudullah with a bouncer. He was unlucky not to have added more wickets to his tally. It was just a matter of time before India cleaned up the tail as the Indian spin twins finished off the formalities in the extra 30 minutes before tea.
Ashwin and Jadeja took four wickets apiece while Ishant accounted for the other 2. Earlier in the match, Virat Kohli’s 200 along with centuries from Murali Vijay and Wriddhiman Saha helped India put on 687 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in the first innings before the visiting skipper Mushfiqur Rahim stepped up for his team and helped them reach 388. India decided to bat again and declared their second innings after just one session with the scorecard reading 159/4.
This is how the cricket fraternity reacted to India’s win in the one-off Test:
Indian coach Anil Kumble:
This was a very good surface to bat on, we had to literally bowl 200+ overs to secure 20 wickets, to bowl more than 120 overs in first innings and then come back and bowl another 100 overs, it was brilliant. I expected this track to break up a bit more on the fourth and fifth day, but nothing like that happened, it held on - great effort from our bowlers.
Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim:
I thought in the past as well we have created plenty of opportunities but we never held on from there. It was quite tough out there, their bowlers have a lot of variety not just with the spin but also with their pacers. Even our number eight, nine and ten have showed a lot of character. We can learn a lot from India, how their lower order contributed against England. We batted over 100 overs and Mehedi in the first innings batted and bowled well. We have learnt a lot and would like to use it against Sri Lanka in our next series.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli:
It was a good wicket to bat on, a good toss to win. Putting up massive runs on the board in the first innings always helps. The opposition batted well in the first innings. The plan was to get into good habits like we did in the past season as well and more importantly we have a big series coming up as well. The bowlers got back into their groove before an important series and all in all a good performance. The track didn't offer much and the bowlers found ways to get batsmen out and this was no different.
Indian all-rounder R Ashwin:
Cricket historian Boria Majumdar:
Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh:
Hero of India’s win in the 2002 Natwest series, Mohammad Kaif:
Former New Zealand cricketers Simon Doull and Scott Styris:
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