Taijul Islam sends back India's top three; gives Bangladesh the edge

Dhaka, Dec 23 (IANS) Experienced left-arm spinner Taijul Islam took out India's top three, giving Bangladesh the edge as the first session on day two of the second Test in Dhaka came to a close. At lunch, India were 86/3 in 36 overs and trailed Bangladesh by 141 runs, with Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant unbeaten on 18 and 12 respectively.

It was an attritional session in which Bangladesh got rewarded for disciplined bowling on a pitch which hasn't been easy to bat on and has shown some tricks through the turn and variable bounce to ask tough questions of the Indian batters.

Resuming from 19/0 on Day Two, Rahul and Gill were kept quiet as Khaled Ahmed got the duo to play and miss on a couple of occasions. From the other end, Taijul was relentlessly attacking the stumps and was rewarded when the left-arm spinner got rid of an uncertain Rahul on the first ball of the 14th over.

Rahul, the Indian skipper, came down the pitch to defend off Taijul, but he didn't come to the pitch of the ball and the ball hit the pad first in front of the middle-stump. Bangladesh took the review and finally got the breakthrough via Taijul.

In his next over, Taijul got another wicket when Gill missed the ball completely while trying to sweep and was trapped plumb lbw. Pujara and Kohli weathered the storm with a few boundaries. Pujara also reached the mark of 7000 Test runs, becoming the eighth Indian batter to do so.

But Taijul struck for the third time in the session as a nudge from Pujara was caught by an alert Mominul Haque at forward short leg, ending a 34-run stand for the third wicket. Kohli and Pant hung around to take India to safety at lunch after a mix-up almost resulted in the former being run out on the last ball of the session.

Brief scores: Bangladesh 227 all out in 73.5 overs (Mominul Haque 84; Umesh Yadav 4-25) lead India 86/3 in 36 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 24; Taijul Islam 3-24) by 141 runs.