India are on the verge of completing victory well inside three full days against Bangladesh in the second Test in Kolkata.
The hosts effectively batted Bangladesh out of the Test after captain Virat Kohli hit a sparkling 136 on the second day of the day-night Test to set up a challenging score of 347-9 in reply to the Tigers' 106.
In the second outing, Bangladesh looked like losing the match on Saturday itself as they were reduced to 13-4. However, fighting knocks from Mushfiqur Rahim (59 not out) and an injured Mahmudullah (39) took them to 152-6 at stumps.
Mahmudullah retired hurt due to a hamstring injury, just to rub salt into the wounds of the Tigers. And the match could well be over early on Sunday with fast bowler Ishant Sharma on the verge of a 10-wicket match haul.
The lanky quick ended up with 4-39 on the day, to go with his five-wicket haul in the first innings. Ishant got extravagant and late movement and it looks like a matter of time before he completes his five-for.
The day had earlier belonged to Ishant's Delhi compatriot and captain Kohli.
The batting heavyweight hit 18 boundaries to reach his 27th Test century as India declared their first innings to gain a lead of 241. While it was Kohli who did bulk of the scoring, he was well supported by Ajinkya Rahane who scored a brisk 51 off 69 balls.
However, things started to happen the moment Bangladesh took the second new ball. Kohli clipped Ebadat Hosain to fine leg in the first over with the second cherry and that took momentum away from India’s innings.
The fact that only three Indian batsmen – Kohli, Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara (55) – made substantial contributions showed the challenges posed by the pink ball.
Kohli, however, was batting on another level and he brought his best extra cover drives to negate the swing generated by Bangladesh seamers. His innings in Kolkata put him in exalted company. Kohli has now scored 41 centuries in international cricket as captain. That’s the joint-highest in the game, alongside Australia great Ricky Ponting.
While Ponting took 376 innings to reach the milestone, Kohli achieved the mark in just 188 outings as captain.
As India were devising ways to exert their dominance while going for a series sweep, Bangladesh were counting their injuries. In the first innings Liton Das and Nayeem Hasan were forced out the game after getting hit on the helmet by Mohammed Shami's bouncers.
In the second innings, there was more pain in store as Mohammad Mithun and Rahim both took nasty hits to their helmets.
