Hyderabad [India], Feb. 13 (ANI): India on Monday came out with yet another clinical performance to defeat Bangladesh by a huge margin of 208 runs on the last day of the one-off Test played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.
Set 459 to win in four sessions, Bangladesh came out with a spirited performance, but eventually were bundled out for 250 just before the Tea break.
The hosts rode on Ishant Sharma’s superb spell and the magic of both the spinners-Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, to handover Virat Kohli a historic win. With this win, Kohli has taken his unbeaten streak in Test matches to 19 and surpassed Sunil Gavaskar.
Kohli also overcame Mohammad Azharuddin’s record of winning 14 Tests under his captaincy. Kohli registered 15th Test victory.
He also became the third most successful captain of India after Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly. It was India’s sixth consecutive series win in Test cricket.
Jadeja and Ashwin both picked four wickets each while Ishant grabbed the remaining two.
From Bangladesh, Mahmudullah (64) kept his team afloat with his aggressive yet persevered innings in the morning session after experienced batsmen, Shakib Al Hasan (22) and Mushfiqur Rahim (23), disappointed with their poor and rash shots on Day 5.
During the course of the innings, Mahmudullah moved to his first half-century in Test cricket since July 2015.
The Mushfiqur Rahim-led side were way more competitive when you compare them to the fight New Zealand and England put up a few months ago.
Had it not been for Shakib’s wicket or for Mushfiqur’s brain fade, Kohli and his men could have been made to toil more. It is very evident from the fact that India had to bowl 228 overs to get 20 wickets.
Kohli, who made 204 in the first innings and followed it up with a quick-fire 38 in the second, was adjudged Man of the Match.
In the post-match presentation, Rahim admitted that his team’s fielding was not up to the mark.
“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 (India) bowlers have a lot of variety not just with the spin but also with their pacers.”
“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. Our fielding let us down and there is scope of improvement there.”
India will now play Australia in the four-match series beginning from February 23 at Pune. (ANI)
This is published unedited from the ANI feed.