CHATTOGRAM, 14 Dec: Cheteshwar Pujara and Shreyas Iyer hit half-centuries as India recovered from 48-3 to reach 278-6 on day one of the opening test against Bangladesh on Wednesday.
\nIyer was batting on 82 at stumps to help keep India\u2019s hope alive of taking control of the test. Pujara was dismissed on 90 after adding 149 runs with Iyer for the fourth wicket.
\nLeft-arm spinner Taijul Islam returned figures of 3-84 and offspinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz took 2-71 to prevent India from establishing full control.
\n\u201c(Six wickets) is not too much. Looking at the pitch, we have a decent total on the board,\u201d Pujara said. \u201cGetting 350 would be a decent total on this pitch. We have seen that there\u2019s enough turn for the spinners. We have three spinners in the team. The odd one is staying low when the fast bowlers are bowling. It is not an easy pitch to bat on so hopefully our bowlers will do the job for us.\u201d
\nTaijul rocked the Indian batting lineup after KL Rahul, who is leading the side in the absence of the injured Rohit Sharma, opted to bat first.
\nRahul and his fellow opener Shubman Gill had a solid start, adding 41 runs before Taijul dismissed the latter for 20.
\nGill\u2019s premeditated paddle sweep brought up his downfall as he managed a top-edge which flew to Yasir Ali at leg slip.
\nSoon after, Rahul dragged a modest delivery from pacer Khaled Ahmed (1-26) onto his stump to be bowled for 22.
\nTaijul struck again and spun one sharply to have Virat Kohli leg-before for 1 as India lost three wickets for just seven runs. Kohli reviewed the decision in vain.
\n\u201cI think we are in good position after getting six wickets of India,\u201d Taijul said. \u201cWe would have been in a better position had we not dropped some catches but it\u2019s always the part of the game. The wicket is tough to predict. From what we\u2019ve been, the Chattogram wicket got easier as the day progressed.\u201d
\nRishabh Pant counterattacked and it worked well for India as it hit back to leave Bangladesh at bay.
\nAs Pant played in aggressive fashion, wicket-keeper Nurul Hasan put down a chance offered by Pujara who was on 12.
\nMehidy Hasan, however, gave Bangladesh some relief, dismissing Pant after he hit six fours and two sixes for his 46 off 45.
\nBut Iyer and Pujara further troubled Bangladesh on a pitch where balls mostly stayed low.
\nIyer also had some luck as he survived on 67 when Ebadot dropped a catch at mid-wicket off Mehidy Hasan\u2019s delivery.
\nEbadot found some movement to hit one on his stump but to his dismay the bails were not dropped with Iyer on 77.
\nBut Taijul got some reward for his tireless bowling when he knocked off the stump of Pujara, who looked all set for his 19th century.
\nMehidy then put Bang-ladesh slightly ahead, rem-oving Axar Patel for 13 with the last ball of the day. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHATTOGRAM, 14 Dec: Cheteshwar Pujara and Shreyas Iyer hit half-centuries as India recovered from 48-3 to reach 278-6 on day one of the opening test against Bangladesh on Wednesday. Iyer was batting on 82 at stumps to help keep India\u2019s hope alive of taking control of the test. Pujara was dismissed on 90 after adding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-206954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}