Off-spinner R Ashwin claims 6-88 on his home turf as hosts beat Bangladesh to register massive 280-run victory on Day Four of first Test in Chennai
R Ashwin acknowledges the crowd after claiming a fifer in Chennai yesterday. Pic/PTI
For the first hour on Sunday, Najmul Hossain Shanto and Shakib Al Hasan rode their luck and showed plenty of pluck to keep a rampant Mohammed Siraj and India at bay. Then, Rohit Sharma summoned his ace in the pack immediately after the drinks interval and the first Test quickly unravelled towards its expected denouement at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here.
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R Ashwin has been a champion performer for the country for more than a decade and he reiterated his value despite turning 38 a few days back with another telling exhibition of off-spin at his home ground. He took only four deliveries to make his presence felt, having Shakib smartly caught at a squarish short-leg by Yashasvi Jaiswal to set the cat amongst the pigeons.
Lower-order collapse
From 194-4, Bangladesh tumbled to 234 all out, losing six for 40 in 64 deliveries to hand India victory in the first Test by a commanding margin of 280 runs, with more than five sessions still left. The rapidity with which the wickets tumbled in the second hour of Day Four was in keeping with the pace at which the game unfolds in the sub-continent, and especially in India when, once they have their tails up, Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are virtually unplayable.
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Ashwin finished with 6-88, his 37th five-wicket taking him to joint second alongside the great Shane Warne in the list of Test bowlers with most five-fors. Muttiah Muralitharan, the most prolific wicket-taker in the format, tops all-comers with a staggering 67 five-wicket hauls. By backing up his sixth Test hundred with a five-for, Ashwin moved to within one of Ian Botham’s record of scoring a hundred and taking five wickets in an innings in the same Test five times.
Statistics don’t always tell the true tale, but they are revelatory, too, and these extraordinary numbers are further indications of the legacy Ashwin will leave behind. Having bided his time before being thrown the ball at the start of the second hour, he immediately fell into his rhythm during a spell of 6-0-25-3, though it was Jadeja who ended skipper Shanto’s impressive three-hour stay worth 82, courtesy a good catch at a deep, wide mid-off by Jasprit Bumrah.
Jadeja used the rough outside the left-hander’s off-stump excellently and should have had Shakib stumped when the batter was 17, but Rishabh Pant made a rare lapse in an otherwise memorable comeback game to reprieve the former skipper. However, Shakib’s luck ran out not long thereafter, and once the stubborn fifth-wicket resistance was snapped, India moved in swiftly for the kill.
Hosts solidify top spot
Having shown heart at various stages in the game, Bangladesh keeled over like a pack of cards with the writing on the wall, a far cry from the resilience they had revealed in Pakistan not long back. India are made of sterner stuff; not without reason are they near-invincible at home, and the 12 points from this latest victory have cemented their place at the top of the World Test Championship points table.
‘Bounce here was daunting for batters’
R Ashwin continued his absolute dominance over batters during the first Test against Bangladesh, returning with a six-wicket haul, and the star off-spinner said he enjoyed every moment of bowling on a red-soil pitch, which often perceived as pacer-friendly, because of the steep bounce it offered. Ashwin’s skillsets and a sharp cricketing brain helped him exploit the bounce on the pitch, rather than waiting for the deck to offer spin. “Look, I think this pitch, even if you bowl good balls, you will go for runs. But the bounce is going to be quite daunting. The beauty about red soil is you put revs on it, there is value and there is bounce,” Ashwin told reporters during the post-match press meet. In fact, the Chennaiite went ahead and said he preferred to play on such tracks rather than the black-soil ones.
Brief scores
India 376 & 287-4d beat Bangladesh 149 & 234 (N Shanto 82; R Ashwin 6-88, R Jadeja 3-58) by 280 runs
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