Ravichandran Ashwin and Shreyas Iyer held their nerves on a spin-friendly track to prevent Bangladesh from pulling off a Christmas miracle and register their first win against India. The unbeaten 71-run eighth-wicket partnership ensured India win the second Test in the first session of Day 4 by three wickets and win the series 2-0 to retain their second spot on World Test Championship (WTC) 2022-23 table.
Earlier, Jaydev Unadkat walked out with intent of hitting Mehidy Hasan Miraz out of the attack. After surviving a close call, he hit the fourth ball of the day for a massive six. However, Unadkat (13) could not continue to attack and got out lbw by Shakib in the next over.
Rishabh Pant walked out to bat and approached the innings in his typical fashion but Mehidy trapped him in front of the stumps with a delivery that kept low. Pant (9) knew instantly that he has lost his wicket as hosts continued to dominate the proceedings on Day 4 morning.
In his next over, Mehidy struck again to get the wicket of Axar Patel to complete his five-wicket haul. The ball hit Axar on the pad and hit the stumps. Axar scored 34 runs from 69 deliveries including four boundaries.
After losing three wickets for 29 runs in the first session, India needed a partnership to settle the nerves. Ashwin got an early reprieve as he got dropped by Mominul Haque at short leg. Shreyas hit a few boundaries to put the pressure on spinners. Later on, Ashwin started taking chances with aerial shots and cleared the fence once as well.
Bangladesh bowlers could not get the breakthrough as the unbeaten 71-run eighth-wicket partnership between Iyer and Ashwin saw India home. Ashwin remained not out for 42 off 62 deliveries including for fours and one six. On the other end, Iyer scored 29 runs from 46 deliveries including four fours.
