Axar Patel's robust spell pegged back Bangladesh to 272/6 at the close of Day 4 in the first Test at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Saturday.
Patel bowled a brilliant spell of 3/50 to keep Bangladesh batters in check as the Shakib Al Hasan-led side, who are chasing a colossal 513-run target, still need 241 run to win the match as India are just four wickets away from pocketing the match. However, debutant Zakir Hasan hammered an impressive century (100 off 224) kept the hosts in the hunt after his wicket. Meanwhile, Umesh Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav claimed a wicket apiece on Saturday but Shakib is still unscathed at 40 and will be keen to on delaying the inevitable.
This all happened after the hosts got off to a cracking start in their chase. Zakir displayed a lot of resilience in his centurion knock before holing out to Virat Kohli off Ravichandran Ashwin's ball as saving the Test match by toiling for 180 overs in two days was a task cut out.
Zakir partnered with his partner Najmul Hossain Shanto (67 off 156 balls) to frustrate the Indian bowers for an entire session and stitched a record 124-run partnership for the first wicket. KL Rahul's men soon bounced back to get hold of the situation.
The fourth day wicket didn’t have a lot of help for spinners but Axar rose to the occasion and in his spell of 27 overs, snared three wickets while conceding 50 runs to relish his one of the best performances in a short career in Tests. Back in 2021, Axar had a dream Test debut against England at home.
The ace spinner hunted down Yasir Ali (5), Mushfiqur Rahim (23) and Nurul Hasan (3). Meanwhile, India's another star spinner Ashwin (27-2-76-1) didn't look in his regular best in this game as he could only manage to see the back of Zakir, caught by a diving Virat Kohli at first slip.
Kuldeep Yadav, who took a fifer in the first innings, returned with 69/1 in his 18-over spell on Day 4 and sent Litton Das packing who offered an easy peasy catch to Umesh Yadav.
But Zakir was in no mood to give up and brought his defensive game to the fore on his debut game but also kept sending the ball beyond the ropes in his stellar knock which was decorated with 13 boundaries and a six. Barring Umesh, none of the Indian bowlers could trouble Zakir during a post lunch spell.
Umesh (27/1), got the old ball to reverse in the post-lunch session and bowled an exceptional spell with the old Kookaburra. India's veteran pacer drew the first blood for India at the score of 124. Umesh dismissed Shanto's for 67 off 156 ball. The second session turned out to be an important one for India as it yielded only 52 runs and the three wickets dented any dreams of an upset that Bangladesh team could have harboured.
In the first session though, Zakir and Shanto batted with a lot of purpose as their gritty half-centuries helped Bangladesh reach 119 for no loss by lunch.
