Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan needed only six overs on the fourth morning to pluck the required two wickets and close out the first Test against Bangladesh at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on Monday. The hosts were bowled out for 202 in their second innings as they crashed to another heavy defeat.
India won the match by an innings and 140 runs giving them a 1-0 lead in the two-Test series.
Manjural Islam Rana and Tapash Baisya walked out in the morning with hardly anything to lose. The result was a formality, and the two young batsmen had a crack at the Indian bowlers for a while.
The party began right from the second ball of the morning when Rana, resuming on his overnight score of 50, promptly dispatched a short and wide ball from Pathan over point to the boundary. The next ball, he latched into an outswinging delivery from Pathan and crashed it past the point fielder.
Baisya, who had inched to 17 on Sunday evening, joined in the fun as he hit Zaheer for two consecutive boundaries in the very next over.
The first three overs from the Indian left-arm pacers cost eight runs each.
Pathan derailed the Bangladesh joyride, thrusting the opening blow again. Having progressed to 29, Baisya tried to flick a short ball pitched on the leg stump but mistimed the shot, hitting it high in the air and Sachin Tendulkar completed the catch at short mid-wicket. (202 for 9).
The next over Zaheer completed a comprehensive win for India as he had the brazen Rana caught behind the wickets. Rana, on 69, trying to pull a shorter one from Zaheer, gloved it to Dinesh Karthik. The umpire, Aleem Dar, took a while to give the decision, but eventually ended Bangladesh's nightmare.
The home team was shot out for 202 in the second innings, after they had managed only 184 in the first.
The team suffered its 30th defeat in 33 Test matches. The silver lining was the attitude shown by their younger players. Mashrafe Mortaza and Baisya bowled with great intent on the second morning of the match while Nasif Iqbal, Mohammed Ashraful and Rana displayed some gritty performances with the bat.
But these achievements were overshadowed by the many records created by the Indians.
For the visitors, Pathan returned figures of 6-51 to follow up his 5-45 in the first innings and collected his first man of the match award.
The two teams will now meet for the second and final Test, commencing from December 17, at Chittagong.
