India need only two runs for win as Bangladesh were all out for 312 runs in reply to India’s first innings scoring 544/8.

In the second innings, Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal achieved a career best of 151 (231) while Junaid Siddique hit a half-century of 55 (201).

Indian pacer Zaheer Khan captured seven wickets while spinner Pragyan Ojha and Harbhajan Singh took two and one wicket respectively.

Zaheer Khan grabbed both man of the match and man of the series prizes as he achieved highest 15 wickets in the series.

Earlier, India declared their first innings at 544 for 8 wickets taking a huge 311 runs first innings lead over Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, earlier in their first innings, were all out for 233 runs against India.

The visitors beat Bangladesh by 113 runs in the first Test at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong on January 21.

India Squad: MS Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, M Vijay, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha.

Bangladesh Squad: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Imrul Kayes, Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Siddique, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hasan, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shafiul Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Rubel Hossain.

Tamim, the left-handed opener, hit 151 runs with brilliant stroke-playing for his highest score in Test cricket. Junaid Siddique (55) provided him solidity at the other end.

The duo put together a partnership of exactly 200 runs in the second wicket.

Things seemed quite settled until seamer Zaheer Khan’s last two quick blows in the last 20-minute play toppling Tamim and Junaid.

Md Ashraful (2) and Shahdat Hossain (2) are the two unbeaten batsmen at the crease who’ll start Wednesday morning’s play.

Tigers were still 89 runs behind India’s first innings total of 544/8.

India had earlier declared their first innings adding 85 runs to their overnight total of 459 runs. Yuvraj Singh and Rahul Dravid did not bat on Tuesday due to injuries.

Shafiul Islam captured three wickets while Shakib Al Hasan captured two and Shahadat Hossain, Mohammad Ashraful and Raqibul Hasan took one each.

The visiting India, world number one in Test cricket, is leading the series 1-0 after beating Bangladesh by 113 runs in the first Test in Chittagong.

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Imrul Kayes, Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Siddique, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hasan, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shafiul Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Rubel Hossain.

India: MS Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, M Vijay, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha.

All-rounder Mahmudullah remained unbeaten on 96 but unfortunately missed out his first century in Test cricket as he ran out of partners.

Along with him, wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim scored 30, who had hit his maiden century in the first Test in Chittagong, and Shakib Al Hasan made 34.

India already scored 35 without losing any wicket in their first innings as two openers G Gambhir and V Sehwag are at the crease.

Earlier, acting Bangladeshi skipper Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and decided to bat first under a sunny, batting friendly condition.

But Bangladeshi batsmen again failed to take advantage of the condition as Indian pacer Ishant Sharma seized four wickets of Imrul Kayes (0), Raqibul Hasan (4), Mushfiqur Rahim (30) and Shafiul Islam (9) while Zaheer Khan took three wickets of Tamim Iqbal (0), Junaid Siddique (7) and Shakib Al Hasan (34).

Indian slow left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha picked up Mohammad Ashraful (39) and lower order batsman Shahadat Hossain.

Final score:
Bangladesh 233 allout, India 69/0

India is leading the series 1-0 after beating Bangladesh by 113 runs in the first Test in Chittagong.

India: MS Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, M Vijay, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha.

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Imrul Kayes, Tamim Iqbal, Junaed Siddique, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hasan, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shafiul Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Rubel Hossain.

Wicket kipper Mushfiqur Rahim hit a fastest test hundred (101) runs among Bangladeshi cricketers against India.

Bangladesh were all out for 301 runs in the second innings with 14.4 overs remaining of the day.

Earlier on Wednesday, India set a target of 415 runs for Bangladesh to win the first test after declaring their second innings at 413/8. India were all out for 242 runs in the first innings.

Bangladesh scored 242 against India in the first innings.

Indian pacer A Mishra grabbed four wickets while I Sharma three, Z Khan took two and V Sehwag took one in the second innings.

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Shahriar Nafees, Imrul Kayes, Tamim Iqbal, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hasan, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shafiul Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Rubel Hossain.

India: V Sehwag (captain), G Gambhir, R Dravid, SR Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik, I Sharma, Z Khan, A Mishra, S Sreesanth.

One might think that the 415-run target is too much for the hosts considering their batting strength, but Shakib made it clear that they would go into the final day with an eye on victory despite having already lost two wickets for 67. His team’s plan is simple: batting the whole day on a very good track. Bangladesh were still trailing by 348 runs at sumps.

“All three options are open: we can win the game, we can lose the game or the game can be drawn. But we have a very simple target, which is to bat the whole day, and if we can do that it would not be an impossible task to achieve the target. You never know, it might turn out to be a big day for our cricket. So, winning is our only target,” said a confident Shakib.

“The wicket is very good for batting. Now everybody from Tamim [Iqbal] to Rajib bhai [Shahadat Hossain] should take the responsibility to execute our plan in the middle. We will try our best to achieve a good result in the match,” he added.

He however said that the mood in the dressing room was excellent despite losing the wickets of opener Imrul Kayes and one down Shahriar Nafees. “I think I am little bit nervous but my colleagues are very much confident,” he jokingly said when asked whether he was the only one confident about the victory.

There is one instance when Bangladesh scored 400-plus runs in the second innings of a Test match and that was against Sri Lanka while chasing a 521-run target at Mirpur in December 2008 but Shakib said that they were not thinking about that.

“One can take inspirations from that or one can take inspirations from their individual achievements like Tamim from his hundred and Ashraful from his 158 runs against the same opponents. But as I said, our main focus should be to bat the whole day,” he responded when being reminded of their brilliant effort against Sri Lanka.

Patience would be key for the remaining batsmen if they want to pull off their biggest success in the longer-version game and without any doubt the two not out batsmen Tamim (23) and Ashraful (16) will have to take the responsibility first to lay the foundation on the fifth morning.

One might be scared with the way the Bangladesh batsmen batted in the latter part of the day after India declared their second innings on 413-8, especially the dismissal of Kayes and Nafees hardly reflected any application in their batting.

Left-handed opener Kayes pressed forward against a lovely delivery from Zaheer Khan, who had pitched it on a good length outside off, to offer a simple catch for wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik while it was ugly to watch the way Nafees was struggling from the very beginning.

It is not easy for Nafees to get his feet back at the highest level after two years of isolation from the longer-version game. But the batsman can’t be blamed for that rather it was the selectors who surprisingly failed to consider the fact that the batsman had only played T20 and 50-over matches during that period.

Nafees was dropped twice by VVS Laxman at slip and on both occasions the unlucky bowler was Zaheer Khan but the southpaw batsman failed to ride his luck as lanky Ishant Sharma got an edge to gully where stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag took a low catch.

The batsmen however can take inspiration from the bowlers who bowled really well on a flat track to stop the India’s run spree on the fourth day. Bangladesh skipper was pleased with their bowling efforts against a vaunted batting line-up.

“I’m really happy with our bowling performance especially the three pace bowlers were excellent. I must give them special thanks,” he said.

Tigers started their third day play in the morning with seven wickets in hand, scoring 59.

Earlier, India were all out for 243 in 70.5 overs in the first innings.

Master batsman Sachin Tendulkar reached his 44th Test hundred against Bangladesh and remained unbeaten on 105.

Shahadat Hossain and Shakib Al Hasan took five wickets each.

Tamim Iqbal b Zaheer 31
Imrul Kayes lbw b Zaheer 23
Shahriar Nafees c V Laxman b Ishant 4
M Ashraful c R Dravid b Ishant 2
Raqibul Hasan c D Karthik b Sreesanth 17
Saqibul Hasan (c) c V Sehwag b Zaheer 17
Mushfiqur Rahim (wk) c D Karthik b Mishra 44
M Mahmudullah c D Karthik b Sreesanth 69
Shahadat Hossain c Y Singh b Mishra 11
Shafiul Islam c Y Singh b Mishra 6
Rubel Hossain not out 0

Bowling:
Zaheer Khan 20.0-54 /3
S Sreesanth 11.0-55 /2
Ishant Sharma 13.0-47/2
Amit Mishra 16.2-65/3
Yuvraj Singh 5.0-16/0

Bangladesh Squad: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Shahriar Nafees, Imrul Kayes, Tamim Iqbal, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hasan, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shafiul Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Rubel Hossain.

India Squad: V Sehwag (captain), G Gambhir, R Dravid, SR Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, KD Karthik, I Sharma, Z Khan, A Mishra, S Sreesanth.

The collective efforts of the two Tigers backed by some spirited fielding saw the vaunted Indian batting line-up collapse to 213-8 by stumps, an achievement Bangladesh would certainly relish especially after the harsh comment made by stand-in India captain Virender Sehwag who termed his opponents ‘ordinary’ the other day.

It could have been a complete dominance of the Tigers against the number one Test side had master batsman Sachin Tendulkar not stood in the way with a resolute 76 not out.

However Bangladesh could have finished the day with more satisfaction had a miscued pull from Tendulkar was grabbed by one of the three fielders in the last over before the batsman complained of bad light and the umpires called it a day after 63 overs.

Still, the Bangladeshi bowlers proved that they had the ability to pull off a surprise even in the longer-version with limited resources.

Tendulkar also survived a close call early in his inning courtesy of Imrul Kayes, who failed to grasp the ball at first slip when the right-hander was on 16.

The morning however hardly showed what followed as Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir gave India a flying start after Shakib won the toss and decided to bowl in trying conditions after the match started one and a half hours behind the schedule due to dense fog.

Runs came thick and fast with Sehwag batting in his usual style and they went for a happy lunch with the scoreboard reading 63 without loss, but things changed dramatically from the second over of the second session.

Shakib gave the much-needed breakthrough sending back the dangerman Sehwag, who smashed nine boundaries to make 52 off 51 balls, to open the door for Shahadat who dismissed Gambhir (23) and Rahul Dravid (4) in quick succession.

The crisis deepened for India when VVS Laxman was intelligently stumped by Mushfiqur Rahim and Yuvraj Singh offered a simple catch to Rubel Hossain at mid on and on both occasions the bowler was Shakib. India lost half their wickets for 149 runs and the tail was quickly exposed when Shahadat got the last recognised batsman Dinesh Kartik, who was brilliantly caught by Rokibul Hasan at silly point and India went for tea at 160 for six.

Shahadat captured his fourth wicket trapping Amit Mishra, who came in for injured spinner Harbhajan Singh, and finished with four for 51 in 14 overs while Zaheer Khan could not capitalise on his chance as he was dropped by debutant Shafiul at point.

Shakib later took the wicket of Zaheer to take his fourth wicket. He returned figures of four for 52 in 26 overs.

In the Indian innings, the only resistance came from Tendulkar, who achieved another milestone by scoring 13,000 runs as the only batsman in the world to reach the mark.

Sachin struck six fours and a six during his unbeaten 140-ball 76.

The young skipper hit back on the harsh comments but in a modest way and to some extent he was diplomatic also while Siddons was wearing interesting smile on his face while replying on the issue as the Australian had the opportunity to live with a number one team for long. There was no shortage of confidence while Shakib and Siddons encountered an array of questions regarding Sehwag’s comments, but they were very much aware of the fact that they had to prove their worth on the field, and not in a war of words.

“It’s totally up to him [Sehwag]. It’s his comments. It’s of no use to say something before the match. Only after the match it would be possible for us to show what we are capable of,” was the prudent answer of the 22-year-old Bangladesh skipper when asked about the observation of Sehwag about his team.

“I’ve not read the comments, so, it should not be worth talking about. Everybody goes through phases of development. Every team has good years and bad years. No real comments.”

“We are not an extraordinary side. But we have proved to enough people in recent past that we are an improving side. I think we are hoping to show it in the Test match and the series. We’ll take it day by day. As I said hopefully we’ll prove Sehwag wrong,” was the answer of Siddons.

But Shakib was quick to come up with a salvo. “They [India] have been ranked number one recently. I think South Africa and Australia are much better team than them. It’s true that they [India] are playing very good cricket. They have a very good batting line-up. But still they are human beings. They can always make mistakes. If they make mistake and we can capitalise on that, we will be a very good team in the match,” he said.

And to Shakib no team is invincible as he said: “They are not the batsmen that can never be got out or bowlers who cannot be batted against. I have taken five wickets against South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. You never know tomorrow I can take seven wickets or maybe no wicket at all. This is cricket where you can’t say hundred per cent before the finish of the match.”

The 22-year-old skipper also expressed his high hopes by saying that they can beat any team if the players come up with their best but he was looking forward to playing good cricket session by session in the series against number one opponents.

“I think we are a good team also who can win against any side. I am not sure about the Test match, but definitely in one-day cricket. We are improving. We won the last two-match series against the West Indies. So I think we have a very good chance in this Test match. Hopefully, our boys will come up with their best in the series.”

Replying to a question about Sehwag’s comments that it’s almost impossible for his bowlers to take 20 Indian wickets, Shakib said: “If we bowl our target will be to take ten wickets. If we bat the target will be to bat through the day losing four or five wickets. We will be thinking day by day. We are not thinking about wining or losing. It’s a five-day game and the game can shift any moment. We’ll think about day by day … session by session.”

Coach Siddons also showed his confidence in his boys and proudly remembered his stint with the Australian cricket team.

“You get there by winning games. They [Australia] won enough games to put themselves on top. I’ll stay in touch with the Australian cricket team to give me few points on the Indian cricket team. So hopefully we will use them to good effect.”

Nobody however was not ready to comment on the pitch.

“We can’t predict about the wicket. Last time we played a Test against South Africa here and we scored 500-plus runs and in the last one-day against Zimbabwe here, they were bowled out for 44,” said Shakib when asked about the condition of pitch.

Sent into bat first, Bangladesh scored 247 for the loss of six wickets in the stipulated 50 overs.

In reply, India overhauled the winning target in 43 overs making 249 for the loss of four wickets.

Virat Kohli played 95 deliveries in his gritty innings, which was ornamented with 11 strokes across the ropes.

Bangladesh could make a close fight against their mighty opponent but poor fielding special failing to hold catches made the host’s hope go in vain.

India made a modest start losing their first wicket for 64 runs off 11.5 overs. One down Virat Kohli led his team from the frontline and guided his team to anchor in the harbour. Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Kartik, MS Dhoni added 41, 34 and 32 runs respectively to the India total.

Naeem Islam bagged two wickets at the cost of 35 runs while Shakib Al Hasan and Shafiul Islam got one wicket each conceding 58 and 63 runs respectively.

Bangladesh started their Idea Cup campaign with defeat and finished their campaign also with defeat.

India and Sri Lanka will face each other in the final tomorrow which starts at 2.00 PM at the same venue.

Earlier, Bangladesh made a meagre start losing their early five wickets for 95 runs.

Later, Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmud Ullah Riyad helped their side to post a modest total. Shakib and Riyad put on together 106 runs in the sixth wicket stand before Shakib was caught behind by MS Dhoni off Ashish Nehra when the team’s total was 201 for the loss of six wickets off 45.2 overs. Shakib hit a captain’s knock of 85 using 97 deliveries amid eight boundaries and one over boundary. Shakib fulfilled his 13th ODI half century playing 75 balls.

Yesterday Tamim Iqbal touched the 2000-run landmark playing 70 ODI matches while Roqibul Hassan and Mushfiqur Rahim scored 1000 runs each playing 40 and 63 ODI games respectively.

After dismissal of Shakib Al Hasan, Naeem Islam came to the crease and Mahmud Ullah Riyad and Naeem contributed together 46 runs for the unbroken seventh wicket partnership.

Riyad remained undefeated with 64 off 80 balls including five fours and one sixer while Naeem Islam hit a 22 (not out) off 14 balls with two fours and a sixer. Riyad made his fourth ODI fifty utilising 69 deliveries.

Ashish Nehra was his team’s most successful bowler. He harpooned Shakib Al Hasan and opener Tamim Iqbal (17).

Mohammad Ashraful played hopelessly and he was clean bowled by Sreesanth scoring the day’s lowest individual score. Ashraful scored just four off nine balls.

Most of the Bangladesh batsmen played aimlessly and callously. Thus they returned to the dressing room with poor individual score. Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmud Ullah Riyad and Naeem Islam earned 93 runs in the last 10 overs and guided their side to make a respectable ODI score.

Ashish Nehra bagged two wickets for 60 runs while Yuvraj Singh, Sudeep Tyagi and Sreesanth took one wicket each in the space of 23, 24 and 53 runs respectively.

Twin tons from Mahela Jayawardene and Upul Tharanga made the 250-run target look small and Sri Lanka easily maintained their hundred percent successes in the tournament as well as confirmed a final berth in grand style. For the Tigers, the third defeat in a row all but confirmed their elimination.

The runs came thick and fast as the unbeaten Lankans achieved their target (252-1) with 7.1 overs to spare.

It was a nightmare scenario for the local bowlers on a flat track, especially in the second session, as the two openers executed shots all over the park with consummate ease. Bangladesh however managed to avert their third 10-wicket defeat against the Lankans, thanks to spinner Nayeem Islam who got an edge of Jayawardene to wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim.

They might have survived from the humiliation of a ten-wicket defeat but the truth is that Sri Lanka virtually faced no resistance from Jamie Siddons’ charges in the match as Bangladesh’s batting also lost it’s gel after two impressive performances.

Jayawardene, who smashed thirteen boundaries during his 117-ball 108, flew in for the injured Tillakaratne Dilshan and made an immediate impact in the team as the stylish right-hander slammed his twelfth one-day hundred while Tharanga continued his rich vein of form with an unbeaten 126-ball 118 that contained 18 boundaries.

However, Sri Lanka had much to thank Lady Luck for. Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan skipper won the toss for the third successive occasion to make the obvious decision of bowling first under conditions where bowlers struggle in the second session due to the dew factor.

That meant Bangladesh batting first for the third occasion in a row, once through own folly. But while against India they batted well; this time the innings saw a lack of thrust. Most of the players got starts but failed to carry on as the wickets fell at regular intervals against the disciplined bowling effort of the Lankans.

The southpaw opening pair of Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes made another confident start but the early departure of the dashing Tamim made sure that there would be no ample fireworks in the initial stage like the previous two games in front of nearly 10,000 fans.

And then there was a costly run out when a confident Mohammad Ashraful departed on an unlucky 13 after a sharp direct throw by Thilan Thushara from the third man spoiled the former Bangladesh skipper’s attempt to take an ambitious second run.

Imrul Kayes was quick to follow him being trapped in front by Thisara Perera as Bangladesh were reduced to 88 for three.

Captain Shakib Al Hasan however returned amongst the runs after forlorn performances in the last two games but his 75-ball 47 and a 77-run fourth wicket association with Rokibul Hasan (43 off 71 balls) hardly made the impact from where the hosts could throw a real challenge for the Lankan batsmen.

The score could have been much better if a collapse had not happened during the batting powerplay, as the home side lost five wickets for 32 runs. Bangladesh took the batting powerplay from the 43rd over on 199 for four but lost the way very quickly when Shakib was out first ball of the Powerplay trying to drag a short ball from Thushara from outside off for the pull, only to find the man at the square-leg boundary.

A cameo came from wicketkeeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim, who smacked two sixes in an over against Thilan Samaraweera to collect seventeen runs. But his 22-ball 32 and inform Mahmudullah Riyad’s run-a-ball 24 in the latter part of the innings were not good enough to put up a stiff target for their opponents on the batting paradise.

And in the second innings, the Lankan batsmen aptly proved how good the track was.