‌IND vs BAN | Pant and Gill tons keep visitors at bay despite Shanto’s grit on third day

Arijit Kundu

ByArijit Kundu, SportsCafe Editor

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Centuries from Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill on the third day helped India to set a target of 515 for Bangladesh. The visitors stable opening stand was followed by Ashwin’s three-fer coupled with brilliant catches that kept India ahead by 357 runs before bad light enforced early Stumps.

With a poor forecast set to prevail in the next two days, India aimed to extract quick runs on the third day. Overnight batters Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill were watchful for the first few overs of the day before starting to switch gears against the worn-out ball. Initially, Gill took the charge by clobbering a couple of sixes to bring up his fifty in 79 balls with Pant to follow in the charge. As India raced past the 150-run mark, Pant raced to his fifty in 88 balls before leaving the field for Lunch with India at 205/3 in 51 overs. 

As the second session unfurled, Pant took on the spinners for a six and a couple of fours to inch near the milestone mark. Eventually, it took him just 36 runs to get to the hundred after securing a half-century, showing Gill the path to join him in the hundred’s tally. However, he brought up the next fifty runs in just 36 balls to announce his comeback in the format. While Pant was caught and bowled for 109 in the 56th over, KL Rahul joined Gill to add 42 runs together before Rohit Sharma and co. summoned for declaration. 

Aiming to chase a 515-run target, Bangladesh forged off to a good start with Zakir Hasan aiming his usual no-frills approach. He smoked a couple of sixes - against Siraj and Ashwin, leading Bangladesh to 56/0 in 13 overs at Tea.

The twenty minutes break was enough to disrupt the concentration of the Bangladeshi openers as stellar catches from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill helped India strike back at the opposition. With the visitors at 86/2, Mominul Haque and Najmul Hossain Shanto held the fort for a while with a 38-run stand before Ashwin’s beautiful setup befuddled the former in the 30th over. 22 balls later, the Madras-bred had the last laugh over Mushfiqur Rahim as he tried to attack the spinner. Subsequently, Shakib initiated his innings by shimmying down the ground and attempting a misconnected reverse sweep but ended up gathering just five runs before the game was paused due to hovering dark clouds resulting in badlight. By then Shanto had already got to his fifty with the help of three sixes and four fours leaving Bangladesh reeling at 158/4 and shy of 357 runs.

This guy is character!

Damn it!

Should have not happened!

That soon?

Yeah!

Bad light!

Greatest!

He looked very calm!

 

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