Seamers put India on top

It was another day of batting collapses for Bangladesh as the Indian seamers wreaked havoc early in the day. Lower order batsmen hung on for so long to avoid some embarassment for the hosts, with Mahmudullah's unbeaten 96 being the face saver. In reply, the Indian opening combo was as impeccable as ever denying any opening for the bowlers, racing away to 69 off just 13 overs.

Bangladesh were guilty of some overconfidence in the first Test after dismissing India cheaply in the first innings. Their batters refused to do the hard-work and paid the price for that. Their captain was quite unrealistic too when he talked off winning the game after day 4. The heavy defeat didn't make his change his mind as he talked about putting up a total in excess of 350 after winning the toss. His counterpart, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, back after recovering from his back injury, read the pitch better as he was not sad on lossing the toss. He was vindicated as the India seamers were spot on from the word go.

The very first over of the innings said everything about what was in store for the hosts. Zaheer Khan came agonisingly close to picking up the wicket of Tamim Iqbal, getting the ball to move both ways. It was Ishant Sharma from the other end who was more lucky than Zaheer as he got the wicket of Imrul Kayes off the very first ball. It was a poor call from the umpire Billy Bowden, who gave the batsman caught behind, but the ball clearly went off the thigh pad. Bowden is definitely not an umpire who deserves a place in the elite panel, as he's just a showman, giving many poor decisions. Indians weren't complaining though, and the hosts were reeling as two more wickets fell in a hurry to reduce the hosts to 13/3. Zaheer got his man Tamim, bowled off his pads and Ishant got Junaid too in similar fashion to Kayes. Under-fire Mohammad Ashraful looked to prove a point as he carted a few boundaries and kept the scoreboard ticking. Just when the hosts looked to get things in order, Ishant struck again to remove Raqibul Hasan caught at slips.

The stage was set for Ashraful to score a big knock and rescue his team and himself. But, he shockingly got out stumped, charging down to hit Pragyan Ojha over the top after just having hit a boundary. The wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals before Mahmudullah got into damage control with the tail giving him good company. He nearly got a deserved century, but was stranded at the other end as the last wicket fell, leaving him unbeaten at 96.

The Indian openers then kept their wickets intact and notched up another half century stand. In just 13 overs bowled, Sehwag and Gambhir took the score to 69. India will now look to 'bat once and bat big' with plenty of time in their hand and with the pitch easing out.