India beat Bangladesh by 208 runs

India beat Bangladesh by 208 runs (AFP Photo)

Hyderabad: Indian bowlers showed tremendous perseverance on an unresponsive pitch to crush Bangladesh by 208 runs in the one-off Test and stretch the team's unbeaten streak to 19 matches, here today. Chasing a daunting target of 459, Bangladesh were all out for 250 in 100.3 overs but put up a stiffer resistance than what the final outcome of the match would suggest. The win was the Indian team's eighth victory in nine home Tests this season with the only draw coming against England at Rajkot. This was India's the sixth successive series victory under Virat Kohli starting from Sri Lanka series in 2015. India's unbeaten streak in Test matches is now 19 with the last defeat coming against Sri Lanka in Galle back in August, 2015. For a team ranked world No.9 in ICC rankings, Bangladesh hung on for four days and two sessions -- something that nobody had expected from the minnows. They played close to 230 overs, both innings included. The Indian bowlers should be lauded for their collective effort as they had to show much more patience on a pitch that remained good for batting throughout the entire duration of the match. Spin twins Ravindra Jadeja (4/78 in 37 overs) and Ravichandran Ashwin (4/73 in 30.3 overs) shared the bulk of the spoils with Ishant Sharma (2/40 in 13 overs) -- all of whom worked tirelessly in pursuit of victory. Bangladesh needed to bat out 58 overs in the last two sessions to save the match but Ishant's brilliant post-lunch spell put paid to any hopes that the visitors had harboured. It was as controlled an effort one would see with an old ball. He hit his conventional back of the length with an occasional fuller delivery and some good short stuff. With little help from the pitch his spell was a laudable effort. One such well-disguised short ball aimed at ShabbirRahaman's (22) body forced him to play a pull-shot which he top-edged to the only fielder, Bhuvneshwar Kumar standing at fine leg boundary. He then bowled an in-swinger that looked like reverse to find Mahmudullah Riyadh (64) plumb in-front. With Mahmudullah's departure the writing was clearly on the wall for the visitors. Mehedi Hasan Miraz again played 60 balls for his 23, was the eighth batsman out with Jadeja's delivery kicking up sharply to induce an outside edge snapped by Wriddhiman Saha.