India wrap up enormous win

India have wrapped up one of the most comprehensive wins you could imagine on the third day of the second Test against Bangladesh at Dhaka. The Bangladeshis were never in contention at any stage from the end of the first session on Day 1 as India produced a near-flawless display.

Bangladesh resumed in a bad enough position at 58-5 in response to India’s massive 610-3 declared, and it never really got any better. Zaheer Khan was in a destructive mood, finishing with 5-34 as the innings was wrapped up for 118.

Following on some 492 runs in arrears, it looked like being a truly humiliating defeat as the top order once again crumbled to leave the score at 10-3.

Although Rajin Saleh and Mohammad Ashraful produced brief periods of resistance with innings of 42 and 67 respectively, wickets fell too regularly in the upper and middle order and again Bangladesh found themselves staring down the barrel of another score of under 200.

But enter Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh’s hero of the series so far. He followed up his maiden Test half-century in the first Test with a spectacular 70 at better than a run a ball to give at least a trace of respectability to what was a lost cause in a match the home team would so dearly love to begin all over again.

In the end and somewhat appropriately, the last two wickets of the match were claimed by Sachin Tendulkar, whose return to genuine form with the bat with two centuries in this series has been one of the highlights of the tour for Indian fans.

After their brilliant performance against India at the World Cup earlier in the year, Bangladesh can only be disappointed at failing to record a single victory in the tour. India meanwhile will feel slightly better about their early exit from that tournament with a clinical display throughout the last few weeks.

All in all, a series that was being reasonably highly anticipated for a series involving Bangladesh has probably failed to live up to expectations, but some brilliant individual performances by particularly the Indians have nevertheless provided some excellent entertainment.

India 610-3d
Wasim Jaffer 138, Rahul Dravid 129
Mohammad Rafique 2-181, Mashrafe Mortaza 1-100

Bangladesh 118 all out
Shakib Al Hasan 30, Khaled Mashud 25
Zaheer Khan 5-34, Anil Kumble 3-32

Bangladesh 253 all out
Mashrafe Mortaza 70, Mohammad Ashraful 67
Ramesh Powar 3-33, Sachin Tendulkar 2-35

India won by an innings and 239 runs.

Player of the Match: Sachin Tendulkar – 122 not out, 2-35