Jadeja finished with figures of 4-78 off 37 overs

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

India spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin finished with four wickets apiece as they led their side to a 208-run win over Bangladesh on the final day of the one-off Test in Hyderabad.

India have now won six series in a row, while captain Virat Kohli etched his name into the record books as his side have gone undefeated in 19 consecutive matches, which beats the record set by Sunil Gavaskar.

Starting off the day on 103/3, Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah were only able to add three runs to their 28-run partnership before Shakib was dismissed by Jadeja for 22.

Mahmudullah and captain Mushfiqur Rahim stabilised the innings with a 56-run partnership before Rahim was sent packing by Ravichandran Ashwin for 23.

Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman kept the runs flowing with a 51-run stand, during which Mahmudullah brought up his half-century, before Sabbir was given out lbw off the bowling of Ishant Sharma for 22.

Mahmudullah ended up making 64 off 149 balls, which included seven boundaries, before he became Ishant’s second victim.

Mahmudullah scored his 13th Test fifty

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Following Mahmudullah’s dismissal, Jadeja and Ashwin ripped through Bangladesh’s lower order, which led to the tourists ultimately being bowled out for 250.

Jadeja and Ashwin picked up four wickets each, while Ishant claimed two.

Rahim was disappointed to lose the match, and said: “Obviously, I thought, in the first innings, we created a lot of opportunities with the bowling. If we had restricted India to 550 or 600, we could have had a chance. It’s quite tough out there in the second innings, India have a lot of options, not only among the spinners but the fast bowlers as well.

“Hopefully we learn from this and come up with better performance. I’m really proud of the boys, even the tail-enders showed really good character. Little things are what we need to improve on. Couple of matches coming up in Sri Lanka. Hopefully we capitalise there. We batted more than 100 overs each innings, and Mehedi batted and bowled well. Taijul bowled well. But I think our fielding let us down. If we can compete for five days, we can push the big boys.”

Kohli, who was named Man of the Match, was thrilled to have led his side to victory, and said: “Definitely, it was a good wicket to bat on, good toss to win, putting massive runs on the board helps. Bangladesh batted well in the first innings, the plan was to get into good habits and we have a big series coming up as well and the bowlers got into their rhythm and all in all a good game for us.

“The bowlers found ways to get batsmen out, that’s been the characteristic of our team. We didn’t get overexcited. Ishant’s spell was outstanding, coming with a soft ball, reversing it at pace. If we have two world class spinners in the side, you can tell the fast bowlers to come in and attack and the partnership between them and the spinners is great.

“Umesh was a revelation really. It’s been coming off nicely, last year was something that I didn’t expect to happen. I just go into each game with a fresh mind, try to be aggressive, but not over-attack. I’m very comfortable with where my batting is.

“I thought England was the biggest series for us this season, but having won that 4-0, we want to consolidate on that against Australia. Everyone’s minds and hearts are already on it. The crowd was outstanding throughout the five days. There have been a lot of people coming in to watch the Test matches, they want to come and see us play and we’ve been giving them entertainment. I hope this continues.”