R Ashwin was the Player of the Match as India won the second and final Test against Bangladesh in Mirpur by 3 wickets in Mirpur, Dhaka to complete a 2-0 Test series win. India had won the first Test by 188 runs in Chattogram.
This was a tense win as India had already lost their top four batters for 45 runs on day three itself while chasing 145 runs to win. At the start of day four, India lost Jaydev Unadkat, Rishabh Pant, and Akshar Patel as well with India's score reading 74/7.
This was when R Ashwin joined Shreyas Iyer in the middle, and the duo judiciously and calmly negotiated the Bangladeshi spin threat, while also scoring runs at a good pace. In the end, Ashwin finished the match in a flurry hitting Mehidy Hasan, who had taken 5 wickets, for two fours and one six in an over.
India won by 3 wickets, as Ashwin finished with 42* and Iyer made 29*. Ashwin had also taken 4 wickets in the first innings and 2 wickets in the second do.
Talking to the broadcasters after the match, R Ashwin said: “Game was on the line. I thought Bangladesh played really well. The game had to be won the hard way. Shreyas batted beautifully, if he wasn't the player of the series, I'd have shared this with him. In these situations, sometimes you feel you need to hit your way. They bowled well. But we needed to trust our defence. I wanted to get in and support Shreyas. Pitches were good, they were a touch slow. But the ball made a difference. The hosts put us under a lot of pressure. Good performances as well.”
India now has strengthened their second position in the World Test Championship (WTC) table. India has 58.93 points and only sits behind Australia (76.92).
(Sony Sports inputs)
