Following their defeat in the ODI series against Bangladesh, India is currently playing the hosts in a two-match Test series, with the first game currently taking place in Chattogram. When India batted first and experienced a brief top-order collapse, Shreyas Iyer, who replaced Cheteshwar Pujara at number six, and the latter pieced together a 149-run partnership to save the Men in Blue.
Shreyas Iyer was fairly lucky in the 84th over and nearly went back to the Pavilion. Ibadat Hossain, a Bangladeshi pacer, bowled the sixth ball of the over, and it swung back into Iyer as it bounced low and hit the stumps, causing the noise. The bails did not come off because Iyer remained in his position even though stumps. The bails lighted up and moved slightly, but they did not fall off, as was evident even in the replays. The right-hander had a fortunate escape. Interestingly, one of the bails was replaced in the same over when the interior lights failed.
Here’s the video: https://twitter.com/SonySportsNetwk/status/1602980082179461120?t=7nyn7tQ0XlikJNnh38ilKQ&s=19
Resuming the game, the opening pair of substitute captain KL Rahul and Shubman Gill put up a quickfire 41-run partnership before Gill was dismissed. Then, when India was struggling at 48-3, a mini-collapse occurred as they lost the 3 important wickets of Gill, Rahul, and Virat Kohli in the space of 7 runs. India got back on track with a quickfire of 45 runs from Rishabh Pant and a 64-run partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara.
The Men in Blue were relieved after that when Shreyas Iyer and Pujara put up a 149-run stand. Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed after making 90 off 203 balls. At the end of the day, Shreyas Iyer had 82 runs and was still unbeaten. He is getting close to scoring his second Test hundred. India is 278/6 at the end of the first day’s play, with Axar Patel falling on the day’s final ball.
