IND vs BAN: India six wickets away from thumping victory as bad light forces early stumps on Day 3

IND vs BAN: Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and Ravichandran Ashwin starred for India on Day 3 as the hosts neared a thumping win in the first Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

Asked to chase a mammoth 515-run target, Bangladesh were 158/4 when bad light forced early stumps at Chepauk on Saturday, September 21. Ashwin, who smashed a hundred in the first innings, picked three wickets in the final session to push the visitors completely out of the match.

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Earlier in the day, Rishabh Pant (109 off 128) completed his sixth Test hundred on his return to Test cricket after almost 21 months, and forged a 167-run partnership with vice-captain Shubman Gill, who was unbeaten on 119 when Rohit Sharma decided to declare the innings at 287/4.

The duo showed caution in the first session before letting themselves lose after lunch. Rishabh Pant was particularly aggressive. The flamboyant southpaw completed his fifty off 88 balls, but took just 36 deliveries more to announce his grand red-ball comeback.

KL Rahul scored unbeaten 22 runs off 19 balls before India decided to declare the innings before Tea.

Bangladesh got off to a confident start this time. Openers Zakir Hasan and Shadman Islam became the first Bangladesh opening pair to stitch a fifty-plus partnership in a Test match in India. They propelled Bangladesh to 56/0 in 13 overs before the Tea break.

However, India bounced back once again after Jasprit Bumrah gave them the breakthrough in the 17th over in the form of Zakir Hasan.

The wicket started to help the spinners towards the end of Day 3, and local boy Ashwin made the most of the opportunity by sending back Shadman (35), Mominul Haque (13), and Mushfiqur Rahim (13) back in the pavilion.

Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto (51*) and Shakib Al Hasan (13*) were in the middle when umpires stopped Mohammed Siraj from bowling the third delivery of the 38th over. It got darker in Chennai, and dark clouds also loomed around.