India strike back to reduce Bangla for 49/3 after declaring at 387/8

Chittagong, May 21 (UNI) India fired on all cylinders to reduce Bangladesh to 49/3 at lunch after the hosts took only 11 minutes to force India declare at 387 for eight restricting them to within three runs of the second day's total.

Coming to bat after the third day's play was washed out by rain at 384 for six, India declared the innings at the fall of M S Dhoni who drove straight down the throat of Javed Omar off Mashrafe Mortaza without adding to his overnight score of 36.

Dhoni came out to bat with Zaheer Khan on the fourth day morning today, after Anil Kumble retired hurt due to illness. Administrative Manager Surendra Bhave confirmed that he was down with fever and was under medication.

But there was no indication whether he would play any further proceedings in the match or not. This was not such a big blow in terms of batting, but could have a role to play as India look to bowl Bangladesh out on a good batting pitch.

Zaheer went early in the day, hanging his bat out outside the off stump to one from Shahadat Hossain that took an edge after bouncing to be gobbled up by Khaled Masud behind the wickets.

VRV Singh was out to bat.

But the real blow for India came when Dhoni went after a short and wide delivery from Mortaza and didn't get the elevation he wanted. Mortaza returned with figures of four for 97 while Shahadat got three for 96 for his efforts.

India struck back with a vengeance reducing the hosts as R P Singh continued to ride his luck to claim two wickets. The first wicked came when he trapped Javed Omar lbw before the stumps for seven, even as the batsman showed signs of blossoming.

RP Singh who was initially drafted into the side for the ODIs did not get a game as the third one was a washout. Then he was retained for the Tests as Sreesanth returned with an injury and included into the playing eleven when Munaf Patel was ruled out for the series with a lower back injury.

Now he showed why he was a good choice, inducing Bashar to edge one to Tendulkar at first slip for a duck. With two wickets in his kitty R P looked good for many more.

The third wicket came when Zaheer bowled a beauty. The ball bounced and moved away taking the edge even as Shahriar Nafeees played through the line. The edge went to Tendulkar for the second catch of the day.

Nafees's 32 run innings was studded with two sweetly timed boundaries. At 49 for three Bangladesh looked like giving up the fight with the top half of the batting almost cleared.

UNI