Bangladesh Struggle To Avoid Follow-On

India paceman R.P. Singh led the attack with three wickets to leave Bangladesh struggling to avoid the follow-on.

India paceman R.P. Singh led the attack with three wickets to leave Bangladesh struggling to avoid the follow-on as they limped to 160 for eight wickets at tea on the fourth day of the first test on Monday.

Mashrafe Mortaza (31) and Shahadat Hossain (1) were the not out batsmen at the interval, with Bangladesh still 28 runs short of avoiding being asked to bat again.

Earlier, India declared their first innings closed at 387-8 in the rain-affected match that lost a complete day's play on Sunday because of the weather.

R.P. Singh claimed his three wickets for 30 runs, while spinners V.R.V. Singh and Ramesh Powar took two wickets apiece. Paceman Zaheer Khan took the other wicket to fall.

Rajin Saleh top-scored for the hosts with 41 before he was caught by Sourav Ganguly at point off Powar. Shahriar Nafees (32) and Saqibul Hasan (27) were the only other batsmen to significantly trouble the scorers.

Shortly after the resumption of play, the tourists declared their innings closed and set about removing Bangladesh twice in order to force a result.

Needing solid partnerships to settle the innings, the hosts got off to the worst possible start as three wickets fell with just 49 on the board at lunch.

Opener Javed Omar (7) was trapped lbw by R.P. Singh, who also removed captain Habibul Bashar (0) in the same over, caught at slip by Sachin Tendulkar.

Nafees was the next to go when Tendulkar took another slip catch off a Zaheer delivery.

INDIA PRESSURE

Lunch was taken three minutes early as rain began to fall again, with Rajin Saleh (5) and Mohammad Ashraful (2) the not out batsman at the interval.

A 56-run partnership between Saleh and Saqibul Hasan gave the home side hope of avoiding the follow-on, but when the latter was removed to make it 114-5, wickets fell at regular intervals as India piled on the pressure.

Tendulkar (101) and Ganguly (100) hit centuries on Saturday to put India in command before Sunday's wash out.

The tourists had resumed on 384-6, but lost two wickets for three runs in 11 overs before skipper Rahul Dravid opted to declare.

Pacemen Mortaza and Shahadat picked up a wicket apiece to finish with 4-97 and 3-76 respectively.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (36) was caught by Omar at point off a delivery from Mortaza while Zaheer was caught behind by wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud off Shahadat.

Meanwhile, India spinner Anil Kumble is likely to miss the remainder of the first test after suffering from a fever.

Kumble was unable to resume batting on the fourth day of the match with officials stating the 36-year-old was under medication and resting.

The second of the two-match series begins on Friday.