Arindam Basu

Dhaka, May 26 (UNI) Zaheer Khan ripped through the top order to have Bangladesh toterring at 58 for five in reply to India's mammoth 610 for three declared on the second day of the final Test here today.

At stumps Shakib-al-Hasan was batting on 30 and Mohamemd Sharif on naught.

If the highlight of the Indian innings were the four tones and a breezy 85-run partnership between MS Dhoni (not out 51) and Sachin Tendulkar (not out 122), then no less inspiring was India's bowling first up.

The Indian pacers today bowled with four slips and two gullys, a backward point and a forward short leg on a dead pitch with raving success.

After two overs Bangladesh were four down for just seven runs.

The initial damage was started by Zaheer Khan who surprised Javed Omer in first ball of the Bangladesh innings and took a healthy edge to Kaarthick.

Skipper Habibul Bashar was cleaned up the next over with late in-swinger to uproot his middle stump and in the very next ball the most promising middle-order batsman of the hosts, Mohd Ashrafful was caught plum in front of the wicket.

The strip which seemed dead when India was batting, suddenly looked lively with left-arm pacer RP Singh also generating pace and bounce from the other end. He crammed Shahriar Nafees for space inducing an edge to Dhoni.

However, India's fielding was not up to the mark as agile Dinesh Kaarthick dropped two chances in the slip squadron. He first dropped Shakib-al-Hasan of RP Singh at third slip and then in the next over let go Rajen Saleh at the same position off Zaheer Khan. To add to it, Romesh Power also dropped Shakib again at point of RP Singh.

After the drop chances, the Bangladeshi innings seemed to return to stability at 16 for four. But Anil Kumble proved all wrong when he was introduced in the 11th over. He was bang on target with his second delivery which saw the end of Rajen Saleh's 20-run innings as he inside edged his top spin on to Wasim Jaffer at forward short leg.

Bangladesh's top half were back to the dressing room at 40 for five after 10.4.

However, the Indian innings that was going at a snail's pace was given the necessary fillip by a rampaging Dhoni who notched up the third fifty of his career in 51 balls with three fours and four sixes. All the three sixes came in Rafique's 45th over when he slamdunked the bowler for 18 runs. He reached his 50 with a huge swipe that Shahriar Nafees guarding the long-off boundary misread and tossed the ball for a six.

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