CHENNAI: There's been an air of inevitability about this Test match since the time Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had that partnership of 199 in the first innings. On Saturday afternoon in fading light, the duo was in ‘let's finish the Test today' mode after the young entertainers Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill had raced away to their centuries. But captain Rohit Sharma felt he needed a bit of variety and decided to introduce paceman Mohammed Siraj .
The light meter came in immediately, the light was offered, and Bangladesh lived to fight another day. Chasing 515 for victory, Bangladesh were 158-4 and not looking too comfortable against the spinners when the third day's play was called off due to bad light. Ashwin (3-63) was in his element, causing maximum damage while Jadeja was looking threatening with turn from the rough outside the left-hander's off-stump.
But they will have to come back on Sunday and finish the job as captain Najmul Hossain Shanto (51 batting) and Shakib Al Hasan (5 batting) will try to battle on. There's a bit of rain round the corner, but the excellent MA Chidambaram Stadium drainage should allow enough game time for India to wrap things up. In fact, it was the drainage which had a role in the match starting at the right time after some strong showers in the early hours of Saturday.
Under a murky sky, it was on Pant and Gill to entertain the weekend crowd and how well they did it. The lead, of course, was already over 300 and there wasn't too.