Hyderabad, India: A fighting half-century from Bangladesh’s Mahmudullah kept India at bay despite two wickets falling before lunch on the final day of the one-off Test in Hyderabad on Monday.

Facing the probability of having to bat the entire day for a draw after being set 459 for victory, Bangladesh were 202 for five at lunch. after resuming on 103 for three at the start of play.

Mahmudullah, who began the day on nine, was on 58 having shrugged off a run of low scores to record his 13^th Test fifty. Sabbir Rahman was not out 18.

India’s Ravichandran Ashwin, who in his 45^th Test had become the fastest bowler to claim 250 Test wickets on Sunday, has taken three of the five wickets to fall while Ravindra Jadeja has the other two.

Jadeja struck early to remove Shakib Al Hasan, who was undone by turn and bounce as he popped up a catch off bat and pad to Cheteshwar Pujara lurking at short-leg to be out of for 22.

First-innings centurion Mushfiqur Rahim then joined Mahmudullah in a fifth-wicket partnership of 56 runs before Ashwin ended the stand by notching up his 253^rd Test victim.

Skipper Rahim went down the track to attack, but Ashwin saw him coming and shortened his length to draw the batsman into a mistimed lofted drive which found Jadeja fielding at mid-on.

On Sunday’s day 4, Bangladesh resumed the 1st innings with overnight score of 322/6 in 104 overs and finished shortly before the lunch on day four scoring 388/10 in 127.5 overs to trail by 299 runs.

India, having a mammoth 687/6-d in the 1st innings, decided not to enforce the follow-on and opened the 2nd innings that was also declared with a figure of 159/4 in 29 overs at tea, extending their lead to 458 from 299 runs.

Bangladesh opened the 2nd innings and remained at stumps playing 35 overs for 103/3 where Shakib Al Hasan (21 off 42 b; 4x4) and Mahmudullah Riyad (9 off 29b) were on batting to resume the innings on day five.

Bangladesh’s three top-order batters—Tamim Iqbal(3), Soumya Sarkar(42) and Mominul Haque (27)—failed to stay the day’s around two-hour last session as they left the crease at for 75 playing 24.1 overs.

After Mominul, Shakib came to pair Mahmudullah in the 4th wicket to play till the end.

Ravichandran Ashwin bagged two wickets for 34 while Ravindra Jadeja one 27 runs for India.

Earlier, Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim started the day with overnight score of 81, finally finished his painstaking innings of 262 balls scoring 127 for his 5th Test century which involved 16 boundaries and two over boundaries.             

Another overnight batsman Mehedi Hasan Miraz faced four balls on the day, but failed to add any more run with his 3rd day’s collection of 51 off 103 balls, including 10 boundaries as he was bowled out by Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

After Miraz’s departure at 322/7 in 104.4 overs, three lower-order batsmen—Taijul Islam(10), Taskin Ahmed(8) and Kamrul Islam Rabbi*-- gave 83 balls company to Mushfiqur, who was caught behind by Wriddhiman Saha off Ravichandran Ashwin bowing at Bangladesh’s final collection.

Umesh Yadav captured three wickets for 84 runs while Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin bagged two wickets each for 70 and 98 runs in the 1st innings.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma took one wicket each for 52 and 69 runs.

India’s 4th day’s collection saw Cheteshwar Pujara’s unbeaten half century of 54 runs while skipper Virat Kohli (38), Ajinkya Rahane(28), Ravindra Jadeja(16 not out) and Lokesh Rahul(10) were the other double figure scorers for the side.

Making the first breakthrough in the Indian batting castle, pacer Taskin Ahmed captured two top-order batsmen - Murali Vijay and Lokesh Rahul - for 43 runs.

Shakib captured another two wickets—Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane—for 50 runs.