Batsmen put India A in commanding position

India A lost out on two-and-a-half hours to overnight and mid-afternoon rain, but Bangladesh A were left needing more rain on the final day after more injudicious shots. In the field they were hampered by injuries to both the quicks, Rubel Hossain and Shafiul Islam, who bowled only 6.1 overs between them. Against innocuous spin every Indian batsman flourished: overnight centurion Shikhar Dhawan raced away to 150, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu allrounders Karun Nair and Vijay Shankar scored fluent half-centuries to set up a declaration, and the bowlers enjoyed the trigger-happy Bangladesh top order to take two wickets in the 11 overs possible before bad light took off some more time from India.

Dhawan began the day where he left off, resuming on 116 he kept playing with the field through nifty foot movement and a wide array of shots. In such form and mood, he can make captains look silly and guilty of following the ball. Against error-prone spinners it seemed he could have accumulated for however long he desired, but his sense of adventure got the better of him. Just after reaching 150, he fell lbw while reverse-sweeping. It wasn't going to slow India down. Shreyas Iyer kept attacking, often going over cover in his 38 off 55 balls, and he fell just after putting India into the lead, again trying to force the pace, looking to go over midwicket.

Nair and Shankar then began a fruitful association. Nair's driving through covers was pretty and precise, and Shankar began solidly. They added 108 in under 30 overs. Nair - 71 off 97 - dominated that stand, piercing the gap between short cover and extra cover repeatedly, hitting 12 fours, before falling to a Jubair Hossain legbreak that stayed low. Shankar had just started to build a partnership with Naman Ojha when heavy rain sent the players off. At that time India were 131 ahead, and Shankar had scored 48 runs off 93 balls.

After the rain, followed a storm. With declaration on his mind Shankar showed the other side of his game. At will he launched spinners into the stands effortlessly. In 17 balls after the rain break he looted 38 runs to give India a possible day and 16 overs to bowl Bangladesh out and knock off whatever might be necessary.

"I never thought about going for the hundred," Shankar said. "After the break we just wanted to get as many runs for the team. I could have taken ones and twos but I was thinking of getting boundaries."

The openers didn't seem in the mood to make India work hard. They kept playing at wide balls regularly. Soon enough and sure enough, Anamul Haque became the first one to edge Ishwar Pandey through. That Soumya Sarkar fell to a vicious offbreak from Jayant Yadav shouldn't take away from the shots he played against the quicks before that. Varun Aaron didn't even bowl, perhaps because of the fading light.

"We have been playing bad shots," Haque agreed. "We are not that used to playing longer formats of the game. We will need to work hard to force a draw in this game."