India beat Bangla Tigers by 8 wkts in 2nd Twenty 20
Beat Bangla Tigers by 8 wickets in second T20
Rajkot, Nov. 7: Skipper Rohit Sharma smashed 85 off 43 deliveries as India beat Bangladesh by eight wickets in the second Twenty20 international on Thursday to level the three-match series at 1-1. Sharma, playing his 100th T20I, put on 118 runs for the opening wicket with Shikhar Dhawan, who made 31, as the hosts achieved their target of 154 in only 15.4 overs in Rajkot. Earlier, Indian bowlers led by Yuzvendra Chahal made an impressive comeback to restrict Bangladesh to a subpar 153 for 6 in their must-win T20. Put into bat, Bangladesh could not capitalise on a good start as Chahal’s (2/28) double breakthrough in the 13th over pegged the visitors back. A quick-fire 30 off 21 balls by skipper Mahmudullah Riyad helped them cross the 150-mark. Openers Liton Das (29 off 21 balls, 4x4) and Mohammad Naim (36 off 31 balls, 5x4) shared a 60 run opening stand. Naim slammed profligate left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed (1/44 from 4 overs) for three successive boundaries to start on rousing note. Seamer Deepak Chahar (1/25) and off-spinner Washington Sundar (1/25) did manage to stem the flow of runs but Khaleel’s poor show continued. Chahal, on his introduction, had almost removed a set Liton, but Rishabh Pant's urge to complete glovework quickly gave the batsman lifeline. The TV replays showed that while whipping the bails off, Pant collected the ball in front of the stumps and hence it was declared no-ball. As per the law, every part of wicketkeeper’s gloves has to be behind the stumps. Das then hammered two successive fours to add insult to injury. He got another reprieve on 26 after skipper Rohit Sharma dropped him at square-leg following a mix-up with Shivam Dube and Pant. But Pant made up for his mistake and ran Das out, with a direct hit in the eighth over, to break the opening stand. Das’s wicket slowed the scoring rate and that put Naim under pressure, who then gave a dolly to Shreyas Iyer at deep-midwicket off Washington as Bangladesh slumped were 83/ 2 in the 11th over. And then Yuzvendra picked two wickets in the 13th over — Mushfiqur Rahim (4 off 6 balls), who gave a sitter to Krunal Pandya and then removed
a set Soumya Sarkar (30 off 20 balls; 2x4, 1x6) — as Bangladesh were struggling at 103/4. Sarkar was stumped by Pant.
Mahmudullah and Afif Hossain (6) tried to steady the ship with a 25 runstand but Khaleel broke the stand dismissing Hossain to leave Bangladesh teetering at 128 for 5 and then they just managed to cross the 150-run-mark as the bowlers bowled in right areas.