Bengaluru: India beat Bangladesh by one run in the group stage Super 10 World Twenty20 match at Chinnaswamy Stadium here in a humdinger of a contest on Wednesday.
Replying to India’s 146/7 in 20 overs, Bangladesh managed to hit 145/9 in the same number of overs.
The final over of the match witnessed some heart stopping moments where India, facing a defeat, snatched a victory with the help of two superb catches by Shikhar Dhawan and Ravindra Jadeja on Hardik Pandya’s deliveries and Captain Dhoni’s last ball sprint to run out Mustafizur Rahman with the batsmen centimetres away from the crease.
Requiring 11 runs of six balls in the last over, Bangladesh hit a single, two fours and lost three wickets to finally lose by a run.
Chasing a target of 146 runs, Tamim Iqbal top scored with 35 runs of 32 balls hitting five fours for Bangladesh. Sabbir Rahman (26), Shakib Al Hasan (22), Mahmudullah (18), Soumya Sarkar (21) and Mushfiqur Rahim (11) also chipped in with the bat.
India’s Ravichandran Ashwin produced a splendid bowling of 2/20 in four overs with an economy rate of just five runs. He was adjudged the player of the match.
Almost emulating Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja also produced a bowling performance of 2/22 in four overs.
Winning the toss, Bangladesh captain Masrafe Bin Mortaza put India to bat first. Interestingly, all toss winning captains at Bengaluru have chosen to field first.
India started off slowly with only two fours in the first three overs. Many times the ball went straight into fielders hands and India India were 27/0 in the first five overs.
Both the openers, Rohit Sharma and Shikar Dhawan hit a six each to satiate the spectators’ hunger for big hits even as they roared “We want six”.
Suresh Raina top scored for India with 30 runs in 23 balls, including two sixes and a four.
Virat Kohli (24), Dhawan (23), Sharma (18), Hardik Pandya (15), M.S. Dhoni (13) and Ravindra Jadeja contributed their bit to build a decent total for India.
Though Al-Amin Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman took two wickets each, both proved expensive for Bangladesh by letting 37 and 34 runs each in their quota of four overs.
Bowling only one over, Mahmudullah claimed a wicket allowing just four runs.
With the latest victory, India climbed to the second spot in Group two with four points and a net run rate of -0.546 while Bangladesh continued to stay at the bottom with zero points.
Brief Scores: India 146/7 in 20 overs (Suresh Raina 30, Virat Kohli 24; Al-Amin Hossain 2/37, Mustafizur Rahman 2/34) beat Bangladesh 145/9 in 20 overs (Tamim Iqbal 35, Sabbir Rahman 26; Ravichandran Ashwin 2/20, Ravindra Jadeja 2/22).
(IANS)
