India Seals A Thriller Against Bangladesh By 1 Run

India have sealed a thriller against Bangladesh winning the T20 World Cup 2016 game by one run at Bangalore. Bangladesh goofed up in the latter half of the final over, when they required just two off the final three balls but did not even manage to score one. The Bangladesh chase had a rather forgettable start. They were unable to make most of the opening overs of the powerplay. The mounting pressure took it’s toll in form of a wicket when Ravichandran Ashwin had Mohammad Mithun caught at deep midwicket in the third over. Mithun scored just one run off three balls. India could have lorded it over Bangladesh a lot more in the early overs had Jasprit Bumrah not dropped a skier at third man, offered by Tamim Iqbal of Ashwin in the fifth over. Tamim cashed in on the chance and went on to play some fantastic shots.

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India had to wait till the eighth over for the next wicket to come when Tamim moved down the track in attempt to take the attack to Ravindra Jadeja, missed and MS Dhoni completed the stumping. Sabbir Rahman was on a run-scoring spree and could have put Bangladesh in the driver’s seat. But, batting comfortably on 26 he made a silly mistake. He missed an attempted drive, but was well in his crease. For some reason he jumped mid-air to regain his balance perhaps. Dhoni casually whipped the bails off and asked the umpire the question without any real conviction, but the replays showed that Rahman was in the air when the bail was taken of.

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Shakib Al Hasan inspired some confidence from the Bangladesh point of view with some lusty blows for six. He kept the scoreboard ticking, but India see-sawed back into the contest when he was dismissed by Ashwin for a 15-ball 22 in the 13th over. Ravindra Jadeja removed Mashrafe Mortaza, who had promoted himself in a bid to up the scoring rate. Mortaza managed to only score one six in the five balls he faced.

Thereafter Soumya Sarkar and Mahmadullah tried to steady the ship with some calm batting, but they were unable to keep the scoreboard ticking and the pressure mounted on Bangladesh. Sarkar particularly struggled against the spin of Ashwin. Mahmadullah has been in great form but even he was bogged down by some tight bowling. However, owing to the small nature of the target, and some good hitting by Shakib and Tamim, the asking rate was never out of hand.

Bumrah made up for his earlier faults in the 17th over, when he strung almost six perfect yorkers together. In the final three overs, Bangladesh were required needing 27 off three overs. Nehra bowled the next over and started with a nice yorker, but the next ball was a poor short ball and was put away by Sarkar with a cracking pull shot to deep square leg. Nehra then got a wicket off a full toss when Sarkar failed to get hold of it and was caught at long on for a run-a-ball 21. At that stage Bangladesh were left requiring 21 off 13 balls. Nehra followed it up with another full toss, and this time Mahmadullah put it away for four, meaning Bangladesh required 17 off the final two overs.

INDIA WIN BY 1 RUN

Bumrah bowled the penultimate over and under pressure bowled some fantastic deliveries. He conceded just six runs of the six balls, a single of each ball. Bangladesh were left requiring 11 off the final over, which was to be bowled by Hardik Pandya. He conceded just one run of the first ball. He conceded a boundary of the next ball taking the equation to six off four balls. Mushfiqur then scored another boundary with a paddle, bringing the equation to two of three balls. But then Musfiqur got caught at midwicket. The next ball, Mahmadullah got a full toss but failed to get the best of the bat on it, and was caught at the midwicket again. Leaving Bangladesh needing two off one ball. It was a wide ball outside off which the batsman missed and attempted to run a bye, Dhoni ran towards the stump to dislodge the stumps and it was marginally out as shown on the big screen.

INDIA BEATS BANGLADESH BY 1 RUN

India earlier scored a middling 146 for 7 against Bangladesh. The pitch may not have been particularly conducive to shot-making, but credit has to go to the Bangladeshi bowlers for very smart bowling right through the innings. They bowled the right lines and lengths throughout and from the wrists of Mustafizur Rahman and palms of Shakib they had a good dose of variations. India struggled to keep the scoreboard ticking for most part, getting bogged down by good bowling and a slowish surface. The Bangladesh bowlers had a lot to cash in on this surface and that is precisely what they did.

The openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan’s struggles made evident the nature of the surface. They were unable to get the boundaries in the powerplay period, even though they are typically players who thrive in aggression. The first five overs brought them less than 30 runs. Mortaza experimented with a whole range of bowlers in that period, including himself, Shuvagata Hom, Al Amin Hossain, Mustafizur and Shakib.

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Mustafizur erred on his line in the sixth over and got smashed for a couple of sixes, one from each batsman each. But being the crafty bowler he is, he came back with a cutter that foxed Rohit in that very over, to have him caught at midwicket. Dhawan fell soon after to Shakib, falling leg before.

Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, then stitched a steady partnership, although at a sluggish rate by their usual standards. Raina seemed to be really struggling, but made up for it with a couple of sixes which broke the monotony of infrequent singles and injected some thrill in the Indian innings.

Kohli, who has been in spectacular form, also struggled for timing. He managed to score a run-a-ball 24 at time of his dismissal to part-time bowler Hom. Raina fell soon after for a mere a 23-ball 30, miscuing a pull shot of Al Amin-Hossain’s bowling. Hardik Pandya came in with a bang, smashing a six of Hom and hit a couple of fours. He scored a 7-ball 15 and had it not been for an absolute blinder by Soumya Sarkar at square leg, could have scored a lot more.

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Yuvraj Singh failed to come to grips with the nature of the surface and scored just three runs off six balls before miscuing a pull shot of Mahmadullah to fine leg. In the final two overs, MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja capitalised on some loose bowling by Al-Amin Hossain to score a few boundaries and give India some late impetus.

Mustafizur bowled the final over. He got Jadeja castled off the very first delivery. He next had to bowl to Ravichandran Ashwin and goofed up by bowling one down leg, which Ashwin tickled down to the fine leg boundary. He then rotated strike to give Dhoni the opportunity to finish well. But Dhoni was unable to make most of it, scoring just four of the final three balls.