India registered a comprehensive victory over Bangladesh at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in, Antigua. The Rohit Sharma-led side ticked all three boxes and are on the verge of qualifying for the semi-finals of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. They have been clinical with both bat and ball as the Bangla Tigers looked clueless most of the time and were 50 runs short in the end.
Batting first, the dynamic duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli gave India a very good start. The skipper played an aggressive brand of cricket while Kohli played the role of an anchor as they built a partnership of 39 runs. After Rohit’s dismissal in the fourth over, Kohli took control of the situation and made 37 runs off 28 runs. After which, India lost two back-to-back wickets, which put the Men in Blue under some pressure.
Rishabh Pant took over from there and made 36 runs off 24 balls. After his dismissal, the Hardik Pandya show began. The star all-rounder did not take much time to settle down as he played an aggressive brand of cricket, based on which, India posted 196 runs in the first innings. Hardik meanwhile remained not out for 50 runs.
Also Read - Twitter Reactions: Hardik Pandya’s explosive half-century against Bangladesh rekindles fan love
When it came to the chase, Bangladesh struggled and struggled big time. Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah kept them under immense pressure and when the spinners waived their magic, Bangladesh started losing wickets. Kuldeep Yadav once again had a terrific day on the field as he picked up three wickets. Towards the end, Bumrah and Arshdeep picked up two wickets each as India registered an easy win over their neighbours.
1. Undefeated India look champion worthy
India have ticked all the boxes in the match against Bangladesh. Kohli returned to form and Shivam Dube’s 34 runs off 24 balls too is extremely encouraging. Ahead of the business end of the tournament, everything seems to be going in India’s favour and they are once again looking like a champion side. However, they looked the same during the ODI World Cup 2023. The fans need to keep that in mind.
2. Lacklustre Bangladesh need a superhero
Shakib Al Hasan used to be Bangladesh’s superhero in crunch times but with age, he is no longer the same player. The Bangla Tigers desperately need a superhero who can inspire the team to do better. Against India, the bowlers lacked character and the batters played defensively, which shows that they were never in the hunt to chase that. It is a very concerning sign, to say the least.
Losing skipper Najmul Shanto said:
We are thinking about 160-170 when we put them into bat, but they batted well so credit to them. [on the weather and wind] I don't think that is an issue, the players are habituated to that. We did not show as much intent as we needed with the bat, when we are chasing 190, we needed to show more intent especially in the first six. Try to contribute but need to finish the games. Tanzim Sakib in this tournament has done a great job and happy for Rishad too, we have been looking for a good legspinner for a long time now.
Winning skipper Rohit Sharma said:
[on playing aggressively with bat] I have been talking about this for a long time now. It's about going there and putting that into work. Considering everything we played really well, adapted to the conditions. There's a little bit of wind factor here, overall we are very smart, overall we were good with bat and ball. All eight batters need to play their role, whatever it is. We saw one guy get 50 and we got 197, in T20 I don't believe we need to get fifties and hundreds, what matters is the pressure you put on the bowlers. All the batters from the word go played like and and that's how we want to play as well. There is a lot of experience in the squad and we back them. [on Hardik] I mentioned in the last game as well, him batting well puts us in a good stead. We want to finish well after the top 5, 6, Hardik being Hardik we know what he is capable of. He is a very important player for us, if he can keep doing that, it will put us in good positions. Excitement and if we discuss something with the bowler and when it comes off, it's nice. Everyone when it came to our bowling adapted well and we discussed those things and they did well.
POTM Hardik Pandya said:
We have played really good cricket. More than anything we have stuck together and executed our plans. I did realise the batters wanted to use the breeze, I made sure I did not give them a chance where the wind was blowing, it was about being one step ahead as a batter. We as a group can get better in a lot of places, losing wickets in bunches is something we can rectify and get better at, apart from that, we are looking good. I have been fortunate to play for the country, it was a freak injury I had, I wanted to come back but God had other plans. Luck comes to people who work hard and that has stuck with me for a long time.
from Cricket News: Today's Top news and headlines from cricket world | CricTracker.com https://ift.tt/dL5VCre