NEW DELHI: On a historic night for Bangladesh, the visitors managed to trump India by seven wickets (with three balls remaining) in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground here on Sunday. This was their first win against the hosts in nine attempts.
Despite the poor air quality, there was decent turnout but the crowd present were let down by an all-round poor performance from the Men in Blue. None of the players impressed with some bizarre displays out in the middle.
This was the 1000th T20 international since the format’s inception.
India’s major worry in T20Is has been their inability to set high targets for the opposition. And that was the case yet again on a pitch which did not have demons but was on the slower side. With stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma indicating there are spots up for grabs ahead of next year’s World T20, there were players who played just to preserve their place in the scheme of things instead of giving it their all.
Shikhar Dhawan has not had the best of times and there were expectations that he would come good at his home ground. But he managed only 41 off 42 balls, barely looking threatening. The other disappointing knock came from another local boy: Rishabh Pant. He was spoken of highly by Rohit prior to the game and how this was the format that suited his skillset the most. But he ended up with 27 off 26 balls.
The other youngsters — KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Shivam Dube also failed as India managed only a below par 148 for six. It would have been even less if not for 30 runs that came off the last two overs thanks to some hard hitting from Washington Sundar (14 off 5 balls) and Krunal Pandya (15 off 8 balls).
Pacer Shafiul Islam (2/36) and leg-spinner Aminul Islam (2/22) shared four wickets between them.
While India’s reserve bowlers have been praised in recent times, the attack was made to look ordinary by experienced Bangladeshi batsmen Mushfiqur Rahim (60 n.o off 43), Soumya Sarkar and skipper Mahmudullah. Mushfiqur was the most impressive, with his innovative range of shots that kept the Indian bowlers on their toes.
That this win came without Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal was another highlight. This was the first win without the two for the neighbours. “Everybody was cool and calm, we all were thinking positive. Tamim and Shakib are senior players, we dedicate this win to them,” Sarkar said at the end of the match.
India, despite not picking up too many wickets, had kept the scoring under check and were looking like pulling off another narrow victory just like the last three encounters. But a Krunal dropped chance and some lacklustre bowling from Khaleel Ahmed made sure the opposition got over the line.
Brief scores: India 148/6 in 20 ovs (Dhawan 41) lost to Bangladesh 154/3 in 19.3 ovs (Mushfiqur 60 n.o, Sarkar 39).