Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has come forward in defense of keeper-vice-captain KL Rahul, who dropped Mehidy Hasan’s catch at a crucial juncture of the first ODI between Bangladesh and India which was played in Dhaka on December 4.
India could only manage 186 runs after being put into bat with KL Rahul top-scoring with 73 runs. In reply, Indian bowlers had Bangladesh reduced to 136/9 at one stage, but then Mehidy Hasan’s unbeaten 38* and his 51*-run stand for the 10th wicket with Mustafizur Rahman took Bangladesh past the finishing line with 4 overs remaining and one wicket in hand.
The Men in Blue fell apart during this partnership as two catches of Mehidy were missed, one by Washington Sundar who couldn’t see the ball and failed to go for the catch, and one by KL Rahul, who ran till fine leg for a top-edge and grassed the catch.
Talking about the same, Sunil Gavaskar told Sony Sports: “You can’t really say that was it. Because yes, I think that was the last wicket. That should have made the match over. But the fact that India scored 186, I think you gonna look at that as well.
The bowlers did wonderfully well, to get themselves in a position where they were 136-9. And then Hasan Miraj came, they had a bit of luck with that drop catch, but he played really well. He played sensibly. They took the attack to the opposition and played some bold shots.”
“When you are asked to chase less than 4 runs an over. Like Bangladesh were asked to chase, automatically, the pressure comes down. Bangladesh made it difficult for themselves by playing ultra-cautiously. That’s what got them into trouble. I think India didn’t score 70-80 more runs is the reason why they lost,” he added.
The second ODI will be played at the same venue on Wednesday.
