The India cricket team escaped a massive upset to beat Japan by just two runs in a rain-curtailed one-off T20I match at the Sano International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday (September 22).
A delayed start due to a wet outfield forced the officials to reduce the match to a rapid five-overs-a-side shootout.
Opting to bat first on a turning wicket, India managed to post 32/4 in their 5 overs with only skipper Shreyas Iyer (16 off 12 balls) managing to reach double figures. Charlie Hara-Hinze returned with the impressive bowling figures of 2-0-17-2 for Japan, dismissing Abhishek Sharma (0) and Iyer.
In reply, the hosts gave the reigning T20 World Champions a major scare but eventually fell a couple of runs short of the target. The Men in Blue restricted Japan to 30/3 as Washington Sundar claimed 2/13 for India.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, former cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra minced no words and criticized the substandard playing conditions offered for the historic fixture.
"As far as the pitch is concerned, it is a big challenge. Because the way it played and the match happened, started quickly and ended quickly, it almost went like a blur. But matches cannot be played on these types of pitches if you want to take international cricket to remote areas. It has to be played on better surfaces. It is not raining, but the ground is not drying up because you don't have a super sopper or the capacity to cover it. If you are playing an international match here, then it is just not good enough. This is a challenge that everyone will have to sort out," Chopra said.
"Genuinely, at one stage, you thought that we're done. We were thinking fun and frolic, we'll just laugh and giggle and get through it. The Indian team also seemed to have similar intentions and attitude, which is understandable and acceptable. Not a huge fan of a 5-over game, but under the circumstances, it was okay," Chopra added.
After the game, Indian captain Shreyas Iyer also spoke about the challenging pitch, where batters found it difficult to judge the pace of the spin.
“Well, certainly turning square. Honestly speaking, it was a very difficult wicket to bat on. We saw the openers as well, who are used to scoring runs consistently, not able to gauge the pace of the spin, and I decided when I got in that it's important that I need to take singles and doubles and rotate the strike as much as possible,” Iyer said.
Team India will now shift their focus to the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, where they enter as defending champions and will begin their campaign directly in the quarter-final stage on September 28.
