The Nidahas Triseries 2018 has been an entertaining series which stood at a point with all the teams with equal points at one stage. However, India defeated Sri Lanka 2 days ago and today faced Bangladesh in a bid to finalize their spot in the finals.
Bangladesh won the toss and Mahmudullah asked India to bat first on a ground, which has seen teams batting second winning the matches. India made one change, as Mohd Siraj came in for Jaydev Unadkat and Bangladesh brought it Abu Hider in place of Taskin Ahmed.
India got off to a slow but steady start as Rohit and Dhawan took their time to get set before blasting off. They added 70 runs in 9.5 overs before Shikhar Dhawan was bowled by a brilliant yorker from Rubel Hossain for 35 runs in 27 balls with 5 fours and 1 six.
Rohit was joined by Suresh Raina (47 off 30 balls; 5 fours and 2 sixes) and the duo stepped on the gas for India and scored 102 runs in the next 10 overs. Suresh Raina was caught by Soumya Sarkar off Rubel Hossain in the last over. Rubel was Bangladesh’s best bowler with figures of 2/27 in four overs.
Rohit Sharma hit 89 off 61 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes and was run out off the last ball of Indian innings. India ended up making 176/3 in 20 overs.
Bangladesh needed a quick start, but Washington Sundar (3/22) removed Liton Das for 7 and Soumya Sarkar for 1, before sending Tamim Iqbal back for 27 in 19 balls with 4 fours and 1 six, just as he was looking dangerous.
However Mushfiqur Rahim continued his superlative form in this series. Despite Mahmudullah getting dismissed by Chahal for 11, Rahim and Sabbir continued to keep Bangladesh in the chase. Sabbir was sent back by Shardul Thakur for 27.
Mushfiqur Rahim (72* off 55 balls; 8 fours and 1 six) tried his best to keep Bangladesh in the chase and repeat his performance against Sri Lanka. However, Mohd Siraj kind of helped Mushfiqur as he gave away 50 or more runs in a T20I match for the second time in three matches of his career and picked a wicket though.
It came down to 28 runs to win in the last over and pressure was on Mohd Siraj to defend the total and Siraj somehow managed to do defend the total despite giving two boundaries away.
India won the match by 17 runs and qualified for the finals.
BRIEF SCORES:
IND 176/3 (R Sharma 89, S RAINA 47; R HOSSAIN 2/27) defeated BAN 159/6 (M RAHIM 72*; W SUNDAR 3/22) by 17 runs
