Ind vs Ban 1st T20I Highlights was a stellar by Bangladesh as they registered a historic victory against India. The 3-match series saw them securing a convincing lead.
Indians struggle throughout
Ind vs Ban 1st T20I Highlights began with Indians struggling on a sluggish pitch. Once the captain was dismissed in the very first over and the procession started. India lost wickets at regular intervals and could manage to post 148/6 after being asked to bat.
Shikhar Dhawan top-scored with a 42-ball 41 but his strike-rate didn’t help much. In fact, Shikhar Dhawan is the first Indian to score more than 40 runs in a T20I game while batting first at a strike below 100.
There was a 13-ball 22 cameo from Shreyas Iyer and a 26-ball 27 from Rishabh Pant as India’s innings crawled along. Shafiul Islam and Aminul Islam scalped two wickets apiece.
Rohit Sharma scored only nine runs but he went past Mahendra Singh Dhoni to make a unique record. This was his 99th appearance in the T20I format; the most by any player for the Indian team in Men’s T20I cricket.
MS Dhoni had appeared in 98 games and now Rohit stands only behind Shoaib Malik (111) in the overall list of Men’s T20I cricket. He also surpassed India’s regular captain Virat Kohli’s tally of 2450 runs as Rohit was seven runs behind Kohli when the match began.
Rahim leads to the historic win
Chasing the target was not a huge task but it was a defendable score by Indians. Â Moreover, Bangladesh lost Liton Das in the first over which gave India the momentum. Soumya Sarkar (39) and Mohammad Naim (26) put on a vital 46-run stand before Mushfiqur arrived to provide the boost to the scoring.
By the time Bangladesh was a lot more settled. Mushfiqur Rahim starred with a 43-ball 60* and Mahmudullah added a decent unbeaten 15 off just seven balls. Rahim was unstoppable especially in the death overs of Khaleel Ahmed. His vital late runs helped the visitors secure a seven-wicket victory with three balls to spare.
Rahim and Mahmudullah were playing calculative innings when the former was dropped by Krunal Pandya. It was just after Soumya Sarkar’s dismissal when Rahim was on 38. It was a length ball on the stumps and Mushfiqur went for the slog sweep.
The ball went straight towards Pandya at deep mid-wicket who dropped it. Â It bounced once before crossing the boundary. That was undoubtedly the turning point of the match.
India was still in a position to defend the required run. But after getting a life Rahim went for an onslaught. The second last over off Khaleed saw him smashing four back to back boundaries and took his team closer to the finishing line.
History made!
They never let go off the momentum and easily chased the target down in the last over with three balls to spare. This T20I between India and Bangladesh in Delhi was the 1000th International Twenty20 game in Men’s cricket.
India alone hosted 78 of those; the 4th most number of T20Is in a country. Most importantly, this was only the first time Bangladesh recorded a win against India on Indian soil. India won all the five Internationals they played at home against Bangladesh. Moreover, the visitors lost each of their last eight fixtures in India including seven T20Is.
Bangladesh’s win became sweeter because they were without their star players like Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal. Bangladesh had played three T20I matches without the duo in the past and lost all three. This was their first win without the superstars in the squad.