India vs Bangladesh, 2nd T20I, Nidahas Trophy 2018: Who said what as India beat Bangladesh by 6 wickets
After conceding the first match against hosts Sri Lanka, the Indian team came roaring back to make their presence felt with a demanding win against Bangladesh.
Captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first on a slightly sluggish surface and the bowlers vindicated the decision by picking up regular wickets in the powerplay to peg back Bangladesh right at the outset.
It was a strange display by the Bangladeshis as they played plenty of premeditated strokes only to be found wanting and they threw away the wickets in the process.
The Indian bowlers shared the wickets and kept chipping away at the batting order and in the end Bangladesh crawled their way to a mediocre score of 139, which was well below par.
India got off to a breezy start courtesy few sparkling strokes from Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma, but the Indian captain chopped one onto his stumps to be dismissed for 17.
Rishabh Pant was promoted up the order but he could not do justice to this move as he was knocked over seven runs.
However, this momentum was arrested by Suresh Raina and Dhawan who put together a stand of 68 runs in nine overs to ease India's chase.
Dhawan's purple patch extended as his notched up another fifty, but Raina perished for 28 off 27 balls.
Manish Pandey joined Dhawan in the middle and the duo took India close to the finishing line, but Dhawan holed out at long on for a well-made 55.
However, this came too late for Bangladesh as India breached the target with six wickets in hand.
Here is how the players reacted after the match:
Vijay Shankar who picked up 2 wickets for 32 runs in 4 overs, also the player of the match: Yeah definitely. I have been enjoying this. Very important for me to adapt. I believe it is a difficult length (short of length) to get after. It (the surface) looks pretty similar. We took wickets with the new ball and in the middle overs. If we bat to our potential, we should get this score.
Been looking forward to this. Have been working hard, so very happy. Bowling has given me something extra in my game. We got wickets today, which helped us restrict them. A lot of people (inspired me). Being with this team is a dream for every cricketer. Everyone in the dressing room is very supportive.
Mahmudullah, Bangladesh captain: "We didn't bat well. We should have scored 30 more runs. We need to find out how to get runs on these kinds of wickets. Think the bowlers did a pretty good job. We need to rotate the strike more often. Dot balls create pressure on the batsmen. Need to find gaps and get boundaries in the middle overs. One win will boost us and will reflect in our game. Hopefully, we'll get it."
Rohit Sharma, Indian captain: "I think it was a great performance, something that was expected from us. Right from the start to the end, it was clinical and a complete team effort. We looked into what went wrong in the game against Sri Lanka and we thought hitting the length was the option for us. We wanted their batsmen to take on the longer boundaries. Bowlers executed plans very well. Catching is something where there's always room for improvement. We want to get better as a fielding side. We are much better than that."