ICC World T20 2014: Two spicy encounters in one day

Amit Mishra with his Man of the Match award after the game

23rd March 2014 will be remembered as one of the most action packed days in the history of T20 cricket. The otherwise slow pitch of Dhaka proved to be a hot battle ground for the two most important encounters in the ongoing World T20. The topsy-turvy encounter between Australia and Pakistan was followed by a good match between India and the West Indies.

The first match provided minute to minute anxiety to the billions of cricket loving fans worldwide. In fact, few of the experts had written that the Netherlands-Ireland match played on Friday as of one the most exciting, but the way today Australians tried to fight it out against a huge target of 192 – it was really an eye opener. Since the pitch of Dhaka has proved to be a batting friendly track, the West Indies and India were primarily looking to rely on the battery of their stroke players. However, the second match was much more one-sided.

MS Dhoni, after winning the toss, chose to field first. As far as the bowling strength of West Indies is concerned, they looked to be dependent on the magical Sunil Narine. Apart from Narine, only Darren Sammy has shown the ability to strike. But their real strength lies with their strong batting line up consisting of Gayle, Samuels, Smith and Bravo, who can rip through any bowling attack.

India got a good start and Bhuvneshwar Kumar kept the run rate at a reasonable level. But then Shami gave quite a few extras. On top of it, R Ashwin and Yuvraj Singh missed very easy catches of Chris Gayle. Commentators said that missing vital catches of batsmen like Gayle is certainly not a good omen for team India. Sidhu said that Ashwin was simply trying to contain the runs and the edge for taking wickets was missing from his bowling. However, Smith attempted to smash a delivery and gave a catch to the Ashwin. The score became 38 for 1 after 8 overs.

For a change, Raina was put into the attack. The spinners contained the run rate very well and did not give any freedom to the West Indies batsmen. Gayle got three lives, but could not take much advantage as he was run out. After that, Amit Mishra got two wickets in two balls, further denting West Indies’ progress. In the middle overs, the batsmen were unable to score any boundaries and really struggled to score even 6 runs per over. Towards the end, they smashed some big hits, but it was too little too late. Ultimately, they got to 129-7, which was well below par.

For India, Jadeja took 3 wickets, but he gave away 48 runs. Mishra was again effective, as he took 2-18. The stand out performer was Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who gave away just 3 runs in 3 overs. At the interval, it was looking as if India had an easy target to chase, and it proved true.

In reply, India lost their first wicket very early. Shikhar Dhawan was LBW in the first over. But then, Virat Kohli showed his spark and got a boundary and a six in one over. Kohli and Rohit Sharma were playing in a comfortable mode. Soon, the score reached 28 after 4 overs. Appreciating Kohli’s achievement, Sidhu said it is really amazing that he has scaled such exemplary heights at the age of just 25. Kapil Dev admired the fact that Rohit Sharma was gaining rhythm.

Slowly but surely, Kohli and Rohit built their partnership. It proved to be a comfortable target for India in the end. The 100 came up in the 13th over and by that stage, the game was over. Both Kohli and Rohit reached their fifties soon. Although Kohli lost his wicket, but India rounded off a fine victory in the last over. Suresh Raina had said yesterday that the West Indies cannot rotate the strike against the spinners – and he was proved right today. Also, Dhoni’s comeback continued on the right path. It was a great end to a wonderful day of cricket.