Adelaide: KL Rahul (50) and Virat Kohli (64*) slammed half-centuries as India managed to score 184 against Bangladesh in their Group 2, Super 12 match of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup in Adelaide on Wednesday. Despite losing Rohit Sharma early on, Rahul combined with Virat Kohli to help India reach a decent score in the opening overs of the game.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma was dismissed for just 2 runs after the Indian skipper tried to play an aggressive shot but was caught by Yasir Ali at the short point. KL Rahul (50), who managed to build a strong partnership with Virat Kolhi, scored a half-century before he was dismissed by Shakib Al Hasan. The ball edged Rahul’s ball and was caught in the short fine leg by Mustafizur Rahman.
After losing two wickets, two in-form players, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav (30) combined together to take India’s score above 100. However, Shakib Al Hasan dismissed Suryakumar after he tried to play an aggressive shot, and it castled the stumps. Hardik Pandya who came next was sent back to the pavilion after a delivery from Hasan Mahmud edged the bat and goes straight to the backward point fielder’s hands. Second wicket for Hasan in the match.
Dinesh Karthik (7), who was included in the team sheet, despite worries about his injury sustained during the match with South Africa, was left disappointed after a mixup in the middle ended up in a run-out at the other end.
Hasan Mahmud dismissed Axar Patel (7) after the Indian bowler plays an aggressive lofted cover drive but was caught by Shakib Al Hasan in the extra covers. Ashwin (13*) who came next managed to slam a six and a four to take add more to India’s scoresheet in the final over.
Bangladesh captain Shakib al Hasan won the toss and was elected to field first. India started solid, with KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma both trying hard to get a firm grip on the match early on.
Men in Blue are heading into the game after a five-wicket loss to South Africa. On the other hand, Bangladesh won their previous game against Zimbabwe by three runs. India is in the second position with four points and two wins in three matches. Bangladesh is in the third position with four points and two wins in three matches.
Bangladesh skipper Shakib said at the toss, “We will bowl first. We do not know what is a good score on this wicket. Big game. We are well prepared today. The boys are gelling well. We have been playing with this side for some time. We need to continue doing good things. We can continue working on our batting. One change. Sarkar is not playing. Shariful Islam comes in.”
While the Indian skipper Rohit looked to “bat well”.
“Runs on the board would matter. We would look to bat well. All games are important in this format. We did not play well in the last game. Hopefully, we can play some good cricket and get those two points. Good ground and a good atmosphere here. Good weather as well.”
Bangladesh (Playing XI): Najmul Hossain Shanto, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan(c), Afif Hossain, Yasir Ali, Mosaddek Hossain, Shoriful Islam, Nurul Hasan(w), Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Taskin Ahmed
India (Playing XI): KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh.