Bangladesh was soundly defeated by India at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. The team led by Rohit Sharma fulfilled all three requirements and is poised to go to the T20 World Cup 2024 semifinals. The Bangla Tigers looked lost most of the time and ultimately fell 50 runs short due to their clinical approach with the bat and the ball.
India had a great start when they batted first because to the powerful combination of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. They amassed a 39-run partnership as the captain played an aggressive style of cricket and Kohli served as an anchor. Following Rohit’s removal in the fourth over, Kohli grabbed charge of the game and scored 37 runs off of just 28 balls. Following that, India dropped two consecutive wickets, which placed some pressure on the Men in Blue.
From then on, Rishabh Pant took over, scoring 36 runs off just 24 balls. Following his termination, the Hardik Pandya show commenced. India scored 196 runs in the first innings because to the aggressive style of cricket played by the great all-rounder, who did not take long to settle in. Hardik, meanwhile, amassed 50 runs without losing.
Bangladesh battled mightily to keep up with the chase. They were kept under tremendous pressure by Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah, and when the spinners abandoned their spell, Bangladesh began to lose wickets. Once again, Kuldeep Yadav had an amazing day in the field, claiming three wickets. Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep each took two wickets towards the end of the innings as India easily defeated their neighbours.
1. India appear deserving of a champion.
India has fulfilled every requirement in the encounter with Bangladesh. In addition to Shivam Dube’s 34 runs off of 24 balls, which is very encouraging, Kohli has returned to form. Everything appears to be going well for India ahead of the tournament’s business phase, and they are once again projecting themselves as a champion team. Nonetheless, they had the same appearance in 2023 for the ODI World Cup. That is something the fans must remember.
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2. Dim Bangladesh requires a superhero.
Shakib Al Hasan was once Bangladesh’s go-to man during difficult times, but he has matured as a player. The Bengal Tigers are in dire need of a superman who can motivate the group to perform better. The fact that the batsmen played cautiously and the bowlers lacked spirit against India indicates that they were never in the hunt to pursue that. It is a pretty alarming indication, to put it mildly.
Najmul Shanto, the outgoing skipper, said:
We are thinking about 160-170 when we put them into bat, but they batted well so credit to them. [on the weather and wind] I don’t think that is an issue, the players are habituated to that. We did not show as much intent as we needed with the bat, when we are chasing 190, we needed to show more intent especially in the first six. Try to contribute but need to finish the games. Tanzim Sakib in this tournament has done a great job and happy for Rishad too, we have been looking for a good legspinner for a long time now.
Rohit Sharma, the winning captain, said:
[on playing aggressively with bat] I have been talking about this for a long time now. It’s about going there and putting that into work. Considering everything we played really well, adapted to the conditions. There’s a little bit of wind factor here, overall we are very smart, overall we were good with bat and ball. All eight batters need to play their role, whatever it is. We saw one guy get 50 and we got 197, in T20 I don’t believe we need to get fifties and hundreds, what matters is the pressure you put on the bowlers. All the batters from the word go played like and and that’s how we want to play as well.
There is a lot of experience in the squad and we back them. [on Hardik] I mentioned in the last game as well, him batting well puts us in a good stead. We want to finish well after the top 5, 6, Hardik being Hardik we know what he is capable of. He is a very important player for us, if he can keep doing that, it will put us in good positions. Excitement and if we discuss something with the bowler and when it comes off, it’s nice. Everyone when it came to our bowling adapted well and we discussed those things and they did well.
Hardik Pandya, POTM, stated:
We have played really good cricket. More than anything we have stuck together and executed our plans. I did realise the batters wanted to use the breeze, I made sure I did not give them a chance where the wind was blowing, it was about being one step ahead as a batter. We as a group can get better in a lot of places, losing wickets in bunches is something we can rectify and get better at, apart from that, we are looking good. I have been fortunate to play for the country, it was a freak injury I had, I wanted to come back but God had other plans. Luck comes to people who work hard and that has stuck with me for a long time.
India
