Dubai: Abhishek Sharma blended power with a copious amount of grace to smash a 37-ball-75 before indiscreet cricket from the other batters restricted India to a par 168 for six in a Super 4 match of the Asia Cup here Wednesday.
Abhishek, who is in the middle of a dream phase, hit six fours and five huge sixes in his sizzling effort. He looked good for a century, but a fantastic one handed stop and quick action throw from Rishad Hossan stationed at short third-man sent him back to the dugout.
At the other end, Indian batters played some poor strokes– whether it was Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma or skipper Suryakumar Yadav, who was caught brilliantly down the leg-side by stand-in captain and keeper Jaker Ali.
Team management’s inability to fit Sanju Samson was apparent as he couldn’t be fitted into the top seven.
Having scored 96 in the first 10, India managed only 72 in the next 10 overs with Axar Patel (10 off 15 balls), promoted ahead of Samson, looking out of place.
For Bangladesh, pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib (1/29 in 4 overs) looked quicker than what the speedometer displayed, and Mustafizur Rahaman (1/33 in 4 overs), as usual, used his change of pace deliveries to good effect.
But leg-spinner Rishad Hossain (2/27 in 3 overs) should be given a lot of credit for giving the ball air and getting the prized scalps of Gill and Shivam Dube, usually a fine player of wrist spinners, bringing Bangladesh back in the game after a poor Powerplay.
When India started batting, the first three overs of the Powerplay were uneventful, but in the fourth over, Gill and Abhishek took 21 runs off left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed with a six each in their kitty.
Bangladesh’s most experienced T20 bowler, Mustafizu, was greeted by Abhishek with a six over long-on that landed near the Indian dugout and bounced into the middle tier.
The over ended with innings 50 completed and Abhishek’s third six — a slashed six over backward point.
India were cruising at 72 for no loss in the powerplay, with the last three overs costing 56 runs.
Once Gill (29 off 19 balls) was holed out off Rishad, Abhishek duly completed his second successive half-century in the tournament off 25 balls.
The ploy to send Dube (2) to attack their wrist spinner didn’t work out as Rishad got his second wicket with a leg-break that the burly Mumbai hitter wanted to slog against the turn.
Once Abhishek was run out, India completely lost the momentum.
Tanzim, coming for his second spell, got Tilak caught at the deep mid-wicket boundary before Hardik Pandya (38 off 29 balls) played his first significant knock of the tournament to take his team close to the 170-run mark.
PTI