New Delhi: Indian bowlers came up with a clinical performance on a wicket on which their batters had crossed 200, to restrict Bangladesh to 135/9 and win the second T20I by 86-run to take an unsurmountable 2-0 lead in the three-match T20I series. This is India’s ninth successive victory since June this year.
After Nitish Kumar Reddy (74) and Rinku Singh (53) came up with brilliant knocks in rear-guard action to help the hosts recover from 41/3 to post a challenging 221/9 after being asked to bat first at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Wednesday.
Reddy excelled with the ball too, claiming 2-23 while leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy bagged 2-19 in his four overs. Washington Sundar, Abhishek Sharma and Riyan Parag claimed a wicket apiece as the Indian bowlers derailed Bangladesh’s chase after the visitors had shown good intent by scoring 14 runs off the first over.
Arshdeep Singh came back strongly to make the breakthrough for India by dismissing Parvez Hossain Emon for 16 and when Chakravarthy castled Litton Das (14) with a superb delivery, Bangladesh were down to 40/2 in the fifth over.
The Indian spinners continued to trouble the batters as Washington Sundar had Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto (11) in his first over, catching the bottom part of the bat as the batter made room for a lofted drive. Howhid Hridoy was cleaned up by left-arm spinner Abhishek Sharma for seven to make it 48/4.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mahmudullah, playing his last two T20Is, added 34 runs for the fifth wicket but they could not stitch together a big partnership and from 80/4, Bangladesh soon slumped to 93/7 in the 14th over.
Mahmudullah struck a few lusty blows as he top-scored with 41 off 39 balls but that was too late and too little.
Bangladesh, who suffered a big defeat in the first T20I in Gwalior, did not improve much and were outplayed once again, their batters failing to tackle the disciplined bowling.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav sedc seven bowlers and all of them were among wickets, with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Varun Chakravarthy claiming two apiece. The Indian skipper kept rotating his bowlers, giving them short spells that kept allowing the Bangladesh on their toes. The bowlers too did a good job bowling to the plan,
The Indians fielded well too with Hardik Pandya picking up three catches including a stunner at the boundary.
Brief scores:
India 221/9 in 20 overs (Nithsh Kumar Reddy 74, Rinku Singh 53, Hardik Pandya 32; Taskin Ahmed 2-16, Rishad Hossain 3-55, Mustafizur Rahman 2-36) beat Bangladesh 135/9 in 20 overs (Mahmudullah 41, Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-23, Varun Chakravarthy 2-19, Abhishek Sharma 1-10) by 86 runs.
-IANS
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