The Tigers demonstrated their quality cricketing when they restricted India to less than 150 at the first innings of the first T20I Bangladesh-India cricket match on Sunday in New Delhi. The opening was spectacular as the deadly pace bowler Shafiul Islam showed his might taking the wicket of the Indian captain Rohit Sharma and completely silencing the packed stadium.
The leading run-scorer Rohit who usually is considered a heavy weight scorer completely misread Shafiul as he tried to block the in-swing length ball. The early departure of Rohit Sharma, incidentally playing his 99th T20I game on Sunday before a massive capacity crowd, was a huge blow. Shafiul Islam and his pace partner Al-Amin Hossain did well to contain the run-flow.
Out of the total six wickets, two were claimed by leg-spinner Aminul Islam Biplob who just hopped on board the Bangladesh team to play his 2nd international cricket on Sunday.
The highly enthusiastic Tigers seemed to have demonstrated superior quality of cricket as the host appeared shaky in the beginning to some extent despite India having some of the top ranking players. As the match progressed Bangladesh appeared to have restricted the hosts attacking with the pace bowlers hitting a few consoling boundaries.
Having already lost four of their top order batsmen, Rohit, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Shikhar Dhawan India decided to settle for more watchful batting rather than going for aggressive batting in the limited 120 ball innings.
The match began amid an environment described by the Indian media as having very dense fog in and around New Delhi. Many experts had opposed the match being played in choking smog of New Delhi but the authority defied. Earlier, Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad won the toss and opted to field in what appeared to be a correct decision.
Meanwhile, our New Delhi Correspondent Adds:
Bangladesh did well to restrict famed Indian batsmen on a good batting pitch after drawing the first blood in the very first over with paceman Shafiul Islam claiming the prize wicket of Indian captain Rohit Sharma in their opening T20I match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi tonight.
India were 35 for 1 after seven overs.
Put into bat by Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah Riyad, India began on a good note with Rohit reeling off two successive boundaries but was adjudged LBW to a ball from Shafiul, who opened Bangladesh’s attack, as the Indian captain was beaten after the ball hit him high on the pad.
Rohit’s opening partner Shikhar Dhawan advised the Indian captain to go for a review and the replay showed the umpire's call and Bangladesh earned a crucial breakthrough. Shafiul Islam and his pace partner Al-Amin Hossain did well to contain the run-flow. After seven overs, India were 35 for 1.
Even K L Rahul, who came in after the fall of Rohit, looked in all sorts of discomfort as he tried to hit everything way too hard and things did not work out for him. Al-Amin Hossain started his first over with two consecutive dot balls. He now makes it three dot balls in a row.
Justifying his decision, Mahmudullah said after the toss that “the wicket looks good, so we need to restrict them to as low as we can.” Legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar said the pitch is good to bat on and whoever wins toss should opt to bowl and also because the dew factor might come into play in the second innings.
“Looks a very hard wicket, no big cracks or dryness on the track. There's a hint of green tinge too, hence the ball will come on to the bat nicely. Don't think the spinners will get much help from this wicket,” said Gavaskar. Batsman Mohammad Naim made his debut for Bangladesh as the visiting side announced their playing eleven for the match. For India, all-rounder Shivam Dube was handed his first India cap.
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(wicketkeeper), Krunal Pandya, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Chahar, K Khaleel Ahmed.
Bangladesh (Playing XI): Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Naim, Mushfiqur Rahim(wicketkeeper), Mahmudullah(captain), Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Aminul Islam, Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain.
