Rohit’s 85 seals India comeback against Bangladesh in T20 series

Rohit Sharma has helped India crush Bangladesh with a masterly 85 off 43 in an eight-wicket win to level Twenty20 International series 1-1 in Rajkot.

KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer took India to the target of 154 with 26 balls remaining after the captain’s knock at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium ground on Thursday.

Shikhar Dhawan (31 off 27) partnered with Rohit for much of the innings. The captain smashed six boundaries and as many sixes.

It was Aminul Islam who sent Indian openers back but the match had slipped out of the hands of the visitors by then.

Sent in to bat first after losing toss, Bangladesh posted a below-par 153 thanks to some horrendous fielding by the hosts. Both teams were unchanged from their match.

Four Bangladesh batsmen scored over or little below 30 runs each with 15 boundaries and only one six while in the pitch report, Sunil Gavaskar said the batsmen will be in “a good mood once they see the 170-180 pitch”.

A confident Bangladesh began steadily with Naim Sheikh, who debuted in the previous match, as Liton Das’s partner.

Naim hit consecutive boundaries off the first three balls of the second over of Khaleel Ahmed after Liton hit another in the last ball of the first over.

From 20 without any loss after two overs, the openers took Bangladesh to 60 in 7.1 overs before Liton (29 off 21) was out after India let him off twice.

Photo: ICC

Liton started walking to the dressing room when wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant caught the ball and broke the stumps with the batsman several feet down the wicket but replays showed Pant collected the ball ahead of the stumps off a Yuzvendra Chahal delivery.    

Pant looked to be in another gaffe as he missed another ball from Chahal, but it ricocheted after hitting the wicketkeeper in the chest and this time, he compensated by collecting the ball and throwing it onto the stumps to send Liton back.

The opener got another life on 26 when three fielders rushed to take a catch after a slog sweep by the batsman.   

The Indian keeper appeared to have messed up again by collecting the ball ahead of the wickets and initially the third umpire judged Soumya Sarkar (30 off 20) not out, but instantly the decision was changed.

Before Soumya went back, Bangladesh lost last match’s hero Mushfiqur Rahim, caught by Krunal Pandya off Chahal.

Mahmudullah (30 off 21) tried his best to keep the scoreboard ticking fast, but there was no support from youngsters Mosaddek Hossain (7 off 9) and Afif Hossain (6 off 8).

In the last three overs, Bangladesh could manage only 17 runs as Chahal and Washington Sundar reined in the batsmen with spin.

Khaleel bled 44 runs in his four overs.

Despite missing talisman Shakib Al Hasan and senior batsman Tamim Iqbal, Bangladesh beat India by seven wickets in New Delhi on Sunday to go 1-0 up on the heels of an unbeaten 60 by Mushfiqur Rahim.

Mahmudullah and his men are now looking to secure what would be their first series win against India in T20 with the decider scheduled to be held in Nagpur next Sunday.