Following his side’s five-run win over Bangladesh in their ICC T20 World Cup clash, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma heaped praises on pacer Arshdeep Singh and star batter Virat Kohli for their performances in the tournament.
Fifties from Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, and superb bowling spells by bowlers helped India clinch a 5-run victory over Bangladesh in a rain-curtailed clash of Group 2, Super 12 match of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup in Adelaide on Wednesday. “Bit of both. I was calm and nervous at the same time (during Litton’s innings). It was important for us as a group to stay calm and execute our plans. With 10 wickets in hand it could have gone either way but after the break we did well,” said Rohit in a post-match presentation.
“When he came into the scene, we asked him to do that for us. With Bumrah not there, someone has to do it for us, and take the responsibility, for such a young guy to come and do it is not easy. But we prepared him for it. For the last 9 months he has been doing it. There was a choice between Shami and him but we backed someone who did the job for us previously,” said Rohit on Arshdeep.
“In my opinion, he was always there, it was a matter of a few innings here and there, he got it in the Asia Cup. We never had any doubts and the way he has been batting in this World Cup has been tremendous and he is really doing it for us (on Kohli) Also liked the way how KL played today. We know what sort of a player he is, if he bats the way he can, he puts the team in a different position. Our fielding was brilliant, some of the catches we took were great to watch. It’s a high-pressure game, to take those catches shows the ability of our guys and jpnestly I never had any doubts about our fielding,” Rohit concluded.
Virat and Arshdeep have been two of India’s star performers in this tournament.
Virat has scored 220 runs in the tournament in four innings at an average of 220.00. Three fifties have come out of his bat, including a top-class 82* against Pakistan. He is the leading run-scorer in the tournament so far.
Arshdeep has also been brilliant with the ball. He is India’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament, with a total of nine scalps. He is at number seven in the bowling charts of the tournament.
With three wins in their hands out of four matches, India are the Group 2 table topper with six points. On the other hand, Bangladesh are in third place with four points.
Put to field first by Bangladesh, India posted 184/6 in their 20 overs. Virat (64*) and KL Rahul (50) posted the fifties for India while Suryakumar Yadav also scored a quickfire 30 off 16 balls. Virat and KL had 67-run stand for the second wicket.
Hasan Mahmud (3/47) and skipper Shakib al Hasan (2/33) took wickets for Bangladesh.
Chasing 185, Bangladesh was off to an explosive start. Rain interrupted action when they were at 66/0 in seven overs. The match was restarted with revised target cut short to 169 runs and overs slimmed down to 16.
This break proved to be vital for Men in Blue as it broke Bangladesh’s rhythm. They started to lose wickets quickly, including Litton Fas for 60 off 27 balls. Though Nurul Hasan (25*) and Najmul Hossain Shanto (21) contributed some useful scores, Bangladesh fell five runs short of the target.
Arshdeep Singh (2/38) and Hardik Pandya (2/28) delivered good spells. Mohammad Shami also took a wicket.
Virat was given ‘Man of the Match’ award for his match-winning fifty.
Brief Scores: India: 184/6 (Virat Kohli 64*, KL Rahul 50, Hasan Mahmud 3/47) vs Bangladesh 145/6 (Litton Das 60, Nurul Hasan 25*; Hardik Pandya 2-28). (ANI)
