Several of our players showed their talent and all-round skills to help perform the steep run chase with their young middle order as India registered an emphatic 86 run victory over Bangladesh in the second T20 Classic. While Nitish Reddy was impressive with both bat and ball, Rinku Singh rescued India while under pressure, and Riyan Parag made a valuable contribution with the bat and took a wicket. Indeed, because of the efforts of these three, Hardik Pandya did not have to bowl a single over. India’s T20I captain, Suryakumar Yadav, did not hold back on praise.
“While wanting my middle-order batsmen to bat in the pressure cooker and to do their thing. I am very pleased with Rinku and Nitish’s batting because they went and batted as I wanted,” Suryakumar said.
With the team under pressure at 41/3, Nitish Reddy and Rinku Singh began India’s counter-attack. The duo shared a partnership of 108 runs with Reddy scoring 74 off only 34 balls, while Rinku scored 53 off 29 balls.
Later on, Reddy opened the bowling and claimed two wickets, making him the first Indian to score over 70 runs and take two wickets in a T20I. Aside from Reddy, Abhishek Sharma and Riyan Parag also bowled and got one wicket each.
India used seven bowlers all together, in spite of Hardik Pandya sitting out from bowling. All seven bowlers managed to take at least one wicket taken, in a remarkable first record
“I wanted to see how effective different bowlers would be in different situations. There will be a game where Hardik will not bowl, another where Washington Sundar will not bowl. I am extremely delighted at how the bowlers came around,” Suryakumar elaborated.
Following the retirement of T20I cricket from Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravindra Jadeja, the new look core from India has managed pretty well so far having won the series against Sri Lanka and now Bangladesh. More than that, the young core play that has been a defining feature during coach Gautam Gambhir’s tenure has been a tremendous all-round show.
