Desk Report:
The target was tough, but it was not beyond Bangladesh’s reach. Chasing the target of 169 runs, Saif Hasan played with one end in front. But Saif’s fight alone was not enough to win against the world’s best Indian team. Saif played an innings of 69 runs off 51 balls, but Bangladesh was all out for 127 runs and lost the match by 41 runs.
India has reached the final first with this victory. Even if they lose, Bangladesh is in the final equation. If Bangladesh beats Pakistan today, they will be India’s partner in the final.
Bangladesh always has one regret or another in a losing match! For example, if the bowlers lose well, they regret ‘if the batters could have scored 20/30 more runs’. This is the regret against India in the Asia Cup Super Four – if Saif Hasan had a worthy partner at the wicket! Saif batted brilliantly from one end. Due to the failure of his teammates, not a single big partnership was formed. After the dismissal of Tanjid Tamim (1) in the second over, Saif scored 42 runs off 30 balls with Parvez Hossain Emon. After that, the batters went back and forth. If you exclude the two double-digit innings of Saif and Emon, the runs of the remaining batters were like telephone numbers—1, 7, 0, 4, 4, 2,0, 4* and 6!
After Emon’s departure, after scoring 21 runs off 19 balls, Saif took on the burden of responsibility. He reached fifty off 36 balls and was out for 69 runs. The 51-ball innings included 3 fours and 5 sixes. Although he got ‘life’ four times, that is part of the game. And Saif’s luck was on his side because he was brave with the bat!
Kuldeep Yadav was the most successful with the ball; he took 3 wickets for 18 runs. Bumrah and Varun took 2 wickets each.
Earlier, the Indian cricket team batted first at the Dubai International Stadium and scored 168 runs for 6 wickets.
The way they started, it seemed that India would make a big score. They scored 72 runs for no wickets in the power play. Run rate—12.00!
The opportunity to get Abhishek Sharma, who had suffered the most from the Bangladesh bowlers, back came in the third over of the innings. He was caught by wicketkeeper Zaker Ali. He could not even close the ball with a dive to the left side. Abhishek Sharma, who was revived for 7 runs, finally scored 75 runs off 37 balls. The strike rate of the innings, which was made up of 6 fours and 5 sixes, was 202.70!
In the seventh over, Rishad Hossain broke the devastating opening partnership (77). While trying to blow him out, Gill (29) was caught at long off. Rishad also got Shivam Dubey back (2) with a great googly in the next over. However, Abhishek continued to beat the bowlers from the other end. He scored a fifty off 25 balls. He was run out in the 12th over, giving the bowlers a sense of relief.
Bangladesh reined in India’s run-scoring pace. Suryakumar Yadav was not allowed to settle down by Mustafiz. The Indian captain caught him behind the wicket for 5 runs off 11 balls. After returning him, Mustafiz became the highest wicket-taker for Bangladesh in international T20Is, surpassing Shakib Al Hasan (149). His wicket tally in this edition is now 150.
Bangladesh’s bowlers gave away fewer runs in the middle overs. That’s why India was restricted to 168 runs. India could not score more than 36 runs in the last 5 overs. Rishad took 2 wickets for 27 runs.
