On a lively wicket with grass covering Rohit Sharma and medium-pacers fashion India’s 45-run win over Bangladesh.
The excellent Rohit Sharma ensured there was no Pune-like slip in Mirpur. This was a green wicket too and while the rest of the top order struggled, Sharma overcame doubts which arrive when a batsman has a few hits and misses to play one of the finer innings, given the conditions. There was a dropped chance but that will take nothing away from his wonderful shot-making which was on display on Wednesday.
The Mumbai batsman missed out on his second T20 international hundred, but his 83 off 55 balls was gold standard, making the selection for the Man of the Match award a formality. Then, Ashish Nehra rolled back the years to help his team win the Asia Cup opener by 45 runs. Seaming pitch backfired on the hosts. As the Indian team celebrated the win, a large number of home fans has already exited the stadium. When Bangladesh won the toss and chose to field, there was hope that the home team, which fielded four fast bowlers, would dominate this game.
Not many moons ago, Sri Lanka had exposed India’s batting vulnerability on a spicy track. The early part of this game threatened to follow a similar pattern after Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss and decided to field. Taskin Ahmed nearly castled Rohit in the very fast ball of the match, but the latter’s good form somehow allowed him to negotiate the sharp break-back.
The collective sigh of despair from the stands turned into a loud cheer when Shikhar Dhawan was bowled through the gate, attempting to play across the line to an Al-Amin Hossain delivery that swung in. Virat Kohli departed, mistiming a drive off Mortaza and Bangladesh sensed a real opportunity when Suresh Raina lost his middle stump to Mahmudullah.
