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Asia Cup: Abhishek, spinners sparkle as India enter final
His 37-ball 75 made up for a batting slide before slow bowlers consigned Bangladesh to a 41-run defeat
Kolkata: India rode on a scintillating fifty from Abhishek Sharma and crafty bowling from Kuldeep Yadav (3/18) and Varun Chakravarthy (2/29) to beat Bangladesh by 41 runs and qualify for the final of the T20 Asia Cup in Dubai on Wednesday.
History tells us that Bangladesh get too excited for their own good, especially in chases. And even though they had taken down a similar score against Sri Lanka — who have now been knocked out — a few days ago, this Indian bowling attack is far superior. Opener Saif Hassan tried holding one end with a resilient 51-ball 69, but apart from a 19-ball 21 from Parvez Hossain, no other Bangladesh batter could reach double figures.
It was in stark contrast to how India started, raising 77 runs for the first wicket thanks to yet another blitz from Sharma, who ultimately finished with a 37-ball 75. Chakravarthy was welcomed with three boundaries in his first over but he bounced back with the wicket of Shamim Hossain after Kuldeep and Axar Patel slowed down Bangladesh. Between the three spinners, India took six wickets for 84 runs in 12 overs.
In the end it was a comfortable win but India might want to take a few lessons from it. Seventy two runs from the Powerplay, 96/2 at the halfway mark, and suddenly it was all downhill from there. Hardik Pandya lit up the final overs but his lone innings wasn’t enough to lift India from the shambles of picking out fielders in the deep and not getting any rhythm at all from the middle.
It wasn’t a slowdown, more like the run rate had jumped off the cliff. In the seven overs after the halfway mark, India could only add 45 runs. In the last over? Only four. There is no denying Bangladesh bowled and fielded superbly, but this decline was mostly India’s own doing.
As long as Sharma was batting though, India were targeting at least 200. Only 17 runs after three overs and it seemed Bangladesh had started to get a good measure of India’s openers through Tanzim Hasan’s wily pace and Nasum Ahmed’s disciplined slow left-arm bowling. But Gill came down the track and drilled Nasum for a four before lofting him straight for a six. Three balls later, Sharma clubbed him over long-on for a six and India were away with a 21-run over. Mustafizur Rahman was quickly thrown into the mix, but Sharma was in his elements by now, wheeling out two sixes in a 17-run over.
Four fours off Mohammad Saifuddin’s medium-fast bowling and Bangladesh was staring at a carnage. For Sharma to complete his fifty with a strike rate of 200 was par for the course but the other batters started to wane. Still, it didn’t matter as long as Sharma was playing at his frenetic pace. But his dismissal prompted an unusual slowdown. It also came out of nowhere, Suryakumar Yadav dabbed Rahman to backward point, making Sharma scramble for a tight single. Surya sent him back but it took brilliant fielding from Rishad Hossain —diving to his left, picking and throwing in one go — to run out Sharma.
What unfolded in its wake was a bit bizarre. Much has been written about the flexibility of the batting order and Gautam Gambhir’s preferred mode of getting left-right combinations in. But why try to fix something that’s not broken, especially with unchanged elevens? The dismissal of Shubman Gill should have brought on either Suryakumar Yadav or Pandya, but Gambhir surprised by sending in Shivam Dube, presumably to take on the spinners. Dube lasted three balls. In came Suryakumar who was looking wretched against spin, prompting a promotion for Pandya ahead of Varma while Sanju Samson again missed out. So, basically after the top three, India ditched their left-right strategy.
That was not the only reason India lost momentum. The baffling slowness of the outfield was understandably nudging India to take the aerial route more often, resulting in five catches out of the six dismissals. Gill was caught at long-off, Dube at long-on, Suryakumar was caught behind trying to pull, Pandya again at long-off, and Varma at deep midwicket. The only batter who was clearing the boundaries at will was Sharma, hitting five of India’s seven sixes. The only way Sharma could have been dismissed was a run out, and it took a special one from Rishad Hossain.
