Win Projections to be updated soon
At Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua, India defeated Bangladesh with a resounding victory. The team captained by Rohit Sharma checked all three marks and is almost certain to make it to the T20 World Cup 2024 semifinals. They have been excellent with the bat and the ball, leaving the Bangla Tigers looking foolish most of the time and ultimately falling short by 50 runs.
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the explosive pair, gave India a great start when they batted first. They put together a partnership of 39 runs, with the captain playing an aggressive type of cricket and Kohli acting as an anchor. Kohli grabbed charge of the situation and made 37 runs off of 28 runs after Rohit was removed in the fourth over. The Men in Blue were under some pressure after India dropped two consecutive wickets.
After that, Rishabh Pant took over and scored 36 runs off of 24 balls. The Hardik Pandya show started after he was fired. India scored 196 runs in the first innings thanks to the great all-rounder’s aggressive style of cricket, which required little time to settle in. In the meantime, Hardik amassed 50 runs without losing.
Bangladesh struggled tremendously when it came to the chase. Bangladesh began losing wickets after the spinners abandoned their spell, but Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah kept them under constant pressure. Kuldeep Yadav had another fantastic day in the field, taking three wickets. India easily defeated their opponents in the end with to two wickets apiece from Bumrah and Arshdeep.
1. India, who are unbeaten, appear worthy champions.
In the encounter against Bangladesh, India has checked every box. Shivam Dube’s 34 runs off 24 balls is also very encouraging. Kohli has returned to his previous level of play. India is once again looking like a title team and everything appears to be going their way ahead of the tournament’s business end. But at the 2023 ODI World Cup, they had the same appearance. It is important for the fans to remember that.
2. Indifferent They need a superhero in Bangladesh.
Shakib Al Hasan is no longer the same player as he was in his prime, but he was once Bangladesh’s superman. A superhero who can motivate the Bangla Tigers to perform better is much needed. They were never in the hunt to chase it, as evidenced by the bowlers’ lack of character and the hitters’ defensive approach against India. To put it mildly, it is a very worrying indicator.
Losing skipper Najmul Shanto said:
We are thinking about 160-170 when we put them into bat, but they batted well so credit to them. [on the weather and wind] I don’t think that is an issue, the players are habituated to that. We did not show as much intent as we needed with the bat, when we are chasing 190, we needed to show more intent especially in the first six. Try to contribute but need to finish the games. Tanzim Sakib in this tournament has done a great job and happy for Rishad too, we have been looking for a good legspinner for a long time now.
Winning skipper Rohit Sharma said:
[on playing aggressively with bat] I have been talking about this for a long time now. It’s about going there and putting that into work. Considering everything we played really well, adapted to the conditions. There’s a little bit of wind factor here, overall we are very smart, overall we were good with bat and ball. All eight batters need to play their role, whatever it is.
We saw one guy get 50 and we got 197, in T20 I don’t believe we need to get fifties and hundreds, what matters is the pressure you put on the bowlers. All the batters from the word go played like and and that’s how we want to play as well. There is a lot of experience in the squad and we back them. [on Hardik] I mentioned in the last game as well, him batting well puts us in a good stead. We want to finish well after the top 5, 6, Hardik being Hardik we know what he is capable of.
He is a very important player for us, if he can keep doing that, it will put us in good positions. Excitement and if we discuss something with the bowler and when it comes off, it’s nice. Everyone when it came to our bowling adapted well and we discussed those things and they did well.
POTM Hardik Pandya said:
We have played really good cricket. More than anything we have stuck together and executed our plans. I did realise the batters wanted to use the breeze, I made sure I did not give them a chance where the wind was blowing, it was about being one step ahead as a batter.
We as a group can get better in a lot of places, losing wickets in bunches is something we can rectify and get better at, apart from that, we are looking good. I have been fortunate to play for the country, it was a freak injury I had, I wanted to come back but God had other plans. Luck comes to people who work hard and that has stuck with me for a long time.
India
