Follow UsThe writing was on the wall for Bangladesh after they scored only 96 runs for 9 wickets batting first against India in the first semi-final of the Asian Men's T20 competition.
Playing an extra spinner in Shahbaz Ahmed, India knew that spin is the way to go on the surface in Hangzhou. Arshdeep and Shivam Dube started the proceedings for the Men in Blue after Ruturaj Gaikwad won the toss and chose to bowl first. However, the pace spell was short-lived as Washington Sundar was introduced in the fourth over itself.
Considering that most of Bangladesh’s pitches are slow and low turners, it was expected that Bangladeshi batters would show some application against the quality Indian spinners, even if they lacked the power hitting required to put on an above-par total.
Sundar, not exactly known as a big turner of the ball, started turning the ball from his first delivery. Left-handed opener Parvez Hossain Emon was at sea against the ball that drifted in and then turned away. He eventually ended up as the second-highest scorer for Bangladesh with just 23 runs - indicative of the Tigers' poor batting effort.
Like Emon, most batters failed to predict the turn and slogged against it in futile attempts to score boundaries with Indian spinners tightening the screws. In this fashion, Sai Kishore got the day's first wicket as Mahmudul Hasan Joy got on one leg to slog but could only connect the toe end of the bat and was caught out.
It was just a sign of what would come in the rest of the innings. Sundar got skipper Saif Hassan playing a sweep, giving Rinku Singh a simple catch, and then got Zakir Hasan caught out in the slip driving. Bangladesh were three down within the power play itself.
This pattern continued when Tilak Varma, the part-time off-spinner, came into attack as he got Parvez playing across the line and caught by Gaikwad. Meanwhile, Sai Kishore was almost unplayable from the other end as he got the ball to drift, turn and bounce, which became the trifecta of death for the Bangladesh batters.
Rakibul Hasan added some big blows at the end, but Bangladesh could only reach 96 and, in the process, also lost 9 out of their 10 wickets. This batting effort was similar to how Bangladesh batted against Malaysia, where the Southeast Asian nation almost defeated them. Afif Hossain saved them by defending 5 runs in the last over. Today, even Afif failed to impress.
Meanwhile, when India started to bat, it felt like they were batting on a pitch dropped from Ahmedabad in Hangzhou. Except for Yashasvi’s unlucky dismissal, where he nailed a flick off his pads straight to short fine leg, Indian batting didn’t even hiccup once.
Ruturaj Gaikwad started with intent, hitting two sixes and two fours in the third over of the game. Tilak, who came in at 3, also showed early signs of aggression and hit his third ball for a six straight down the ground against off-spinner Said Hasan. The plan was clear for India - they were in a hurry to chase this down before the hardness of the new ball was lost.
They executed that plan perfectly, as India reached fifty in just 22 balls. Meanwhile, Bangladesh inexplicably bowled pacers Ripon Mondal (right-arm) and Mrittunjoy Chowdhury (left-arm) from both ends despite having a good repertoire of crafty finger spinners on a turning track.
India took a heavy toll from this mistake and scored 40 runs in the 3 overs of pace that Bangladesh bowled. As a result, more than 50% of the chase was done by the 4th over, and what was left was just a formality that Tilak and Ruturaj completed with skill and panache.
Tilak, especially, was brilliant in hitting the spinners along with the turn towards the leg side, as he hit 6 sixes in his innings of 55*. Ruturaj wasn’t much behind either, as he hit some sumptuous lofted inside our drives over extra cover. It was a master class in spin batting, as both the batters used their feet and long reach and played everything in the direction of the turn, hardly mistiming any shot.
Ultimately, the gulf between the two sides was too wide, as India polished off the 97-run chase in just 56 balls.
Ruturaj’s young men will be up in the gold match tomorrow. It will be historic, as the Men in Blue would look to repeat the feat achieved by the Women In Blue and win the first-ever gold in cricket for the Indian Men’s team.
Meanwhile, in the subtext, the next generation of Indian T20 players is showing the cricketing world that they are fearless, confident and belligerent. This semi-final was a big testimony to that.