In the historic 1,000th T20I, Bangladesh finally ended their T20I losing streak against India. On Sunday (3rd November) night, the visitors Bangladesh beat the hosts India by seven wickets (with three balls remaining) at Arun Jaitley Stadium (Delhi). With this victory, Bangladesh are leading this three-match T20I series by 1-0 with two to go.
After winning the toss, Bangladesh elected to field first. Indian captain Rohit Sharma, who was playing his 99th T20I – a record number of T20I by an Indian cricketer, lost his wicket in the first over of the game after scoring just nine runs. However, before losing that wicket, Rohit (2,452 T20I runs) became the most T20I run-scorer after surpassing Virat Kohli‘s 2,450 T20I runs.
The hosts India lost their wickets in regular intervals. KL Rahul once again disappointed as he scored 15 runs before losing his wicket. Another opener Shikhar Dhawan played a crucial innings of 41 runs off 42 balls (3 fours and one six).
Middle-order batsmen Shreyas Iyer (22) and the wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant (27) lost their wickets at the crucial moments.
Debutant Shivam Dube only scored one run as Afif Hossain dismissed him through a great caught and bowled method.
At the late moment of that innings, Krunal Pandya and Washington Sundar played some important cameos. While Pandya was not out on 15 runs off just eight balls, Sundar scored 14 not out off just five balls. Finally, India managed the first innings total of 148/6 in 20 overs.
Among the Bangladesh bowlers, Shafiul Islam (2/36) and Aminul Islam (2/22) scalped two wickets each.
Mushfiqur Rahim guided Bangladesh to the memorable victory
In the first over of the second innings, Indian pacer Deepak Chahar dismissed the opener Liton Das (7). But another opener Mohammad Naim and the no.3 batsman Soumya Sarkar handled that early situation very well. They put an important 46 runs partnership for the second wicket.
After Naim was dismissed on 26 runs, Soumya and Mushfiqur Rahim stretched that innings. Before Soumya lost his wicket on 39 runs, he and Rahim had the 60 runs partnership for the third wicket.
The wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim played the strong knock of unbeaten 60 runs off 43 balls (8 fours and only six) and it guided the visitors to the solid victory. Bangladesh chased down that target in 19.3 overs after losing three wickets. Captain Mahmudullah also scored the crucial 15 not out off seven balls.
In the 10th over, India missed out the back-to-back review chances that would dismiss the game-changer Rahim. Indian players were in doubt on those lbw appeals but both had three reds.
In that same over, the young wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant forced the Indian captain to take the only review on a caught-behind appeal. But in the end, India lost that review as Soumya Sarkar’s bat didn’t make any connection with the ball.
Later in the 18th over, Krunal Pandya dropped Rahim at the deep midwicket. In the 19th over, Rahim changed that game entirely with four successive fours to the left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed.
It was the first T20I victory for Bangladesh against India. Before this T20I, Bangladesh suffered defeats in all the eight T20Is against India.