On Sunday, in Nagpur, we saw a collective contribution by the Indian team. Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bowl. India took up the challenge to bat first and proved that they can cross all the hurdles. Youngsters Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Deepak Chahar and Shivam Dube were the highlights of the match.
India won the three-match T20I series against Bangladesh. The last T20I match (at Nagpur) was the decider match of the series. Some new records were made in the match. Shreyas Iyer scored his first half-century in T20I, Deepak Chahar became the first Indian male bowler in T20I to a pickup hat trick and Shivam Dube’s back-to-back wickets were match-turning points.
Shreyas Iyer, in the post-match ceremony, opined that Rohit Sharma’s pep talk helped them to gain confidence and after which, they were determined to win the game.
“We were going little lethargic at the start, but once they started going, Rohit recalled all players inside the circle, he gave us a pep talk and after that, all of us got determined to win the match,” he added.
Shreyas Iyer credits himself
Sunday was the day of batsman Shreyas Iyer. He struck three consecutive sixes and showed his talent. He proved that he can be the man who will stand in the time of need. He struck 62 runs in just 33 balls and got his first half-century in the shortest format. He credits himself for changing the game momentum.
“Yes, I would say that. The over in which I hit three sixes changed the momentum of the match. Otherwise, we would have got 150 and that would have been a really tough total to difficult on this wicket. Yeah, I would give my self a credit. It was important for one of the top three batters to stay at the crease till the 15th over,” Iyer said.
Turning points of the game
India got a good start in the second innings as Bangladesh lost its two batsmen at just 12 runs but opener Mohammad Naim gave the hope to Bangladesh. The youngster Shivam Dube furious bowling helped India gained the momentum. He halted Naim at 81 runs. Dube didn’t stop and in the very next bowl, he sends back Afif Hossain.
Deepak Chahar was the best in the game as he picked six wickets. He picked the wicket of Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Aminul Islam, Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman and Al-Amin Hossain. In his last over, he picked the hat-trick which led to being the best figure in men’s T20I history.
“There were two turning points in the game. First, Deepak Chahar coming in and getting two wickets pretty quickly and second, Shivam Dube getting that two back to back wickets to change the match,” Iyer said.
Competition for No.4
The findings for No.4 may end after seeing Shreyas Iyer’s performance in Nagpur. The player detects that there is a lot of competition for a place in the Indian team but it doesn’t shift his focus from the game.
“There is a lot of competition going on in the side, but I personally feel, I compete with myself. When you say this position is empty in the batting order, I say to myself that I can bat any position and today’s innings showed that I can play under pressure situations,” he added.