India is experiencing challenging circumstances right now. They were defeated by England by 10 wickets in the T20 World Cup semifinals less than a month ago. They barely reached a respectable total on Sunday before Bangladesh produced an incredible comeback, defeating India by one wicket at Dhaka’s Shere Bangla National Stadium and taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mustafizur Rahman added 51 runs for the 10th wicket, the fourth-highest total by any team in a successful chase. Bangladesh could have won the match a lot sooner and with more wickets remaining, but India bowled exceptionally well to bounce back. Deepak Chahar got a wicket first ball of the innings, Mohammed Siraj removed the dangerous Mushfiqur Rahim and Washington Sundar dislodged captain Litton Das and the experienced Shakib Al Hasan, who had earlier taken a match-altering 5/36. Reduced to 136/9 in the 40th over, expedited by the implosion where they lost Mahmudullah and Rahim in consecutive balls, Bangladesh seemed all but out of the chase. Miraz and Rahman had other ideas though.
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As Miraz went about scoring runs in a remarkable response, hitting four boundaries and two sixes, Rahman exposed the full face of the bat and put a price on his scalp. The pressure soon started to tell. The 43rd over saw KL Rahul drop a skier from Miraz despite wearing the wicketkeeper’s gloves and having ample time to safely pocket it. The bowling was errant and overthrows were made, but it was really the turning point. Bangladesh was 14 runs away from the mark when Miraz plonked three boundaries off Chahar in the following over using that extra life. u201cMustafizur and I just thought that we need to believe,u201d said Miraz after the match. u201cI just told him to stay calm and play 20 balls.u201dIt says a lot when a bowling side fails to get the 10th wicket despite being dominant. More than the bowling intent, tactics come under the scanner at that juncture. The fielding came up short. And Rohit Sharma persisting with fast bowlers when the dew was setting in was a questionable tactic when Washington Sundaru2014who had an economy of 3.4u2014still had five overs up his sleeve. The batsmen’ inability to adjust ultimately led to their defeat as they were often disturbed by Shakib’s slow bowling and Ebadot Hossain’s bounce. Miraz was tugged onto his stumps by Shikhar Dhawan, Sharma was bowled by Shakib’s arm delivery, Virat Kohli was beautifully caught at extra cover, and Shreyas Iyer was struck by Hossain’s errant draw. On a two-paced Mirpur surface, only Rahul appeared to be most at ease throughout his 73-run innings, but it was nowhere enough to challenge Bangladesh.u201cAnother 30-40 runs would have made a difference,u201d said Sharma. u201cWith KL and Washy, we could have got there. Unfortunately, we lost wickets in the middle, and it is not easy to come back. The pitch was a bit challenging, the odd ball was turning. There are no excuses, we are used to such types of conditions. We need to look at how to bat against their spinners in these conditions.u201d
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