Image Credit- CREIMAS
India’s team might have advanced to the T20 World Cup 2024 semifinals by the time they wake up on Sunday. They were too good for Bangladesh in Antigua; their 196 runs, created through a succession of lightning-fast cameos against a slow surface, saw them win by a margin of fifty runs. Australia and India will advance to the final four if they defeat Afghanistan.
Although their partnership has helped India win numerous matches, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have not yet gelled at this T20 World Cup. Even as they were sprinting between the wickets, Rohit was momentarily perplexed as to whether a single had been placed on to midwicket’s right. It was stop-start but they eventually got the run.
India is able to stack its middle order with six hitters when they are paired together at the top of the order, so the squad will be hoping for the same outcome as the tournament progresses. They are posting par-plus totals in challenging conditions thanks to that advantage.
Tanzim Hasan made every effort to thwart that scheme. He was the best bowler for Bangladesh and he got that reputation by performing the one thing that all big hitters detest. He was erratic. Although Kohli charged towards him, he gave the batter a change of speed and sent him packing.
After hitting a six off the first ball, Suryakumar Yadav was overpowered by extra bounce on the subsequent delivery. Slower balls from Tanzim grabbed and misbehaved off the pitch. In order to get variance in bounce, he also made sure to smash the pitch hard when he was moving at a fast speed.
India lost nine balls without a boundary after going from 71 for 1 to 77 for 3. In favourable batting circumstances, that may be the cost you incur. It was not a terrific batting situation. Both the outfield and the pitch were slow. They had to make up the difference before the death overs. Pant, twelve off fifteen, exploded with life, fully conscious of that.
A left-hander’s cover drive is usually a thing of beauty but the one that Mustafizur had to endure was something else. It was power stripped to its purest essence. It was chilling. Pant hit five boundaries in eight balls and fell looking for another one.
India was released from their second lull by Hardik. At the beginning of the fifteenth over, they were 120 for 4. He was six off seven. After that, Mahedi Hasan gave him a long hop that let him to freely extend his arms as a gift, and that was that. His amazing strength in his forearms and core accounts for a large portion of his power game. He can hit even yorkers for boundaries because of this. He doesn’t always need to take a complete swing at the bat because of this.
His ability to reach the boundary was evident as each of the four that came in the final two overs were off his bat, despite the fact that he had only been in the game for 12 overs and had faced just 18 deliveries by the 18th.
After 10 overs, with the score at 67 for 2, the batting squad ought to have fought harder, but Kuldeep Yadav got to them and they were never able to recover. Tanzid was unprepared for the googly’s 29 off 31. Towhid Hridoy was LBW on the slog sweep after being legbroken. Finally, when Shakib Al Hasan attempted to hit him off balance, he was likewise capable of handling the situation. By just shifting the line slightly beyond the off stump, the left-hand batter’s striking arc was disrupted, resulting in his being caught at cover.
In this match, Bangladesh really attacked 49 balls compared to 48 for India, although many of those were frantic swings. It just goes to highlight how important clarity is in Twenty20 cricket. They were unable to remove the ball from Kuldeep’s grasp, thus he rejected their claim. Jasprit Bumrah contributed as well, taking two wickets and producing dots from 15 of his 24 deliveries.