Colombo: India shook off the cobwebs in style as they returned back to winning ways with a six-wicket victory over Bangladesh at the R Premadasa Stadium on Thursday.
Rohit Sharma and co needed to win this contest to stay alive in the tri-series after they were shockingly humbled by hosts Sri Lanka few days ago. He won the toss and chose to bowl first.
His decision paid dividends as left-arm speedster Jaydev Unadkat struck in the very third over-removing Soumya Sarkar for just 14. That set the tone for the rest of the innings as the wickets continued to tumble as Bangladesh clearly lacked a strong partnership. Tamim Iqbal, who survived a lbw against Shardul Thakur failed to time a bouncer as the ball flew to short leg where Unadkat took an easy catch.
Tamil Nadu all-rounder Vijay Shankar, playing his second match got into the act as well by dismissing wicket-keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim (18) and skipper Mahmudullah Riyad (1) in quick succession to leave Bangladesh reeling at 72/4 after 10.5 overs.
But it was Liton Das’ 34 and Sabbir Rahman’s 30 that helped their team put up atleast something on the board. But his dismissal at the wrong time made things worse. Reaching out for a flighted delivery, Liton tried to give himself some room and hit it on the off-side, only to mistime it and getting caught by Suresh Raina at long-off.
Sabbir’s 30-run cameo of 26 balls ended Bangladesh’s last effort in coming up with a decent total as Unadkat, after claiming Mehdi Hasan earlier, got the better of the right-hander who tried to squeeze out a yorker length delivery only to edge to wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik.
Having to chase down 140 for a win, Sharma (17) and Shikhar Dhawan took India off to a steady start before the captain was bowled by left-arm sensation Mustafizur Rahman.
The young Rishabh Pant was the next in line to fall as despite being promoted to the number three spot, he failed to make any impact as he, much like his captain, chopped on a delivery on to his stumps.
But Dhawan, who has been in wonderful form of late, made further use of it as she slammed another half-century (55) to guide the chase and ensure that a batting collapse doesn’t happen.
His 43-ball innings was laced with five fours and two sixes. Raina scored 28 runs of 27 balls while Manish Pandey finished it off, scoring 27 quick runs from only 17 deliveries.
Brief scores-
India 140/4 (Shikhar Dhawan 55, Suresh Raina 28; Rubel Hossain 2/24) beat Bangladesh 139/8 (Liton Das 34, Sabbir Rahman 30; Jaydev Unadkat 3/38) by 6 wickets.