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Hardik Pandya (left) and Kuldeep Yadav were the star performers. (AFP Photo)
India produced another all-round show, this time against Bangladesh for their second win of Super 8 stage of T20 World Cup 2024.
India continued their winning march and took a giant step towards securing a semi-final berth at the T20 World Cup after sailing past Bangladesh for their second win of the Super 8 on Saturday. Hardik Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav were the chief architects of the clinical performance by the former champions at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua as they won by 50 runs.
Pandya scored a brisk half-century with every specialist India batter making significant contribution barring Suryakumar Yadav in a challenging total of 196/5.
Indian bowlers then put shackles on Bangladeshi batters as they struggled to find boundaries and repeatedly were outfoxed by left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav who finished with bowling figures of 3/19 from four overs. Bangladesh finished with 146/8 for their second defeat of the Super 8 stage.
This was after star batter Virat Kohli found much-needed rhythm before Shivam Dube and Pandya, who made a forceful unbeaten fifty, pushed India to 196 for five.
Struggling for runs since his selection in the India squad, Dube (34 off 24) once again was slow off the blocks before smoking three sixes to make an impact towards the end of the innings.
Hardik (50 not out off 27 balls) provided the final flourish to take the team close to 200.
The all-rounder completed his 50 off the final ball of the innings.
Skipper Rohit Sharma (23 off 11) was happy to lose the toss at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and alongside Kohli (37 off 28), was able to play his shots from the get go unlike the earlier games.
Bangladesh started with spinners from both ends, an interesting move against the two right-handers.
After three fours and a six, Rohit made room to deposit Shakib Al Hasan over extra cover but ended up mistiming it to be caught.
Kohli too meant business with the pick of his shots being the 94m six off Mustafizur Rahman to the cow corner region.
He then welcomed leggie Rishad Hossain with a straight six before getting foxed by a slow off-cutter from pacer Tanzim Hasan.
Two balls later, the pacer got a delivery to jump off the length, kissing Suyakumar Yadav’s gloves for a double strike in the over, leaving India at 83 for three in 10 overs.
Rishabh Pant (36 off 24) then brought the momentum back in India’s favour by collecting two fours and a six over deep midwicket off Mustafizur who had a rare off day.
In the next over, Pant took the attack to Rishad before falling to the reverse sweep for the second consecutive innings.
Dube and Hardik then shared a 53-run stand to take the innings forward.
Hardik ended with four boundaries and three sixes while Dube targeted the deep midwicket boundary against the spinners with success, besides hitting Tanzim down the ground for a maximum.
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