Twitter Reactions: A Mushfiqur Rahim special helps Bangladesh script their first win over India in T20Is

Bangladesh have defeated India by seven wickets to go 1-0 up in the three-match T20I series. Mushfiqur Rahim was the hero of their first victory over the Men in Blue in the format and he made sure to stay unbeaten until the end when things were going out of the hands. Mahmdullah and Soumya Sarkar also supported him well as the Tigers finally rose to the occasion and closed out a game against India.

Like India, Bangladesh also didn’t get off to a great start. Deepak Chahar got the better of Liton Das in the first over of the innings. The debutant Mohammad Naim then attacked the bowlers as Bangladesh added 25 runs in the last two powerplay overs. He added 46 runs with Soumya Sarkar for the second wicket. The visitors were looking good at this stage until Yuzvendra Chahal was introduced into the attack.

The leg-spinner first fluffed the debutant Naim by building pressure with dot balls and then kept a check on the run-scoring as well. Even the batsman of Mushfiqur Rahim’s stature couldn’t get him away and the required run-rate started going up. At the other end, Sarkar looked good only for a bit but he too was struggling to play big shots.

The duo stabilised the innings but they failed to get boundaries whenever needed. The required run-rate soared up to 12 even as Bangladesh had eight wickets in hand. Rahim, meanwhile, also got lucky with India not reviewing an lbw shot against him and was also almost run-out at the start of the innings. Krunal Pandya dropped him as well which turned out to be crucial and eventually the dropped catch hurt India.

The equation had come down 25 runs off 12 balls. But Khaleel Ahmed completely lost his line with Rahim smashing him for four boundaries off the last four balls and the game was done and dusted there itself. Bangladesh sealed the game in the final over without much fuss to take a lead in the three-match series.

India post 148 courtesy final push from Krunal and Sundar

Earlier, India lost their skipper Rohit Sharma in the very first over of the innings. Shafiul Islam pinned him in front of the stumps after which Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul played carefully. However, they couldn’t up the ante and the hosts failed to score at a fair clip in the powerplay. The leggie Aminul Islam then struck in his first over to send back Rahul. Shreyas Iyer threw his hand at almost everything and looked impressive as well.

But he played one shot too many off Aminul and was caught in the deep to leave India reeling at 70/3 in the 11th over. Meanwhile, Dhawan was not having a great time in the middle and was somehow managing to muster runs. Rishabh Pant walked in at a crucial juncture but the duo struggled to up the scoring rate. To make things worse, they were involved in a mix-up in the 15th over and Dhawan got run-out after scoring 41 runs.

Just when the left-hander was looking good to take the attack to the opposition, he had to go back to the dressing room and soon Pant followed him as well. Shivam Dube also failed to make an impact with the bat on debut. In the 19th over, it seemed as if India will finish with a score of around 130-135. But Krunal Pandya and Washington Sundar added 28 runs only in 10 deliveries to propel the team to 148 runs for the loss of six wickets.

But unfortunately, their reprieves to Rahim cost them the game in the end as Bangladesh’s wicketkeeper-batsman took his team home.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: