NEW DELHI: Following his side’s win over Bangladesh in the second T20I, Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav said that he wanted the middle-order batters to bat in a tricky situation after losing three early wickets and lauded all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy for his fine performance with bat and ball.
Nitish shined with both bat and ball, scoring a fine half-century and picking up two wickets as India secured an 86-run win over Bangladesh at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.
Speaking after the game in the post-match presentation, Suryakumar said, “I wanted that situation, wanted my batters (middle order batters Rinku Singh, Nitish and Hardik Pandya) in that situation (after being reduced to 41/3). Happy for both Rinku and Nitish. They batted exactly the way I wanted. You got to go out there and express. Just the jersey changes, the rest remaining remains the same.”
On using seven bowlers in the match and not bowling Hardik, Suryakumar said, “I wanted to see what different bowlers can do in different situations. Can they give me the difficult overs? Sometimes Hardik would not bowl, sometimes Washington Sundar would not bowl. I wanted to see what the other guys had in store, really happy with it. It was his (Nitish) day, I thought let him enjoy (by bowling the last over) and make it large”.
Coming to the match, Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bowl first. India was reduced to 41/3 at one point, but Nitish (74 in 34 balls) and Rinku Singh (53 in 29 balls, with five fours and three sixes) put on a match-saving stand of 108 runs.
Hardik Pandya (32 in 19 balls, with two fours and two sixes) played a fine cameo to power India to 221/9 in their 20 overs. Rishad Hossain (3/55) and Taskin Ahmed (2/16) were the top bowlers for Bangladesh.
In the run-chase of 222 runs, Bangladesh initially kept up with the run-rate, but lost wickets continuously. Except Mahmadullah (41 in 39 balls, with three sixes), nobody could really play a decent knock and Bangladesh ended with 135 on the board with nine wickets lost. India won by 86 runs.
Varun Chakravarthy (2/19) and Nitish (2/23) were among the top bowlers for India. Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar and Riyan Parag got a wicket each.
India has won the three-match series 2-0. Nitish won the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his fine all-round show. (ANI)