India registered their first win of the Nidahas Trophy 2018 tri-series by beating Bangladesh in their second match with a comfortable win at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. Rohit Sharma won the toss and invited Bangladesh to bat. The Indian bowlers did a great job by restricting Bangladesh to just 139. Chasing 140, Shikhar Dhawan continued his brilliant form and scored 55 to give India a 6 wicket win.
India’s Captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and invited Sri Lanka into bat. Bangladesh openers Soumya Sarkar and Tamim Iqbal got off to a quick-fire start putting on 20 runs in 2.4 overs. Shardul Thakur took the wicket of dangerous Iqbal for 14 runs. At the end of first 6 overs, Bangladesh scored 44 for 2. The Indian bowlers learned from the mistakes and showed discipline. Bangladesh continued to lose wickets at regular intervals. Liton Das was the top scorer with 34 runs while Sabbir Rahman made 30 runs. Bangladesh was restricted to just 139 for 8 in 20 overs.
For India, Jaydev Unadkat was top wicket taker with 3 wickets. Vijay Shankar impressed with his bowling taking 2 wickets. Chasing 140, Rohit Sharma and Dhawan added 28 runs in 3.3 overs. Sharma failed to score big runs for the second successive time. Pant was promoted to number 3 and made just 7 runs. At the end of first 6 overs, India made 47 runs.
Dhawan continued his brilliant form and added 68 runs for the third wicket with Suresh Raina. The stylish left-handed batsman completed his half-century off 35 balls. Manish Pandey remained not out on 27 off 19 balls. India won the match by 6 wickets with 8 balls to spare.
India 140 for 4 in 18.4 overs ( Dhawan 55, Raina 28, Pandey 27*, Rubel Hossain 2/24) beat
Bangladesh 139 for 8 in 20 overs ( Liton Das 34, Sabbir Rahman 30, Unadkat 3/38, Vijay Shankar 2/32) by 6 wickets.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma said: Our bowlers did a great job to restrict the Bangladesh batting to just 139. It was a great performance from the team who looked after their performance against Sri Lanka in the first match. We kept it simple. We need to improve our catching. Hopefully, we would not commit the same mistakes against Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh captain Mahmudllah said: We did not bat well. We should have scored 160-170 runs. The Indian bowlers executed their plan as the dot balls created lots of pressure on us. I think we are one win away from getting a boost.
Man of the match Vijay Shankar said: Been working really hard and happy of winning the man of the match award. I have been working hard on my bowling over the last few years that have given me extra in my game. Great to work with this team and wanted to contribute much more to coming match.
India will play their next match against Sri Lanka on 12th March.
