India have beaten Bangladesh by one run in their World T20 Super 10s Group 2 match in Benguluru to keep their semi-final hopes alive.
India batted first after being inserted by Bangladesh and made a decent score of 146-7 with Suresh Raina top scoring with 30(22). Bangladesh in reply made a brilliant chase of it and had it in their hands in the final over needing 2 off 2 balls but lost two wickets to lose the game to hand India a crucial two points.
Bangladesh won the toss and choose to bowl first
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss and choose to bowl first in a must-win game for his side. Tamim Iqbal came back into the side to replace Saqlaib Sajib while the Indian team remained unchanged from their win over Pakistan.
The Indian batsmen started slowly during the power play overs until the final over when Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma started to cut lose hitting a couple of sixes. Sharma though of the final ball of the power play was out of the bowling of Mustafizur Rahman for 18(16) trying to hit another big shot but hit it start up into the air and was caught by Shabbir Rahman.
Dhawan didn't last much longer either as in the first over after the powerplay he was out LBW to Shakib Al Hasan for 23 (22) to leave India 45-2 after seven. Suresh Raina came in at number four to join Virat Kohli and the pair put on 50 runs for the third wicket before Kohli was bowled by Shuvagata Hom for 24 (24) to leave the score on 95-3 in the fourteenth over.
Bangladesh's bowlers restricted India's batsmen well
Hardik Pandya came in at number five and started to push the run rate up until Al-Amin Hossain took two wickets in two balls in the sixteenth over. The first wicket to fall was that of Raina for 30 (22) caught on the boundary by Shabbir. The second wicket was that of Pandya for 15 (6) as he was caught by a wonderful diving catch by Soumya Sarkar to leave the score on 112-5.
The sixth wicket fell for India when Yuvraj Singh was out for 3(6) of the bowling of Mahmudullah trying to sweep the ball for a boundary but only edged it straight to Al-Amin. A good cameo at the end from Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni came to an end when Jadeja was bowled off the first ball of the final over for 12 (8).
The innings came to an end for India with a score of 146-7 with Dhoni 13 not out to set up a great run chase for the Bangladesh batsmen who knew they had to win the game.
Tamim Iqbal got the run chase off the good start for the underdogs
Bangladesh's run chase didn't get off to the best of starts as Ravichandran Ashwin got a wicket in his first over. Mohammed Mithun was the man out for one, trying to hit Ashwin for a six and was caught on the boundary by Pandya. Iqbal and Shabbir after that started to build a good partnership to get the Tigers to 45-1 after six overs in the run chase.
Jadeja though was brought on by Dhoni and he got the big wicket of Iqbal for 35 (32) stumped by the captain himself to leave the score on 55-2 in the eighth over. It didn't take India long to get the third wicket either as Raina was brought into the attack and he got the wicket of Shabbir for 26 (15) stumped down the leg side.
Mashrafe Mortaza came in at number five and himself and Shakib Al Hasan started to look dangerous in their partnership until Jadeja came back onto bowl. Jadeja got Mortaza out bowled for six to leave the score on 87-4 in the twelve over of the chase.
Bangladesh lost the game from a winning position
Shakib then was the fifth wicket to fall for 22 (15) off the bowling Ashwin who spun one and got the edge and Raina took the catch at slip. Sarkar came in at number seven for Bangladesh and he and Mahmudullah put on a partnership of 31 before Ashish Nehra got the breakthrough. Sarkar was the wicket to fall for 21 (21) caught on the boundary by Kohli to leave the score on 126-6.
Bangladesh lost three further wickets that of Mushfiqur Rahim for 11 (6), Mahmudullah for 18 (22) and then a run out of the final ball of the final over of the game to lose the game by one run.