Chahar 6-for gives India series win against Bangladesh

Deepak Chahar took six wickets including a hat-trick which helped team India make a brilliant return to beat Bangladesh by 30 runs in the third and decisive T20 International cricket match in Nagpur on Sunday to win the three-match series 2–1.

After the openers’ failure, KL Rahul (52 runs off 35 balls) and Shreyas Iyer (62 off 33 balls) shared a 59-run partnership for the third wicket, helping India to a challenging score of 174 for five. Iyer’s inning was studded with three fours and five sixesto give India a much needed boost towards the end of the innings.

Mohammad Naim (81 runs off 48 balls) and Mohammad Mithun (27 runs off 29 balls) had added 98 runs for the third wicket but Chahar (six wickets for seven runs in 3.2 overs) and Shivam Dube (3 for 30) gave the team a good comeback and restricted Bangladesh on 144 runs in 19.2 overs. Bangladesh lost the last eight wickets for 34 runs. Chahar set a new best bowling record in T20 internationals.

India returned after winning the second match in Rajkot after losing the first match in Delhi. Now a series of two Test matches will be played between these two teams.

Chahar gave India a good start by dismissing Litton Das (nine) and Soumya Sarkar (zero) off consecutive balls in the third over of the innings. Washington Sundar took a good catch of Litton at the boundary line while Sarkar played loose shot as soon as he arrived.

Twenty-year-old batsman Naim hit three sixes of leggie Yuzvendra Chahal’s overs and four boundaries from Shivam Dube overs. By hitting a four off Washington Sundar, he completed the first half-century of his T20 career off 34 balls. Meanwhile, Mithun also hit Sundar for six.

The Indian fielding was also not good in the meantime and Chahal missed an easy chance to run Naim out. Chahal could not work his magic in the middle overs. Naim played him easily, which increased the problem of Rohit Sharma.

In such a situation, Chahar broke his partnership with Naim by dismissing Mithun in his second spell, while Dube raised India’s hopes by bowling the experienced Mushfiqur Rahim (naught) on the first ball of the next over.

The medium-speed bowler also took Naim’s valuable wicket with a yorker after the opener had hit ten fours and two sixes in his innings. Dube showed the path of pavilion to Afif Hussain as soon as he arrived. Dube took three wickets for eight runs in his last two overs. Chahal bowled captain Mahmudullah and also ended Bangladesh’s last hope.

Deepak Chahar completed the hat-trick by dismissing Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman and Aminul Islam Biplav.

Earlier, India lost the toss and then lost both the openers in Powerplay, who gave the team a great start by playing a century partnership in the last match.

After Rohit Sharma got out scoring two runs, Shikhar Dhawan (19) had a big responsibility but the left-handed batsman was caught with Shafiul’s slow ball in the last over of the powerplay. Soon India’s third wicket also fell, but the new batsman Iyer got a reprieve by Aminul Islam Biplav, who dropped an easy catch.

Rahul started to build momentum by hitting two consecutive fours and still kept pushing the innings by bringing the ball to the boundary line. He completed his sixth half-century of his T20 international career off 33 balls but was soon caught at mid-off on a slow leg cutter by Al Amin Hussain (1 for 22). He hit seven fours in his innings.

Meanwhile, Iyer hit the Biplav for the first six of the innings and then sent the ball to Soumya Sarkar for six runs but it was off-spinner Afif Hussain, on whom he hit three consecutive sixes to give the Indian run momentum. Iyer completed his first half-century in T20 internationals off 27 balls.

Rishabh Pant (six runs off nine balls) again failed. Iyer’s attractive innings also ended in the same over after Sarkar bowled him. Manish Pandey (22 not out from 13 balls) and Shivam Dubey (nine not out from eight balls) took the team to 174 runs.

Best figures in T-20 Internationals

In reply Bangladesh didn’t get the best of starts but the 98 run 3rd wicket stand made the Indian camp nervous. It was broken by Deepak Chahar who in his 4 overs gave away just 7 runs and picked up 6 wickets. He was named the player of the match and series for his performance.