India holds nerve for thrilling one-run win
Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were involved in the odd running mix-up but generally worked the ball around quite well before hammering huge sixes in response to the crowd’s urgings in Mustafizur’s second over. Suddenly, the run-rate clambered to the 7s when, off the last ball of the last Power Play over, which fetched 15, Rohit top-edged an attempted slog-hoick, the steepling skier masterfully held by Sabbir at midwicket.
Dhawan perished in the next over, trapped by front by a full Shakib ball, and with batsmen who had spent time in the middle back in the dugout, it was reconstruction time again for two new batsmen. Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli struggled to come to terms with the conditions; Kohli's timing was all awry and the fluency that lit up the Eden Gardens four nights previously was all too conspicuous by its absence.
It was left to Raina to provide the impetus with two booming sixes off Al-Amin to put an end to a 29-ball boundary-less phase. Kohli finally found reward for a stroke in anger, clubbing Shuvagata Hom over midwicket for six, but he was bowled next ball, a slog-sweep going through the gate to knock middle pole back and ending a stand of 50 off 40 deliveries for the third wicket.
Reprising the Asia Cup clash between the sides in Mirpur just under a month ago, Dhoni pushed Pandya ahead of Yuvraj Singh and himself, and it rounded off India’s best batting phase of the innings – overs 11 through 15 – as the young man made his intentions clear with a towering second-ball six. Raina watched Pandya then take a shine to Shakib with successive fours as 28 came off overs 14 and 15. India had amassed 53 in the third quarter of the innings and looked ideally placed for a final assault when Al-Amin changed the complexion of the innings with two wickets with the first two deliveries of the 16th over.
Raina was caught on the pull first ball at deep midwicket, a good running catch by Sabbir, while Soumya Sarkar was truly sensational next ball. Pandya connected brilliantly with a pull that flew hard and flat towards square-leg. Sarkar hared to his left and put in a full-length drive to hold on to a screamer.
Rocked by those twin blows, India only managed 11 runs between overs 16 and 18. There was to be no grandstand finish even though four fours came in the last two overs. At the interval, it appeared as if India was 10-15 runs light. In the end, it was one to the good, as it turned out.
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