Shikhar Dhawan hit his second successive Twenty20 International half-century to help India thrash Bangladesh by six wickets and register their first win in the tri-nation Nidahas Trophy on Thursday.
Chasing 140 for victory, India rode on Dhawan’s 43-ball 55 to achieve their target with eight balls to spare at Colombo’s Premadasa Stadium. India, who won the toss and opted to bowl, gained the upper hand after pacers Jaydev Unadkat and Vijay Shankar shared five wickets between them to restrict Bangladesh to 139/8.
Dhawan, whose 90 went in vain in India’s opening loss against hosts Sri Lanka on Tuesday, then made sure that his side cruise home, despite initially slumping to 40/2. Skipper Rohit Sharma faltered in his second successive outing after chopping a delivery onto his stumps from left-armer Mustafizur Rahman. He made 17.
Dhawan, hitting 5 fours and 2 sixes en route to his sixth T20 fifty, and Suresh Raina, who made 28, put on a crucial 68-run third-wicket stand. Dhawan finally fell to Taskin Ahmed’s right-arm medium pace in the 17th over but Manish Pandey, with an unbeaten 27, carried the team home.
Earlier Bangladesh batting faltered with only Liton Das, who top-scored with 34 and Sabbir Rahman, who hit 30 off 26 balls, giving some respectability to the total.
Unadkat claimed three wickets with his left-arm pace while Shankar, who took his first international wicket in Mushfiqur Rahim, returned figures of 2/32. Bangladesh will next take on Sri Lanka in the third match of the tournament, which is timed to commemorate the host island’s 70 years of independence, on Saturday.
Brief scores:
India 140/4 in 18.4 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 55, Suresh Raina 28, Manish Pandey 27*; Rubel Hossain 2/24) beat Bangladesh 139/8 in 20 overs (Liton Das 34, Sabbir Rahman 30; Jaydev Unadkat 3/38, Vijay Shankar 2/32) by 6 wickets.
