T20 World Cup: Litton Das’ blazing knock and other talking points from India-Bangladesh match

Team India continued its march towards the T20 World Cup semi-finals with a thrilling five-run win in a rain-affected Group 2 clash against Bangladesh in Adelaide on Wednesday.

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The Men in Blue jumped to the top of the table after coming out on top against their neighbours in the second match of the tournament hosted at the Adelaide Oval. With six points to their name following the five-run win (DLS Method), India went past South Africa on the points table and are now the favourites to reach the knockouts.

India now face Zimbabwe in their remaining fixture on Sunday, which will also be the final group match of the tournament and will be heavily favoured to come out victors against the side that had shocked Pakistan and nearly pulled off a similar win against Bangladesh before losing to Netherlands on Sunday.

We now take a look at some of the talking points from India’s latest encounter in the tournament:

Welcome back, KL

Perhaps the biggest highlight of the match was KL Rahul’s return to form with the bat. The under-fire opener had registered single-digit scores in each of India’s outings so far in the tournament, and was under immense pressure to retain his position as skipper Rohit Sharma’s opening partner.

Read: “I wasn’t worried about missing out in the last three games,” says Rahul

And boy did he silence his critics in style, taking on the Bangladeshi attack at a time when India had lost Rohit’s wicket early and Virat Kohli was still settling in at the crease. Rahul played some glorious shots during his 32-ball 50, collecting three fours and four sixes — one of which was a square cut over the point fence that surely will feature in a compilation of standout shots from the tournament.

The King continues to deliver

While Rahul’s 50 gave India the kind of positive start that they were looking for after losing a key wicket early, it was Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 64 that ultimately held the innings together and helped the Men in Blue finish on a high. Kohli didn’t quite start as confidently as he would’ve liked, getting a few edges that luckily flew well above the fielders in his first few deliveries, but looked increasingly comfortable at the crease once he got his eye set in.

It wasn’t quite the knock of a lifetime that he had produced against Pakistan, but was another quality contribution from Kohli nonetheless, an innings that contained some exquisite shots such as the straight six off Hasan Mahmud in the penultimate over. And unlike Rahul, who returned to form after a string of low scores, Kohli continued his glorious run, taking his average in the ongoing tournament to an astonishing 220.

Litton owns the powerplay

Bangladesh, however, nearly took the game away from the Indians, thanks primarily to Litton Das’ brilliance in the powerplay overs. The wicketkeeper-batter had been coming in at one-down in each of Bangladesh’s previous games in the ongoing tournament and gave the team management a solid reminder of why he belongs at the top of the batting order with a blazing 60 off just 27 deliveries.

Das began attacking from the word go, smashing three boundaries off Arshdeep Singh in the second over before collecting six and two fours off Bhuvneshwar Kumar — all of them coming off consecutive deliveries — in the third. Mohammed Shami wasn’t spared either, the pace spearhead going for 16 runs in his second over as Bangladesh raced to 60 for no loss at the end of the powerplay, 56 of those runs coming off Litton’s bat.

Taskin’s day out

Though he was most definitely the standout performance of the day by a country mile, Litton’s fiery 60 wasn’t the only worthy contribution from the Bangladeshi camp. Taskin Ahmed too chipped in with a valuable all-round contribution that helped Bangladesh stay in the hunt till the very end.

One of the reasons why India had made slow progress in the first half of their innings after being asked to bat by Bangladesh was the tidy spell bowled by Taskin, in which he conceded just 15 runs from his quota of four overs and had a sitter put down off his bowling. And Taskin would later smash a six and a four off Hardik Pandya in the penultimate over of the chase to give Bangladesh hope of chasing down the revised target of 151 from 16 overs.

Indian fielding makes the difference

India’s fielding against Bangladesh could not have been more different from what they dished out in the five-wicket loss against South Africa; the Men in Blue had dropped sitters and missed out on crucial run-outs against the Proteas on Sunday that allowed the game to slip out of their grasp. Against the Bangla Tigers, it was as if they had glue on their hands as they grabbed every opportunity that came their way, leading to the Bangladeshis crumbling after the rain break.

But it was Rahul’s direct hit that got rid of a well-set Das that surely was the game-changing moment. Das was batting on 60 and could’ve single-handedly thrown India’s semi-final hopes into jeopardy when Rahul hit the bull’s eye with an inch-perfect throw at the non-striker’s end, delivering a crucial breakthrough for the Men in Blue.

Turned out to be quite the day for the opening batter who had struck a lively half-century earlier that day.

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