India cruise to first Nidahas Trophy victory

A second successive T20I fifty from Shikhar Dhawan got India off the mark in the Nidahas Trophy and consigned Bangladesh to defeat.

Published : Mar 09, 2018 00:23 IST

India got off the mark in the Nidahas Trophy by claiming a six-wicket victory over Bangladesh in Colombo without getting out of second gear.

Following a five-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka in their opening match, India got back to winning ways to hand an uninspiring Bangladesh a defeat in their first match in the Twenty20 competition.

Jaydev Unadkat accounted for opener Soumya Sarkar (14) and Sabbir Rahman (30) as he returned figures of 3-38, restricting Bangladesh, who were sent in to bat first, to 139-8.

Shikhar Dhawan (55) recorded his second successive fifty to lead India's charge, with Manish Pandey's 19-ball 27 not out getting the job done with eight deliveries remaining.

Unadkat made the breakthrough with a short ball to Sarkar and he caught Tamim Iqbal (15) off Shardul Thakur (1-25) at short fine leg as Bangladesh lost their opening duo within the powerplay.

Mushfiqur Rahim (18) and stand-in captain Mahmudullah (1) failed to make starts, with Liton Das (34) and Rahman the only other players to reach double figures as Thakur and Unadkat stifled Bangladesh at the death.

Rohit Sharma - skipper in the absence of Virat Kohli - chopped Mustafizur Rahman onto his stumps on 17 in the fourth over but Dhawan and Suresh Raina (28) forged a 68-run partnership that proved key to the victory.

That may not have been the case had Mehidi Hasan held on at leg gully with Raina on two, though.

After surviving Bangladesh's review of a not out lbw call from the umpire, Dhawan fired a pull over midwicket for his second maximum of the match, before a four in the next over brought up his half-century off 35 balls.

Taskin Ahmed (1-28) finally brought his knock to an end, but Pandey sent Mustafizur (1-31) to the boundary twice to get India over the line.

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