India will take on Bangladesh in a crucial Super 12 match at the T20 World Cup on Wednesday. Here’s what happened the last time these two teams met at a T20 World Cup.
Pursuing India’s 146 for seven at the 2016 T20 World Cup in Bengaluru, Bangladesh needed 11 from the last over with four wickets in hand. Hardik Pandya conceded a single to Mahmudullah, suffered two fours at the hands of Mushfiqur Rahim and when it boiled down to two from three deliveries, M.S. Dhoni’s men set a miracle in motion, helped largely by the visitors’ desire to go for glory instead of a humble single or two.
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Rahim and Mahmudullah perished to wild hoicks and a nervous Mustafizur Rahman was no match for a sprinting Dhoni, who knocked down the stumps to leave the batsman and Bangladesh stranded. The visitor finished with 145 for nine and crashed out of the tournament.
“One thing was sure. We don’t want to bowl a yorker,” Dhoni said later explaining the last-ball plan. “It had to be a back-of-a-length delivery, but how much back of the length is the question. You don’t want to bowl a wide and by the time it travels to the keeper, the batsman has the opportunity to take one more run.
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“So we were deciding what’s a good field and what’s the length to bowl. I think he executed really well. You can always plan a hundred things and unless the execution is good, it doesn’t look good on the field. I feel the execution of the last delivery was fantastic.”
At 95 for five, the contest was at its tipping-point but Soumya Sarkar and Mahmudullah kept alive Bangladesh’s flame. When a diving Dhoni grassed Sarkar off Bumrah, India was seemingly down for the count but it battled till the last, and the triumph was a just reward for its resilience.
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