India beat Bangladesh by seven wickets

The Indian men’s cricket team beat Bangladesh by seven wickets in the first contest of the three-match T20 series played at the Shri Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium in Gwalior on Sunday.

Bowling first, India managed to restrict world No. 9 Bangladesh to 127 riding on threefers by Arshdeep Singh and the returning Varun Chakravarthy. An all round batting display saw India, ranked second in the ICC T20I team rankings, chase down the target comfortably.

Suryakumar Yadav, who has been named India’s T20 captain for the ongoing series, won the toss and elected to bowl first. Arshdeep Singh vindicated his skipper’s decision and sent back both Bangladeshi openers - Litton Das and Parvez Hossain Emon - in his first two overs.

Varun Chakravarthy, making his first international appearance since the 2021 T20 World Cup, had the dangerous Towhid Hridoy caught at long on just after the powerplay as the Bangla Tigers were left reeling at 40/3.

Debutant Mayank Yadav, who started his international career with a maiden, picked up his maiden wicket, too, with his second over, getting rid of Mahmudullah.

Varun struck twice more to dismiss Jaker Ali and Rihad Hossain to finish with figures of 3/31 while Washington Sundar dismissed Najmul Hossain Shanto for 27 to reduce Bangladesh to 93/7 in the 14th over.

A late resistance by Mehidy Hasan Miraz (35* off 32) assisted by Taskin Ahmed (12) saw the Bangladesh cricket team crawl to 127/10 in 19.5 overs. Arshdeep finished with the best figures amongst Indian bowlers - 3/14.

Chasing a comfortable total, India began aggressively with the new opening pair of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma taking the attack to the opposition. However, Sharma was run out in the second over after a confusion between the two.

Sharma’s departure, however, didn’t allow Bangladeshi bowlers any respite as it brought in captain Suryakumar Yadav to the pitch.

The world No. 2 T20I batter hit three sixes and two fours during his 14-ball stay on the crease and accounted for 29 quick runs before picking out a fielder in the deep while trying to hoist Mustafizur Rahman for another maximum.

Sanju Samson, meanwhile, was anchoring the innings from the other end and looked primed for a half-century. However, the opener fell for 29 and found Rishad Hossain while trying to hit Mehidy Hasan Miraz over deep midwicket.

However, the Bangla Tigers failed to capitalise on the breakthrough as a blitzkrieg by Hardik Pandya (39* off just 16) and a steady 16 off 15 by another debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy helped India register their 15th win over Bangladesh in 16 T20 meetings.

The Indian women’s cricket team will have an opportunity to close out the series when it faces Bangladesh again in the second rubber at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday.

IND vs BAN T20 Series 2024 brief scores: Bangladesh 127/10 in 19.5 overs (Mehidy Hasan Miraz 35*; Arshdeep Singh 3/14) lost to India 132/3 in 11.5 overs (Hardik Pandya 39*, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 1/7) by seven wickets.

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