A sensational all-round performance from Nitish Kumar Reddy, smashing a 34-ball 74 and 2-23, on only his second T20I as India made amends for the embarrassing surrender at home in the series opener by putting on a show worthy of a World Champion as they staged an incredible recovery from early setbacks to dominate Bangladesh both with the bat and ball for a comprehensive 86-run victory in the second T20I on Wednesday.
This Reddy did with the bat as he, along with Rinku Singh (53), added 108 runs for the fourth wicket to rescue India from a difficult 41/3 to help them post 221/9 after being asked to bat first by the visitors at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here. Reddy became the first Indian player to score 70 runs and claim two wickets in a T20I.
Given the ball before Hardik Pandya, Nitish Reddy bowled superbly to bag 2-23 in his four overs and with Varun Chakravarthy claiming 2-19 in an outstanding four-over spell, the Indian bowlers strangled the Bangladesh batters to restrict them to 135/9 in 20 overs and claimed a memorable victory following their big win in the first match in Gwalior.
Indian bowlers threw Bangladesh's chase off track after the visitors had shown good intent by scoring 14 runs off the first over.
The Indian spinners continued to trouble the batters as Washington Sundar had Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto (11) in his first over, catching the bottom part of the bat as the batter made room for a lofted drive. Howhid Hridoy was cleaned up by left-arm spinner Abhishek Sharma for seven, making it 48/4.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mahmudullah, playing his last two T20Is, added 34 runs for the fifth wicket but could not stitch a big partnership, and from 80/4, Bangladesh soon slumped to 93/7 in the 14th over.
Mahmudullah struck a few lusty blows as he top-scored with 41 off 39 balls, but that was too late and too little.
Bangladesh, who were comprehensively outplayed in the first T20I in Gwalior, didn't improve much from what they did and were outplayed again. The disciplined bowling never really allowed the batters to get hold of anything.
India skipper Suryakumar Yadav utilized seven bowlers, and all of them were in among wickets. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Varun Chakravarthy claimed two each. The Indian skipper continued to change his bowlers, giving them short spells that kept keeping Bangladesh on their toes. The bowlers did a good job by bowling according to the plan.
Indians fielded excellently, and Hardik Pandya claimed three catches, one of them a stump at the boundary.
Asked to bat first at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Reddy hit a 34-ball 74 while Rinku scored a 29-ball 53, and with Hardik Pandya batting towards a trademark 19-ball 32, India, reigning World Champions in this format, managed an innings to keep alive their chance of taking an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
India lost openers Sanju Samson (10 off 7) and Abhishek Sharma (15 off 11) and were reduced to 25/2 in three overs as Taskin Ahmed and Tanzim Hasan Sakib varied pace regularly to fox the batters on a wicket on which the ball was sticking. Suryakumar Yadav could score only eight runs and the hosts were in trouble at 41/3.
Reddy and Rinku played the waiting game as they prevented any more disasters before exploding into action around the halfway mark. Reddy hammered 26 runs off the 13th over bowled by Mehidy Hasan Miraz, hitting three sixes and a four in the over in which the Bangladesh bowler sent down a wide.
Earlier, Rishad Hossain had conceded 24 runs off the 10th over when the duo had taken him for back-to-back sixes, both of which were full deliveries, after Reddy had hit him for successive sixes, and after Rinku had started the over with a boundary, he had sent the last ball, which was pitched short, for a six.
Reddy reached his half-century off 27 balls, with three boundaries and four maximums. He was so confident with his shots that he did not shy away from taking the aerial route despite watching the first three perish to the varied pace. Altogether, he smote four boundaries and seven huge sixes before he perished to Mustafizur Rahman as he failed to pick the cutter and went for an attacking shot.
Rinku, who hammered the first six of the Indian innings, slammed Tanzim Hasan onto the fence off successive balls in the 16th over. He had earlier hit Rishad Hossain for a four and then bludgeoned a six as he completed his fine half-century. The Indians made full use of the overs bowled by Bangladesh spinners as they recovered to post a challenging total.
Hardik Pandya's two fours and two sixes in his vital cameo helped India cross the 200 mark, while Riyan Parag hit two big ones in one over in his 6-ball 15. However, what cost India the game was the collapse of the lower order, which lost three wickets in the final over bowled by Rishad Hossain. He eventually finished with 3-55 off his four overs. Taskin Ahmed was the best Bangladesh bowler with 2-16 off his quota, while Tanzim Hasan Sakib lost his way after a good start, ending with 2-50.
Brief scores:
India 221/9 in 20 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 74, Rinku Singh 53, Hardik Pandya 32; Taskin Ahmed 2-16, Rishad Hossain 3-55, Mustafizur Rahman 2-36) beat Bangladesh 135/9 in 20 overs (Mahmudullah 41, Nitish Kumar Reddy 2-23, Varun Chakravarthy 2-19, Abhishek Sharma 1-10) by 86 runs.
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