Published: Feb 24, 2016, 11:50 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 24, 2016, 11:52 PM (IST)
The first match of Asia Cup Twenty20 (T20) International 2016 was played between India and Bangladesh at Mirpur. On a green track, Bangladesh called it right at the toss and had India reeling at one point. Rohit Sharma (83 from 55 balls) and Hardik Pandya 31 (18) helped them get to 166. The green surface sort of backfired the hosts as they too struggled to score at a brisk pace against the Indian bowlers. Sabbir Rahman’s 44 from 32 balls played a lone hand as India pulled off a comfortable victory by 45 runs.Once again several records were broken and set. Abhishek Kumar digs out 10 interesting statistical highlights from the match.
1. Yuvraj Singh scored 15 runs in this match and in this process; he became the fourth Indian batsman to complete 1,000 runs in T20I after Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma.
2. With Yuvraj completing his 1,000 runs in T20Is, this was the first instance that any team played four players with 1,000 and more runs in this format of the game.
3. Indian captain MS Dhoni once again ended the innings with a six and this is the fourth instance of him hitting six on the last ball of the innings in T20Is. No other player in this format has hit more than two sixes off the last ball.
4. Mustafizur Rahman conceded 40 runs in his four overs, which is the second most expensive spell bowled by any Bangladeshi bowler against India in T20Is.
5. Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya put up 61 runs for fifth wicket. This is the highest partnership by any pair for fifth wicket against Bangladesh in T20Is.
6. India and Bangladesh had previously played against each other only in ICC World T20 tournaments. They first played in 2009 and then in 2014. This was only the third T20I they played against each other and first in a non ICC event.
7. Co-incidentally, four Indian bowlers conceded 23 runs from their four overs. Ashish Nehra, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin and Hardik Pandya all gave same number of runs from their spell.
8. India won the match by 45 runs, which is their biggest victory margin against Bangladesh in T20Is and their fifth biggest victory in terms of runs.
9. This was India’s sixth win in 2016 and most by any team so far this year with the win/loss ratio of 6. This is best win/loss ratio in 2016 amongst the teams, which has played more than two T20Is.
10. Rohit has scored 410 runs in 2015-16 season in nine matches, which is the most by any batsman in T20Is in any season.
11. Ashwin has taken 18 wickets in nine matches in 2015-16 season, which is the joint second highest for any season. Others to have achieved this are Ahsan Malik (Netherlands), Samuel Badree (West Indies) and Imran Tahir (South Africa).
(Abhishek Kumar is a cricket devotee currently staffing with Criclife.com. He can be followed at abhicricket.kumar and @abhishekkr2593)
