File image of Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam.© BCCI/Sportzpics
Former Pakistan player Basit Ali slammed the Pakistani team following India’s marvellous performance in the second T20I of the three-match series against Bangladesh at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here. Nitish Kumar Reddy shined with both bat and ball, scoring a fine half-century and picking up two wickets for which he was awarded the Player of the Match award. India secured an 86-run win over Bangladesh. “The thought process is very important, which is missing in Pakistani cricket. India rested Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal but nobody rests in our team. So, please learn something from India,” Basit Ali said on his YouTube channel.
“The kind of sixes that Nitish hit should be called ‘Athhe’ (eights) and not sixes. And then Rinku Singh is Michael Bevan after all. Gautam Gambhir’s thinking has been a success. I am not saying that he will win the World Cup straight away. Even if he flops, Gautam won’t stop backing him because they pick players and make them and this is the best example of that,” the former cricketer added.
Coming to the match, Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bowl first. India was reduced to 41/3 at one point, but Nitish (74 in 34 balls) and Rinku Singh (53 in 29 balls, with five fours and three sixes) put on a match-saving stand of 108 runs. Hardik Pandya (32 in 19 balls, with two fours and two sixes) played a fine cameo to power India to 221/9 in their 20 overs.
Rishad Hossain (3/55) and Taskin Ahmed (2/16) were the top bowlers for Bangladesh.
In the run-chase of 222 runs, Bangladesh initially kept up with the run-rate, but lost wickets continuously.
Except for Mahmadullah (41 in 39 balls, with three sixes), nobody could really play a decent knock and Bangladesh ended with 135 on the board with nine wickets lost. India won by 86 runs.
Varun Chakravarthy (2/19) and Nitish (2/23) were among the top bowlers for India. Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar and Riyan Parag got a wicket each.
India has won the three-match series 2-0.
Nitish won the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his fine all-round show.
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