India 297 for 6 (Samson 111, Suryakumar 75, Pandya 47, Tanzim 3-66) beat Bangladesh 164 for 7 (Hridoy 63, Litton 42, Bishnoi 3-30, Mayank 2-32) by 133 runs
Samson, Suryakumar stun Bangladesh
When Tanzim Hasan got Abhishek Sharma out with a bouncer first ball, little would have Bangladesh known that would be their last moment of joy for the evening. Samson had already messed around with Taskin Ahmed’s lines by backing away and hitting four successive fours in the second over. The new batter, Suryakumar, took only one ball before hitting his first six.
Samson wasn’t to be left behind. He backed away and got the better of Mustafizur Rahman too with a six and a four. Suryakumar then capped off the powerplay with shots that should be considered audacious but are the norm for him, managing to pull balls well behind square when most batters would be happy going just behind. The last of those was a pull over midwicket, taking India to their joint-highest powerplay score, 82.
Suryakumar was to unfurl a carved six over backward point that he had no right sending there, but the most memorable shots came from Samson. Some of his eight sixes were audacious but they were not muscled. His control percentage for a strike-rate of 236.17 was a high 81.
The most incredible of Samson’s sixes was when he almost stepped on the stumps to create a short length on a Mustafizur slower ball, and drove it off the back foot over extra cover. Legspinner Rishad Hossain, who went for 55 last match, was just shot. He kept erring in length, starting the first over with a short ball, but in his second he kept letting Samson hit him for sixes down the ground without having to use his feet. Some of it was the pitch, but a lot of it was his lengths: too full. In the end, Rishad’s two overs went for 46 runs.
The innings was a monkey off the back for Samson, whose talent had yet to translate into numbers in international T20s. It showed in his extravagant celebrations on reaching both the fifty and the hundred, India’s second-quickest. For a change, Suryakumar had to be content with being the support act in the 173-run second-wicket stand.
Usually you expect a bit of relief when you break such a long stand, but Riyan Parag and Hardik Pandya had other ideas. Parag took three balls to hit his boundary, Pandya the same. Between them they scored 81 off 31 balls, hitting four sixes apiece. Pandya managed to outdo the Samson back-foot six over extra cover when he made his off Tanzim even bigger. Again a good slower short ball with no room, but it still sailed over extra cover.
Two wickets in the final over made sure India didn’t get to 300, but that was hardly any consolation for Bangladesh.
