Following India’s exceptional display in the second T20I of the three-match series against Bangladesh played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, former Pakistan player Basit Ali did not hold back from criticizing the Pakistani team. Nitish Kumar Reddy contributed immensely with both bat and ball scoring an impressive half-century and also picking two wickets for which he was named the Player of the Match. India defeated Bangladesh by 86 runs. “The thought process is very essential, which is lacking in Pakistani cricket. When India rested Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal, in our team nobody even rested. So learn something from India,” Basit Ali opined on his You Tube channel.
“The type of sixes which Nitish has hit should be termed as Athhe instead of Sixes. But then Rinku Singh is after all Michael Bevan. Gambhir ki dimaag ka natija safal raha hai. I am not justifying that he will take the World Cup and return. Even if he fails, Gautam will still support him since there is a way they buy players and there is no doubt this is the ideal case for that,” the former cricketer said.
Coming to the match, Bangladesh won the toss and elected to field first. At one point, India was down to 41/3 but Nitish (74 off 34 balls) and Rinku Singh (53 off 29 balls, including five boundaries and three sixes) steadied the innings with a scratch saving partnership of 108 runs. And Hardik Pandya (32 off 19 balls, two fours and two sixes) came at the right time to propel India to 221/9 at the end of 20 overs.
The top bowlers for Bangladesh were Rishad Hossain (3/55) and Taskin Ahmed (2/16).
In the run chase of 222 runs, Bangladesh started with the run-rate but lost wickets at regular intervals.
With the exception of Mahmudullah (who managed 41 runs in 39 balls with three sixes), no one else was really able to make a decent contribution and Bangladesh ended up on the losing side with 135 runs on the board losing nine wickets. India, on the other hand, won by 86 runs.
Varun Chakravarthy (2/19) and Nitish (2/23) were brilliant with the ball for India. A wicket each was taken by Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, and Riyan Parag.
India has already clinched the three-match series 2-0.
Nitish was awarded the ‘Player of the Match’ award after the match for his exceptional all-round performance.
