ADELAIDE: Record-breaking Virat Kohli said he “absolutely loves playing” at the Adelaide Oval Wednesday after his third unbeaten fifty in four T20 World Cup matches put India on the brink of the semi-finals.

Kohli’s well-paced 64 not out from 44 balls made him the highest run-scorer in Twenty20 World Cup history as India edged Bangladesh by five runs in a rain-affected thriller thanks to an unfortunate run-out of Litton Das in the chase to go top of Group 2.

India are a point ahead of South Africa who play Pakistan on Thursday in Sydney. Pakistan must win both their last games to keep alive their slim hopes of reaching the final four.

India can clinch a semi-final spot with a win against Zimbabwe on Sunday, after Bangladesh faltered in their rain-revised chase of 151 in 16 overs.

Zimbabwe’s interest in the semi-finals is all but over after they earlier lost by five wickets to the Netherlands, who won for the first time in the Super 12.

India opener K.L. Rahul got back into form with a 32-ball 50 at the top of the innings, but it was Kohli, coming to the crease at 11-1, who stole the show and the player of the match award as he guided his team to 184-6 off their 20 overs.

“As soon as I knew the World Cup was in Australia, I was grinning from ear to ear,” said Kohli who followed his incredible match-winning 82 not out against Pakistan in the opening match in Melbourne with another unbeaten fifty against the Netherlands in Sydney.

“I knew good cricketing shots would be the key,” said Kohli as he continued his love affair with the famous Adelaide ground where he scored his maiden Test century back in 2012.

The Indian maestro’s statistics at Adelaide since are astonishing.

When he captained India for the first time in Tests there in 2014, he celebrated by making centuries in both innings.

“I absolutely love playing in this ground,” said Kohli. “Right from the nets at the back, as soon as I enter, it makes me feel at home.”

In Kohli’s only previous T20 international at the venue he scored an unbeaten 90 against Australia in 2016.

In 50-over games at Adelaide, Kohli made 107 against Pakistan in the 2015 World Cup and 104 against Australia in 2019.

“I said that knock at MCG [against Pakistan] was meant to be,” said Kohli. “But when I come here, it’s like I’m meant to come to Adelaide and enjoy my batting.”

Bangladesh started their reply brilliantly and were 66-0 after seven overs — with Das on 59 off 26 balls — when the teams were forced off for nearly an hour because of rain.

Off the first ball after the delay, Das slipped as he turned for a second run and appeared to hurt his arm. Then, off the next ball, he again slipped as Bangladesh sought a second run and was run out for 60 at the non-striker’s end from a direct throw by Rahul.

It proved the turning point as Bangladesh were restricted to 145-6 despite a late flurry from Nurul Hasan (25 off 14 balls) and Taskin Ahmed (12 off 7), with Arshdeep Singh taking 2-38.

“Shortened games can go either way... but we held our nerves pretty well when the game started after the break,” India captain Rohit Sharma said. “Some of the catches we took today under pressure, it was great to watch.”

Put into bat, India did not have the best of starts with Taskin Ahmed proving quite a handful even though the seamer went wicketless.

Hasan Mahmud (3-47) dropped Rohit in the deep but almost immediately made amends dismissing the batter for two.

Kohli, who was adjudged player-of-the-match, did not look convincing initially but was soon in his elements, while Rahul also looked in great touch at the other end.

With scores of 4,9,9 in his previous three matches, Rahul was under pressure to justify his selection and the opener responded by clubbing four sixes en route to a 31-ball fifty as India reached 86-2 at the halfway stage.

Suryakumar Yadav played a typically breezy 30 off 16 balls on a day he replaced Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan as the top-ranked T20 batter.

Kohli accelerated in the penultimate over, registering his third fifty in four innings and also overtook Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene as the leading run-getter in the history of the tournament.

Before the rain break, Das was putting India’s pace attack to the sword. He hit three sixes and seven fours, reaching his half-century off 21 balls. It was the second quickest half-century of the tournament.

He put on 50 runs off 32 balls, with Najmul Shanto only contributing three runs to the initial partnership. Overall, they put on 68 runs off 44 balls either side of the weather interruption.

When the rain intervened, Bangladesh were ahead on DLS, having needed a par score of 49-0 at that point.

Afterwards, however, Bangladesh plunged to 99-3 after Suryakumar Yadav held two sharp catches to send back Shanto (21) and Afif Hossain (3) in quick succession.

Shakib al Hasan was out for 13, while Nurul kept Bangladesh going. Bangladesh needed 20 from the last over from Arshdeep and Nurul hit a six and a four but it was not enough in the end.

“It’s been the story when we play India. We’re almost there but we never cross the finishing line,” Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan rued. “It was a great game, the crowd enjoyed and both teams enjoyed. In the end someone has to win and someone has to lose.

“It was a combination of both lack of experience and panicking. We don’t play too many close games, so sometimes when we are in that situation, we don’t know how to do it.”

India v Bangladesh
Scoreboard

INDIA:

K.L. Rahul c Mustafizur b Shakib 50

R. Sharma c Yasir b Hasan 2

V. Kohli not out 64

S. Yadav b Shakib 30

H. Pandya c Yasir b Hasan 5

D. Karthik run out 7

A. Patel c Shakib b Hasan 7

R. Ashwin not out 13

EXTRAS (LB-1, NB-3, W-2) 6

TOTAL (for six wkts 20 overs) 184

DID NOT BAT: B. Kumar, M. Shami, A. Singh

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-11 (Sharma), 2-78 (Rahul), 3-116 (Yadav), 4-130 (Pandya), 5-150 (Karthik), 6-157 (Patel)

BOWLING: Taskin 4-0-15-0, Shoriful 4-0-57-0 (2w, 2nb), Hasan 4-0-47-3 (1nb), Mustafizur 4-0-31-0, Shakib 4-0-33-2

BANGLADESH:

Najmul Hossain c Yadav b Shami 21

Litton Das run out 60

Shakib Al Hasan c sub b Arshdeep 13

Afif Hossain c Yadav b Arshdeep 3

Yasir Ali c Arshdeep Singh b Pandya 1

Nurul Hasan not out 25

Mosaddek Hossain b Pandya 6

Taskin Ahmed not out 12

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-2) 4

TOTAL (for six wkts, 16 overs) 145

DID NOT BAT: Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-68 (Litton), 2-84 (Najmul), 3-99 (Afif), 4-100 (Shakib), 5-102 (Yasir), 6-108 (Mosaddek)

BOWLING: Kumar 3-0-27-0, Arshdeep 4-0-38-2, Shami 3-0-25-1, Patel 1-0-6-0, Ashwin 2-0-19-0, Pandya 3-0-28-2

RESULT: India won by five runs (DLS method).

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2022