Suryakumar Yadav’s India handed Bangladesh a clean sweep with victory in the third and final T20 clash on Saturday. The Men in Blue also obliterated a host of records on their way to a comfortable 133-run victory in Hyderabad.
Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and elected to bat first in Hyderabad. Team India suffered an early setback when opener Abhishek Sharma continued his string of disappointing performances and was caught for 4. Sanju Samson, however, was in the mood for mistakes on Saturday as he set the tone early in his innings, smashing the fastest half-century by an Indian against Bangladesh in just 21 deliveries. Samson also had support at the other end from skipper Surya, who matched him shot for shot to finish on 75 from 35 deliveries.
Meanwhile, Samson continued his attacking cricket and went on to score the first century by an Indian wicketkeeper batter. Samson’s 111 (47) that included 11 boundaries and 8 sixes was the highlight of the innings and put India on the path to achieving their highest ever total.
After the dismissal of Pandya, the Indian middle order featuring Riyan Parag, Hardik Pandya and Rinku Singh showed their attacking best to take the team to a total of 297 in the 20 overs.
Notably, this is the highest total by a full member ICC nation and is second only to Nepal’s 313/3 against Mangolia in last year’s Asia Cup. The Men in Blue now also hold the record for most 200 plus total in men’s T20 cricket, taking over the record from Somerset.
Meanwhile, Mayank Yadav opened the bowling for India and got the wicket on the first delivery of the match dismissing Parvez Hossain Emon with his sheer pace. Tanzid Hasan and skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto did get the initial starts but failed to capitalize on them and were eventually dismissed by Washington Sundar and Ravi Bishnoi respectively.
Litton Das (42) and Towhid Hridoy (63) did put up a counterattacking partnership but the duo never looked set to get to get even close to India’s mammoth total.
