India vs Bangladesh T20 World Cup 2016: Best Moments of the Match

(MS Dhoni making a run out against Bangladesh on the last ball of the match)

India vs Bangladesh has been a contest that has made the headlines because of sledging, heated moments, fights and many more. One such contest that took place was 8 years ago on 23rd March 2016 when India took on the Bangladesh team in the T20 World Cup at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. With the festival of Holi on the next day, Indian fans were eyeing for a win to make the festival even better as against Bangladesh, they were looking confident to claim a win. India was coming to the contest after claiming a win against the Pakistan team by 6 wickets and needed a win here to stay alive in the competition. What happened that day was special for the Indian fans as they got to witness one of the best matches possible.

Setting the Stage for the Match

The T20 World Cup 2016 didn’t go off to a positive start for the Indian team as in just the first match against New Zealand, they failed to chase a modest target of 127 runs in the 20 overs as they were bowled out for just 79 runs in the 18 overs that they played. Coming to their second match against Pakistan, India grabbed the contest by 6 wickets as Virat Kohli helped them to chase the target of 118 runs by making 55 runs and hence India got 1 win and 1 loss from the 2 matches played and they needed a win against the Bangladesh side to keep themselves alive in the competition. For the Bangladesh side, winning the match against India was crucial as they were coming here after 2 losses in the last 2 games played. Thus, a close contest was expected between both teams to keep themselves in contention now.

The Moment Arrives: It's Matchday

On 23rd March 2016, India and Bangladesh were scheduled to meet each other and after winning the toss, it was Bangladesh who decided to field first. On the pitch of M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, the crowd expected some big runs from the Indian batters but the pitch being slow made things tough for the batters. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan gave a positive start to the team and India reached 42 runs from 5.5 overs. But what followed after was a complete collapse from the Indian team as players like Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, MS Dhoni, and others failed to capitalize on the start and India was 117-6 in the 16.5 overs of the game.

(Indian team celebrating after taking a wicket in the match against Bangladesh)

However, the positive innings from Suresh Raina and Hardik Pandya with the scores of 30(23) and 15(7) respectively helped the Indian team to reach 146 runs with the loss of 7 wickets in their 20 overs. Considering the ground and the dimensions, this was a below-par total and hence India had to bowl really well to get a win here. The Bangladesh team looked confident and hence had the best chance to get the Indian team out of contention. The second innings of the match didn’t start well as the Bangladesh team lost Mohammad Mithun in the 3rd over with the scoreline reading 1-11.

However, a partnership of Tamim Iqbal and Sabbir Rahman allowed the team to recover well as they got off to 55 runs in 7.4 overs. Bangladesh looked set to get to the winning line as they had the wickets and the firepower to achieve the target easily. But the mastermind MS Dhoni behind the stumps had different plans as the stumping of Sabbir Rahman proved to be the turning point of the match. Besides this, the wickets of Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza along with Soumya Sarkar helped the Indian team to make a comeback in the match.

The Final 2 overs of the Match

For the 19th over of the match, Jasprit Bumrah got the ball from MS Dhoni and his task was to defend the 17 runs well. With Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim on strike, it was a big task for the youngster to keep India in the game. But he managed his cool and hence gave only 6 runs to the opposition and hence it looked like the game was moving towards the Indian team. However, for MS Dhoni, the biggest task was to choose the bowler who would bowl the last over as he had Hardik Pandya and Suresh Raina for it, where he moved with the pace bowling of Pandya.

The last over was given to Hardik Pandya and he had the task to defend 11 runs. The first ball he bowled to Mahmudullah went for a single and hence 10 runs were required from 5 balls. Mushfiqur Rahim then smashed a four on the second ball of the over to bring the equation down to 6 runs from 4 balls. Then the third ball came and the batter went for a scoop and hence another boundary was added to the scorecard which got the equation at 2 runs required from 3 balls.

India vs Bangladesh, 25th Match, Super 10 Group 2 at Bengaluru, Mar 23 2016, World T20
India	Bangladesh
146/7 (20 overs)	145/9 (20 overs)
Suresh Raina 30(23)	Tamim Iqbal 35(32)
Mustafizur Rahman 2/34 (4 overs)	Ravichandran Ashwin 2/20 (4 overs)
India won by 1 run

(Scorecard of the match between India and Bangladesh at the T20 World Cup)

Now, it looked like India was on the edge to be eliminated from the tournament while Bangladesh is all set to stay alive in the tournament now. But Mushfiqur Rahim went for the glorious shot and hence was caught out which made the equation at 2 runs required in 2 balls. But here is the big twist in the field from MS Dhoni as he moved Shikhar Dhawan out from the Mid-wicket to place Ravindra Jadeja who is the best fielder of the team. Mahmudullah played the shot at the same position where Jadeja was fielding and hence he got out which got the equation as 2 runs required from 1 ball.

(Hardik Pandya celebrating after winning the game for the Indian team)

For the last ball of the match, an intense discussion followed between MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya along with Ashish Nehra to decide the type of ball and it came out as a short-pitched ball that could be missed by the batter. The same thing happened on the last ball and the ball went straight to the gloves of MS Dhoni who ran and made the runout to give India a win by just 1 run. Bangladesh lost and was out of the tournament. It was a sad ending, showing how exciting and unpredictable cricket can be.