At the South Gate entrance of the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday, a good five hours before the start of the India vs Bangladesh match was a lone Bangladeshi fan standing and holding his nation’s flag with his arms spread. He was helplessly watching a group of Indian supporters making their way in. They settled down nicely even as there was a match to be played between The Netherlands and Zimbabwe before the India-Bangladesh game.
The Bangladesh supporter thought that he was outnumbered by the Indian supporters. Though he gradually had other fans from his country for the company, the number of Bangladesh supporters at the Adelaide Oval under an overcast sky and in chilly conditions were clearly outnumbered by the vociferous Indian supporters.
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As has been observed wherever Rohit Sharma and his team have played in this tournament, the Indian supporters at the venues have been enormous. The mere presence of the Indian supporters in great numbers is enough for the Indian team to lift their performance and put up a performance that would keep their supporters happy in a foreign land.
Such is the presence of the Indian supporters in foreign countries that it is no exaggeration in saying that the Indian cricket team seems to get a feeling as if they were playing in India. Though the conditions are not what they find at home including the pitch, the boundary distances, and, of course, the cold weather, they are made up by the mere presence of the Indian fans wherever the team plays.
Even Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan, on the match eve, admitted that the India-Bangladesh match will have a lot of supporters as the Indian cricket team attracts a lot of their supporters wherever they go. It has stayed true in Melbourne against Pakistan, in Sydney against The Netherlands, in Perth against South Africa, and in Adelaide against Bangladesh.
Shakib also said that India were favourites and have come to win the World Cup whereas his team began as underdogs and nobody expected them to win the tournament. That does not take away what Bangladesh are capable of putting up on the cricket field. They may have failed in their batting, and they may not have the experience in handling challenging situations better and that leads to panic. As a consequence, they falter on the way and surrender matches closely, especially to India.
Like it happened at the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday. When rain interrupted Bangladesh’s chase, the Indians were feeling the heat even in cold conditions. Litton Das had given Bangladesh a blazing start that they were well on course to creating an upset win. It was only on the match eve on Tuesday that Shakib said that his team was here not to win the World Cup but India were, and that if his team won, it would be an upset.
At 66 for no loss in 7 overs, Bangladesh were well above the par score of 49. Had rain continued and not permitted any resumption, Bangladesh would have actually created an upset. But, as it turned out, the rain stopped, play resumed after about 45 minutes of interruption and the target was revised as per the DLS Method.
Bangladesh needed another 85 in 54 balls with all 10 wickets in hand. It was achievable, considering Das’s form, having scored 59 off just 26 balls out of his team’s first 66 runs.
The Indian supporters at the Oval braved the rain and stayed patiently to see the match resume. They cheered every time the thick rope was used to remove moisture from the outfield. They wanted the game to resume and India to win.
Bangladesh may have preferred that the play did not resume but they did not have any other option. They did not lay the rules, after all. Shakib said: “I mean, that’s the decision that the umpire makes. We don’t make that decision. We are here to play cricket. Both teams wanted to play a full 20 overs each. Unfortunately, rain interrupted. But I’m happy with the way both the teams played. I think it was played in the right spirit. Both teams played really well. We were so close, like the 2016 World Cup, but weren’t close enough.”
The 2016 World Cup was the closest Bangladesh came to winning against India in T20Is. Bangladesh needed 10 off the last over bowled by Hardik Pandya. Mushfiqur Rahim hit two fours off the second and third deliveries. With victory in sight, as Bangladesh needed two off the last three deliveries, Bangladesh lost two wickets off the next two deliveries. With two needed off the last ball, Pandya bowled just wide of the batsman Shuvagata Hom, who missed and took off for a single. A brilliant Mahendra Singh Dhoni dashed off to the stumps rather than aim at the stumps and in the process effected a run out. India won by one run.
So near, yet so far.
With another loss on Wednesday, Bangladesh have lost all four ICC Men’s T20 matches against India.
As luck would have it, Das slipped while going for the second run and was done in by a perfect throw on to the stumps by KL Rahul from the deep. There began the Bangladesh slide.
Shakib admitted later on Wednesday that it was a combination of lack of experience and also his players panicking that his team faltered. “We don’t play too many close games. So, sometimes when we are in that situation, we don’t know how to do it,” said Shakib, who was among those who holed in the deep as the Bangladesh batsmen went for big shots and ended up giving catches in the deep.
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The margin of victory for India was five runs. It was exactly the same number of runs that Bangladesh may feel they were deprived of following a fake throw by Virat Kohli in the seventh over. In an incident that failed to get noticed by the on-field umpires Marais Erasmus, who was closest to the action, and Chris Brown, Kohli appeared to throw the ball to the bowler’s end even as Arshdeep Singh from the deep on the off side was throwing the ball to wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik after Das played and took two runs.
Kohli, from inside the circle on the off side, appeared to throw the ball in a mock action. Had the umpires noticed this, Kohli’s action could have resulted in five penalty runs awarded to the opposition. It comes under Law 41.5 under ‘Deliberate distraction, deception or obstruction of batter’, and says “… it is unfair for any fielder wilfully to attempt by word or action to distract, deceive or obstruct either batter after the striker has received the ball.
“It is for either one of the umpires to decide whether any distraction, deception, or obstruction is wilful or not.”
That Erasmus or Brown did not deem it anything detrimental to the batsmen Das and his partner Najmul Shanto as they had not appeared to have noticed anything from Kohli’s action ended up being a turning point in the match. Who knows? Bangladesh, with the five penalty runs, may have tied the match, taken it to Super Over, and created an upset that Shakib spoke about the previous day.
But, it all panned out as if Kohli had not made the fake throw. India eventually won by five runs and perched atop the points table.
As for the lone Bangladeshi fan mentioned at the start, he was lucky that the Indian fans did not perform the Nagin dance and mock him.
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Close contests like these are what make Bangladesh a team that cannot be taken lightly. It is just about going that extra yard to convert close defeats into victories. But, India showed on the day who the big brother was in the contest of the Asian teams.
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