T20 World Cup: A moment of magic inspires India at Adelaide Oval

The odds are normally heavily stacked in favour of the batting side when it requires 85 to win off nine overs, or 54 deliveries, with all 10 wickets in hand. Those odds become even shorter when the bowling team has to contend with a somewhat wet ball on a slightly slippery outfield. Despite the 52-minute rain interruption at the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday night (November 2), it was Bangladesh’s match to win at the T20 World Cup. Instead, it was India who came up triumphant, their knowledge of how to pull off tight games coming to their rescue as they edged past Bangladesh in another of the tight contests the latter has been unable to crack.

Litton Das’ sensational assault on the Indian pace attack was quite the talking point until the infamous Adelaide rain arrived as promised at 8.58 pm, seven overs into the Bangladeshi chase. Requiring a stiff 185 to put a spoke in the Indian wheel, Bangladesh rattled along to 66 without loss, Najmul Hossain Shanto no more than a spectator as Litton lit up a cold evening with some of the most astonishing strokes in a game where these were at a premium.

Podcast: India vs Bangladesh match review

Turning point

The 52-minute stoppage gave India time to regroup, reassess and refocus. During the early part of that interruption, their hearts must have skipped a collective beat. As the cameras panned on Rahul Dravid, the head coach cut a grim figure, aware that his team was 17 behind on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) scales and that unless the rain subsided and play resumed, it was Bangladesh who would walk away with the points.

The prayers of a billion fans were answered when the weather let up, and the impressive ground staff at the Oval went to work. Even when it was raining, they were complementing the excellent draining system by running a rope around the outfield to mop up the residual water. The high-class covers facilitated a prompt resumption of the match and while that was something India welcomed, they still had their work cut out.

Also read: T20 World Cup: Format, points system, reserve days, super over, COVID rules

India needed a spark of inspiration, a moment of magic, to lift them, and that came from the man who had, earlier in the night, emphatically shed a worrying lack of runs with a beautiful half-century of the sort only he can conjure. Perhaps the runs he made energised him, for KL Rahul ran manically to his left from deep mid-wicket, picked up the ball and hurled it in one sinuous motion towards the non-striker’s end, which Litton was trying to reach to complete a second run.

The ball zeroed in on the stumps as if laser-directed, catching the sprawling right-hander short of his ground. The Adelaide Oval erupted, Rahul ran into the arms of his jubilant teammates and the fightback was on, in right earnest. For the next six overs, India ran rings around Bangladesh. The bowling lifted itself a notch, the catching was out of the top drawer and the decision-making was smart and decisive as India seemed to grow several inches. As the pressure mounted, you could see panic setting in in the Bangladesh ranks. The situation called for a calm head and common-sense batting but even someone as experienced as Shakib Al Hasan succumbed, hitting in the air without getting his eye in when knocking the ball around the vast outfield for twos was a more inviting and risk-free option.

Also read: T20 World Cup: Schedule, squads, groups, live TV, streaming, audio

Bangladesh batsmen panic

Bangladesh’s unexpected middle-order implosion left them with too much to do in the end, including 20 off the last over from the phlegmatic Arshdeep Singh, still in his first six months as an international cricketer. The composure with which the left-arm seamer stepped up would have done the man unavailable for death-bowling duties, Jasprit Bumrah, proud. In his brief career, the 23-year-old has revealed a wise head on young shoulders, and even though he went for six off the second ball of the over, he kept his wits around him to nail the deliveries that mattered.

India’s narrow win was in keeping with the trend of repelling Bangladesh’s fight, however spirited, in close contests. There’s an emerging pattern that is bound to hurt an emotional team like Bangladesh hugely, and unless they find a way of finishing on the right side of the result in such tight matches against their neighbours, the psychological damage can border on the irreversible.

Victories such as this, and the last-ball classic against Pakistan in Melbourne 10 nights back, lift a team more than convincing romps on the park. The adrenaline rush from clinching a thriller is a wonderful driving force and as they approach their final Super 12 game against Zimbabwe at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday, India will feel reinvigorated. The feelgood will also emanate from Rahul finding his feet with an eye-catching half-century which began like a stuttering jalopy and finished with the hyper-charged progress of a Formula One car.

No one had doubted Rahul’s class or pedigree, but his approach seemed too self-contained and tentative. This evening, the opener saw off a tough opening over from Taskin Ahmed, hardly laying bat to ball, but when he did, the effect was mind-boggling. A powerful striker who loses neither shape nor elegance when he opens his broad shoulders and smites the ball a mile, Rahul mocked the length of the Oval boundaries with his wrists and feet and mind and timing all in perfect sync. Rahul needed this knock as much for himself as for the team, because there is no greater satisfaction in team sport than the appreciative thumps on the back from your mates who have stood unwaveringly by your side during difficult times.

At the risk of tempting fate, India have one foot in the semi-finals and will formalise their entry into the last four if they overcome Zimbabwe on Sunday. That will only mean the first step accomplished, though it will be a meaningful first step, considering they didn’t make it that far 12 months back. After that, who knows? As they say, it all boils down to what happens on the night and as India showed on Wednesday, they sure can make things happen.