ESCAPE TO VICTORY

Rohit’s Men Survive Litton Blitz In Rainy Adelaide To Win By 5 Runs Via D/L Method

- Partha.Bhaduri

Adelaide: Breathless at the Oval! India nearly slipped on the proverbial banana peel before a fortuitous rain break worked in their favour on Wednesday night as they pulled off a 5-run win (by D/L method) over Bangladesh. As their bowlers pulled things back in dramatic fashion in a curtailed 16-over game, Bangladesh’s old bugbear, pressure, undid opening batter Litton Das’ extraordinary effort.

It’s not easy to overshadow Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav all in one day, but that’s exactly what Litton (60 off 27 balls; 7x4, 3x6) nearly managed to pull off. When Bangladesh began their chase of 185, it was as if Litton knew exactly when the rain would come and exactly what he had to do.

The ferocity of his onslaught perhaps took the Indian pacers by surprise. By the time the rain came, seven overs had been bowled and Bangladesh were 66/0, a clear 17 above the D/L par score, with Litton on 59 off 26 balls. To put things in perspective, his opening partner Najmul Hossain Shanto had only managed 7 from 16 balls at the other end by then.

India began well enough, with Bhuvneshwar giving away only two off his first over and finding some swing straight away, but Arshdeep’s left-arm swing in the next over leaked runs. First ball, a touch wide, was carved past backward point for four. Arshdeep cut back on his length next ball but overpitched the third, and Litton smoked it straight down the ground past the bowler. There was more drama as behind the stumps, Dinesh Karthik failed to cleanly collect an edge behind the stumps.