KL Rahul after hitting fifty against Bangladesh: ‘I wasn’t worried about missing out in the last three games’ – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Under-fire India opener KL Rahul finally returned to form with a good half-century against Bangladesh in their Group 2, Super 12 match of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup in Adelaide on Wednesday.

Notably, Rahul had only managed 22 runs in his first three matches of the T20 World Cup, but he silenced his critics with a 32-ball 50 against Bangladesh.

After scoring fifty, KL Rahul said that he wasn’t worried about failing to score in the last three games.

“Been mixed feelings. I got some good knocks before coming to Australia. But the first three games haven’t gone my way. I think I was doing a lot of things right. I wasn’t worried about missing out in the last three games. I am happy I got a good innings under my belt. We will have to bowl well with the new ball. Some wickets might put pressure on them,” Rahul said during the mid-innings break.

Talking about the match, fifties from Virat Kohli and Rahul helped India reach a powerful 184/6 in their 20 overs.

Virat (64*) had a historic outing as not only his score powered India to a huge total, but he also became the highest run scorer in T20 WC history.

Hasan Mahmud (3/47) was pick of the bowlers for Bangladesh.

Kohli, en route to his third half-century of the competition, had couple of useful stands – 67 for second wicket with Rahul and 38 for the third wicket with Suryakumar Yadav (30 off 15 balls).

India skipper Rohit Sharma (2 off 7 balls) couldn’t capitalize on the dropped chance in the first over off Taskin Ahmed’s (0/15 in 4 overs).

Shakib Al Hasan (2/33 in 4 overs) picked wickets of Rahul and Surya but Taskin undoubtedly was the best bowler on view.

If Bangladesh lose the game, it will be because of the cumulative 104 runs in eight overs conceded by left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam (0/57) and Hasan Mahmud (3/47).

Having copped a lot of criticism over the past three games, Rahul got into his element. He played his customary ‘pick-up pull-shot’, which is a whip off the wrists behind square for a six.

With skipper Rohit dismissed cheaply, Kohli eased the initial pressure put by Taskin with some fleet-footed running between the wickets.

Rahul took 20 balls to score his first 21 runs but once the Powerplay was done away with, he suddenly upped the ante as in one over from Shoriful, he hit a short-arm pull over deep mid-wicket and a slash over backward point for two maximums.

That ninth over from Shoriful yielded 24 runs and the pressure was completely released on the Indian batters.

Rahul’s next 29 runs came off 10 balls before his 31-ball-50 ended when an attempted lap-shot found the top-edge and Mustafizur took a well-judged catch off skipper Shakib’s bowling. The second wicket stand yielded 67 in just 5.5 overs.

Kohli at the other end hit a flurry of boundaries – couple off Taskin, one from Mustafizur and the best of the lot – a copybook off-drive that one can watch on the loop as many times one wishes to.

The stage was set for Suryakumar and he responded in style with a quickfire cameo before Shakib’s arm-ball breached his defense.

However, Kohli continued to attack from one end to take India to an above-par score even as Hardik Pandya (5), Dinesh Karthik (7) and Axar Patel (7) couldn’t provide much support towards the back-end.

Ravichandran Ashwin (13 not out off 6 balls) did hit some lusty blows which could prove to be very useful in final context of the match.

(With PTI inputs)