India’s top-order rocked upfront by Bangladesh seamers in Delhi

When Najmul Shanto won the toss and opted to bowl, Suryakumar Yadav had a rather cheeky smile on his face. After all, batting first was what he wanted to do. 

“It will be a good challenge for our bowlers in the dew, bowling with a wet ball,” Suryakumar said at the toss, but, really, he also saw this as an opportunity to post a mammoth total with the bat in hand. 

Heading into this contest, all the talk was about just how much a batting paradise this Delhi wicket was. In the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the average score batting first at this venue was 235. Five matches were played at the venue and 200 was passed on all five occasions, with there being only one score below 220.

Suryakumar looked at this particular surface and gauged it to be ‘very good’ for batting.

However, India’s skipper and his side were caught off guard by the two-paced behaviour of the surface in the powerplay as the Bangladesh seamers dominated upfront.

Shanto began the powerplay with the off-spin of Mehidy Hasan and India started off in bright fashion, taking 15 off the first over. 

However, they were rocked out of the blue by the Bangladesh seamers, who in the five overs they bowled in the powerplay, registered combined figures of 3/30.

Both Sanju Samson and Suryakumar were undone by the ball holding on the surface. While Samson chipped a pace-on delivery bowled by Taskin Ahmed straight to Shanto at mid-off, Suryakumar was undone by a smart cutter from Mustafizur Rahman. Suryakumar perished in identical fashion to Samson: same shot, same area, same fielder. 

However, the highlight of the powerplay was the dismissal of Abhishek Sharma. The left-hander went for a trademark swipe, but he was undone by the sheer pace of Tanzim Sakib, who sent down a 147 kph rocket. The stumps behind the batter cartwheeled for a good three seconds; it was some sight to behold.

And so for the first time in 15 attempts, Bangladesh ended up taking three wickets in the powerplay against India in a T20I.

Don’t judge a b̶o̶o̶k̶ pitch by its cover, I suppose?

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