A magnificent six-wicket haul by Deepak Chahar has helped India seal the Twenty20 International series 2-1 against Bangladesh with a 30-run victory in the final match in Nagpur.
Opener Mohammad Naim Sheikh, who debuted in the first match, smashed a scintillating 81 off 48, before seeing his partners departing in pairs at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium on Sunday.
Chahar claimed his last wicket of Aminul Islam in the 20th over, bundling the visitors out for 144 with four more balls to go in the chase of 175 for a win.
The pacer’s six wickets for seven runs is the best-ever figures in T20Is, embroidered by a final-over hat-trick.
He delivered the early blows taking the wickets of Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar off consecutive balls in the third over, helping India allow Bangladesh only 18 runs in the first five overs in a good start to defend their 174.
Naim stood strong as Bangladesh required 50 off 30 and had Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah yet to bat, but Mushfiqur chopped a Shivam Dube delivery into the stumps in the first ball of the 14th over just after Mohammad Mithun got caught in the previous ball off Chahar in the beginning of his comeback spell.
Dube delivered another timely blow in the 16th over with the scalping of Naim with a yorker and having Afif Hossain caught and bowled in the next ball, making Bangladesh needing 49 off 24 with four wickets remaining.
With the older and wetter ball, Chahar had Shafiul Islam in the 18th over and then took up Mustafizur Rahman and Animul in the last over to complete his hat-trick and seal the win for India.
Earlier, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul smashed quickfire fifties for India to post the challenging total of 174 for five.
Sent to bat first, India were in some trouble losing both openers within six overs, but Rahul’s 35-ball 52 steadied the innings.
Iyer then reached his fifty off 27 and lengthened the innings to 62 before being out after six more balls, according to bdnews24.com news agency.
After losing wickets in quick succession again as Soumya Sarkar took Iyer and Rishabh Pant in the 17th over, Manish Pandey hit a quickfire 22.
Shafiul Islam gave Bangladesh quick breaks by sending back openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.
India would have to do without Iyer had Aminul Islam not dropped a sitting catch when the batsman came in the sixth over.
Aminul disappointed Bangladesh again by dropping Shivam Dube in the 19th over.
Finally, the Bangladesh batsmen failed to build any partnership that could have got them the runs required for what would have been a famous victory.
