After the fifties from Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul, Deepak Chahar produced world-best figures of six for seven, including a hat-trick, to cut Bangladesh's chase 30 runs short despite Mohammad Naim's 48-ball 81 in Nagpur on Sunday, 11 November.
Bangladesh would have wanted a solid start in chase of a competitive total, but Deepak Chahar ensured that wasn't to be. He removed Liton Das for nine when the batsman tried to clear the on-side fence and Soumya Sarkar was caught at mid-off the very next ball, paying the price for failing to control his aerial drive. The visitors had been reduced to 12/2.
The 20-year-old Naim dealt with the pressure brilliantly. In rebuilding the innings with Mohammad Mithun, he didn't forget to put the bad balls away. The frequency of easy offerings from India increased rapidly once the spinners came on in the middle-overs as they struggled to control the ball soaked in dew.
Naim brought up his fifty with a sweep off a leg-side delivery from Washington Sundar and kept up his intensity throughout. His 108-run partnership with Mithun seemed to have steered the game in Bangladesh's favour, but India were to roar back.
Desperate for another wicket, Rohit called on Chahar again and the move paid off with Mithun holing out to a widish long-off for 27. Dube didn't look too impressive in his initial spell but made things happen in his second. He first dismissed Mushfiqur Rahim with a slower one for a golden duck. But his glory moment was removing Naim with a toe-crusher before then catching Afif off his own bowling. Once India were into the lower-order, Chahar ran riot, taking a hat-trick to better Ajantha Mendis' six for eight by conceding one fewer run. From a winning position at 110/2, Bangladesh had been bowled out for 144.
While Chahar was the undisputed star of the day, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul too made a mark with the bat in the first innings. The hosts had a forgettable start to their innings, with Shafiul Islam dismissing both openers Rohit Sharma (2) and Shikhar Dhawan (19) inside the Powerplay.
Shafiul could have had this third in just his third over when Iyer went at him with hard hands off the first ball he faced, but Aminul Islam made a hash of the straight-forward chance at backward point. The drop would prove to be immeasurably costly to Bangladesh's hopes of securing a historic series triumph.
With India at 41/2 after the Powerplay, KL Rahul and Iyer consolidated for a few overs on a sticky wicket. Rahul cut loose in the 10th over, hitting Mustafizur Rahman for two fours. Iyer took cue and hit Aminul, the man who dropped him, for six over his head in the next over.
Al-Amin threatened to pull things back for Bangladesh by dismissing Rahul with an off-cutter in the 13th over but Iyer then took command and how! He hit Afif Hossain over the long-on boundary thrice in as many balls en route to his maiden T20I fifty off just 27 balls.
Soumya Sarkar dismissed both Pant and Iyer in the 17th over, but Manish Pandey ensured India finished on a high note, smacking three fours in his 13-ball 22.
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