India's dominating run in the 2016 Asia Cup T20 continued as they annihilated the UAE by nine wickets in their last match ahead of Sunday's final against hosts Bangladesh. Despite making three changes to India's winning side in the previous games, MS Dhoni was able to marshall his troops and put in a supreme performance with both ball and bat.
UAE won the toss and elected to bat and would have hoped to put on a total that would give their bowlers something to bowl at. However, Indian bowlers recorded the most maiden overs in the T20I format by a Test playing nation and restricted UAE to 81 in 20 overs.
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The Indian top-order chased down the total with 59 balls remaining, giving India their best win in the T20I format. Yuvraj Singh was promoted to No. 3 and played a vintage knock to see India across the finishing line and go into the final with a winning momentum.
Rohit Sharma was named the man-of-the-match for his knock of 39 off 28 balls, hitting 7 fours and one six. This is what he had to say:
“The wickets here have been challenging, not the easiest. I am glad we have put up a performance like that. Initially, you have to see the conditions. Once you get a hang of it, you can probably play your shots. Shot selection is very important, you play a lot square of the wicket. It is not easy to play on the up to cover, midwicket. It is coming off well.”
Amjad Javed, the captain of the UAE side admitted that India were way above par: “We planned to score 120; we were playing the favourites of the tournament and it was difficult for us. When you face top-quality bowlers, it is difficult. They have got experience and they will come back hard.”
MS Dhoni was happy with how the newly included players performed: “We need 15 mins to learn bad habit. You need maybe 5-10 games to develop a good habit. It is very important for the guys who played today to keep pushing the selectors and the skipper. The batting order, only Rahane was left out. More often this is our batting order.
“We felt it was important to give games to bowlers who have not played so far. There is always scope for improvement. We will have to be consistent in big games. I can only promote a few players at a time. Everybody has got enough chances to bat. We will have to come in with another big performance in the final.
“Bangladesh are a good team and they have improved a lot. It should be a good final,” he said.
Here is how the cricketing fraternity reacted to India’s win:
Former Indian cricketer, Aakash Chopra:
Indian cricket commentator, Harsha Bhogle:
Indian cricketer, Subramaniam Badrinath:
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