India's batting onslaught leaves Bangladesh facing another crushing defeat

To surpass India's fiery batting display, Bangladesh would have had to mount their own batting rampage, setting a new record for the highest successful run chase in their T20 history. However, the Bangladeshi batsmen fell short of the challenge, collapsing far before reaching the target and suffering another heavy defeat.

In the second T20 of the series on Wednesday at Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium, Bangladesh lost to India by 86 runs. This marked Bangladesh's third-largest defeat by runs in this format. With one match remaining, Najmul Hossain Shanto's side has already lost the series. Bangladesh will face India in a dead rubber on 12 October in Hyderabad. This was Bangladesh's 15th loss in 16 T20s against India.

India, after losing the toss and being sent to bat, recovered from a slow start with explosive half-centuries from Nitish Kumar Reddy and Rinku Singh, followed by a commanding innings from Hardik Pandya, to post 221 for 9. This is the second-highest team total ever scored against Bangladesh in T20s. Bangladesh's highest successful chase is 214, and the enormous target proved too much as they were bundled out for 135 for 9.

Bangladesh's chase began aggressively but faltered quickly with the first wicket falling at 20. From there, the collapse continued. Apart from Mahmudullah Riyad, who is set to retire from the format after the next T20, none of the batsmen managed to contribute significantly. Mahmudullah, though unable to bat with T20 intent, top-scored with 41 from 39 balls, hitting three boundaries in his 140th and final T20I for Bangladesh.

None of the other Bangladeshi batsmen passed 20. Parvez Hossain Emon scored 16, Litton Kumar Das made 14, captain Shanto managed 11, Mehidy Hasan Miraz contributed 16, Rishad Hossain scored 9, and Tanzim Hasan Sakib added 8. India's Nitish and Varun Chakravarthy took two wickets each, while Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Abhishek Sharma, Mayank Yadav, and Riyan Parag each claimed one wicket.

Earlier, India wreaked havoc with the bat. Apart from Taskin Ahmed, the rest of Bangladesh's bowlers endured a torrid time. Spinners Mehidy and Mahmudullah were particularly expensive, both conceding runs at more than 15 per over. Bangladesh opted to open the innings with spin after winning the toss and choosing to field. However, India's openers, Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma, hammered 15 runs off the first over bowled by Mehidy. Taskin brought some relief in the next over, dismissing Samson for 10 off 7 balls.

Tanzim struck in the third over, clean bowling Abhishek for 15 off 11 deliveries. Despite the early wickets, India recovered as captain Suryakumar Yadav and Nitish batted calmly. India posted 45 runs from the powerplay, though Suryakumar departed for 8 off 10 balls in the sixth over, bowled by Mustafizur Rahman.

India's innings really took off in the eighth over when Nitish and Rinku launched their assault. Within four overs, India raced to 100, adding 56 runs in that period. The pair built a 108-run partnership off 49 balls for the fourth wicket. Nitish eventually fell for 74 off 34 balls, hitting 4 fours and 7 sixes, reaching his career's first T20 century in just 27 deliveries before being dismissed by Mustafizur in the 14th over.

Rinku followed soon after, bringing up his third T20 fifty in 26 balls. He was dismissed for 53 off 29 balls, which included 5 fours and 3 sixes. Pandya kept India's momentum going, scoring 32 off 19 balls, while Riyan Parag smashed two sixes in his quickfire 15 off 6 balls.

Despite taking wickets, most of Bangladesh's bowlers leaked runs. Only Taskin stood out with 2 wickets for 16 runs in 4 overs. Rishad Hossain took 3 wickets but gave away 55 runs in his 4 overs. Mustafizur also took 2 wickets for 36 runs, while Tanzim claimed 2 wickets for 50 runs from his 4 overs.