When KL Rahul ran to his left from deep midwicket, he wouldn’t have known he was heading for a breakthrough moment
Under the fire of his stick, he had already earned a little respite with a fifty with a lot of blows and intention.
But it was, in some ways, an even more significant moment.
Litton Das had shocked India with counter-attacking shots before the rain left a DLS adjusted goal of 151 from 16 overs – or 85 from 54 balls
“It’s Bangladesh’s game to lose,” Sunil Gavaskar would say moments before Najmul Shanto slapped the ball towards Rahul.
Das stuttered as he turned for the second, and Rahul pounced on his redemption song moment.
He fired a spectacular direct hit halfway near the boundary at the non-striker’s end, at Das’s end.
It was the beginning of India’s resurgence.
Even as Das cursed his partner and walked to the hutch, India rightly sensed this was their moment to swoop in for the kill.
The wickets kept tumbling, though first Shakib, then Taskin Ahmed, and finally, Nurul Hasan Sohan infused Bangladesh with hope, but when it came down to 20 from the final over, Arshdeep Singh held his nerve after a first-ball six to deprive Bangladesh
India now are at the top of the points table though at one stage, it seemed Bangladesh were running away.
Even with the bat, Rahul seized the initiative after the fall of Rohit Sharma, who looked out of sorts again when trying to take the bowlers on.
In the fourth over, just after he had slashed a four off Hasan Mahmud, Rahul would play the shot of his knock: a delightful sliced cut that had the ball soaring over the point boundary
“My instinct was to attack and I thought I shall not worry about how it was coming,” he would say at the end. The worry that he refers to was the fact that his first three fours were uncontrolled – just over cover, just over slip and such.
The real turnaround moment came in the 9th over when Rahul walloped a length ball from Shoriful Islam over long-on. Kohli would swing around, follow the trajectory briefly, have his lips cupped out in admiration, and his eyes, as ever, were ablaze.
In joy, this time. The better six probably was the next ball when Rahul somehow managed to get under a full wide ball to slice it up and over point