Kolkata: Remember India’s last over heroics against Bangladesh in the Super 10 Group 2 encounter at the 2016 T20 World Cup at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore? Who can forget that? Chasing India’s 146/7, the Tigers required 11 runs off the last over with Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim at the crease.
A mini-meeting between Ashish Nehra, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Mahendra Singh Dhoni took place. Pandya gets the ball with Mahmudullah on strike. The right-hander steers to deep cover for a single bringing the experienced Rahim on strike who dispatches the next two balls for consecutive boundaries to reduce the equation at two runs from three balls. Any team from that position would have walked away with a win.
But destiny had other plans as Rahim and Mahmudullah both holed out to Shikhar Dhawan and Ravindra Jadeja respectively to bring Pandya on a hat-trick and most importantly its two runs from the last ball for Bangladesh to upset their neighbours. And in the hot-seat was Shuvagata Hom who was playing his fourth T20I international.
“In the last over when I went in to bat, Dhoni was having a word with Pandya and others. We (me and Mustafiz) stood there. Dhoni then came and set the field,” Shuvagata told exclusively to Sportslight Media after the former Indian skipper retired from international cricket on August 15. “Dhoni called the fielders at third man and point cover inside the circle.
“And long-off, long-on, deep mid-wicket, deep square-leg and deep extra-cover were on the boundary line. Seeing that field set-up anybody in the world would think the bowler to bowl a bodyline bouncer and the other option would be a wicket-to-wicket yorker. I also thought the same and took the stance accordingly because it would be easier for me to play the yorker or the bouncer,” he said.
“But MS’ thinking was on a different level as Pandya bowled a bouncer wide off-side which I didn’t expect at all. Another thing that he did was, he had put down the gloves of his right hand and stood few yards close to the stumps than the original position. He took a big risk and was successful. Since I was standing with an open stance, I couldn’t connect the ball which was on the line, Dhoni grabbed it and dislodged the stumps making Mustafizur Rahman run out,” Shuvagata recalled sitting at his Dhaka home.
“I told him (Mustafizur) to start running before Pandya releases the ball but he started late. We both had never faced that sort of situation in our career before. We didn’t lose the match to India that day but to the man named Mahendra Singh Dhoni. We lost to MS’ experience. It was because of him India won the match,” said Shuvagata. India won by 1 run.
The 30-year-old however had a good day with the ball dismissing Virat Kohli for 24. In three overs he bowled, Shuvagata conceded 24 runs. He also played five T20Is, 4 ODIs, 8 Tests.
