Bangladesh skipper Shanto urges self-belief to batters following loss to India in 2nd T20I

Following his side's loss to India in the second T20I, Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto said as batters, his players need to believe in themselves and stay at the crease for longer. Another fine all-round performance from Team India, powered by a century partnership by Nitish Kumar Reddy and Rinku Singh and some brilliant bowling from spinners, helped India secure a 2-0 series win over Bangladesh with an 86-run win in the match at Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.

Speaking during the post-match presentation, Shanto said that despite having India at 41/3 at one point, they failed to capitalise on it during the middle overs. "I think we made the same mistakes (like the first game), not a good thing as a team. We need to improve. I think it was a good decision (to bowl). They batted well after the first 6-7 overs, we did not execute our plans after that. We need to take responsibilites as batsmen, we got to believe in ourselves and stay at crease for longer. The way our bowlers bowled, they were impressive, but we could not take wickets in the middle overs," said Shanto.

Coming to the match, Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bowl first. India was reduced to 41/3 at one point, but Nitish (74 in 34 balls) and Rinku Singh (53 in 29 balls, with five fours and three sixes) put on a match-saving stand of 108 runs. Hardik Pandya (32 in 19 balls, with two fours and two sixes) played a fine cameo to power India to 221/9 in their 20 overs. Rishad Hossain (3/55) and Taskin Ahmed (2/16) were the top bowlers for Bangladesh.

In the run-chase of 222 runs, Bangladesh initially kept up with the run-rate, but lost wickets continuously. Except for Mahmadullah (41 in 39 balls, with three sixes), nobody could really play a decent knock and Bangladesh ended with 135 on the board with nine wickets lost. India won by 86 runs.

Varun Chakravarthy (2/19) and Nitish (2/23) were among the top bowlers for India. Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar and Riyan Parag got a wicket each. Nitish won the 'Player of the Match' award for his fine all-round show. (ANI)