Shivam Dube, on comeback, and Rinku Singh, in his first international innings, ran riot in the death over in the second T20I of the series in Ireland at the Malahide Cricket Cub today (August 20), adding 42 runs in the last two overs of India’s innings.
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Batting first in the second T20I, India’s innings seemed to be falling away towards the latter stages. Batting for the first time in international cricket, Rinku had looked good but struggled to find boundaries. Dube, making a return to the T20I side after four years, struggled to even get the ball off the square.
By the end of the 18th over, Rinku was batting on a run-a-ball 15 and Dube had limped his way to seven off 11 balls. Then the floodgates opened.
Barry McCarthy came on to bowl the 19th over. After a wide and a single, McCarthy lost the plot as he was caught in the Rinku Singh storm, and he went for four, six, wide, wide, six. The momentum that India seemed to have lost between overs 15 and 18 was back with them.
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While Rinku found his rhythm, Dube had to wait until the last over to find his. A mistimed slog on the last ball of the 19th over landed in a vacant region and fetched him a single.
Then, in the final over, Dube unleashed brute force, depositing the first two balls for sixes over the leg-side with his trademark long-levered-swing of the bat.
Rinku came back on strike on the fourth ball. At this point, he needed to hit three sixes in three balls to reach his fifty. Minds flashed back to his heist against Gujarat Titans in IPL 2023 when he hit the fourth ball for six over square leg.
However, he fell next ball, attempting to go the distance once again but top-edging the pull, and the short fine leg fielder took a simple catch. That ended the 55-run fifth-wicket partnership, off 28 balls. The last ball fetched a bye as Washington Sundar failed to connect bat on ball, taking India’s tally to 185-5 off 20 overs.
Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sanju Samson had laid a solid platform in the first half of the innings. At 99-2 off 11 overs, India would have fancied a total closer to 200, but a slowdown in the middle made even 170 seem distant.
That was until Rinku and Dube decided to put on a show, adding 42 in the last two overs. Rinku slammed 38 off 21 in his first international knock, while Dube was unbeaten for 22 off 16.
At the time of writing, Ireland were 64-4 in 10.2 overs. They needed another 122 in 58 balls.
