Ind vs Ban Highlights - Hardik and Kuldeep put India on the cusp of semi-finals

India won this game on the back of their batting, by posting a par-plus total in a way they rarely do. Only once before in their entire history had they made more than the 196 they did today with no batter from their top five scoring a fifty. There was a fifty though, from Hardik Pandya, who also had a solid outing with the ball, using his change of pace and hit the deck tactics. Bangladesh's brightest spot was Tanzid Hasan who dismissed Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav in the space of three balls. Rishad Hossain's legspin was also eye-catching, but then came Kuldeep Yadav and his legspin was just unplayable.

One wicket with the googly

One wicket with the legbreak

One wicket after coming under pressure from big hits

Melinda Farrell from the ground: There’s a real party atmosphere here, despite a pretty small crowd for an India match. I can see a group of dancers to my left, all in bright yellow and feathered headdresses. To my right, in front of the dj’s stand are some gorgeous maroon-plumed costumes jigging about. Colours seem so vivid here.

Najmul Hossain Shanto, the Bangladesh captain, is making sure his team don't fall too far behind. He's finding the boundary a little easier than his team-mates.

Forget the help from the pitch, which is there, which is the reason why India are playing him ahead of another first-choice player. It's hard to pick Kuldeep Yadav out of the hand.

Tanzid Hasan came into this game on the back of two ducks. So his form isn't helping him. Having made 29 off 30, he has to deal with India's ace wristspinner and he doesn't know which way it's turning. He goes back to cut the ball, thinking it is the stock legbreak, but turns out it's the googly and he's cramped as all heck. Plumb lbw. The new batter Towhid Hridoy is greeted by the googly, which he plays off the pitch. Then he is expecting another one, for the last ball of the over, but is surprised by the legbreak, which turns sharply into him, and forces him into awkward flick. If that bat hadn't hurried down in time...

Jasprit Bumrah is usually better to left-hand batters (avg 19.52, econ. 6.63) than right-hand batters (avg 22.05, econ. 7.17). Small margins across a stellar career. But in this World Cup, those numbers have been flipped, largely because he hasn't faced a lot of em. But still...

Bumrah in T20 WC 2024 vs RHB: 36 runs, 74 balls, avg 4.33, econ 2.10
Bumrah in T20 WC 2024 vs LHB: 32 runs, 21 balls, avg 16, econ 7.11

He could've improved those numbers against LHB had Pant been alive to an edge from Tazid Hasan in the sixth over.

Slower ball. Close your eyes and just keep bowlin em.

Bangladesh were actually doing it well until right this moment. They saw off Arshdeep Singh when he was getting sideways movement. They saw off Jasprit Bumrah. He took a wicket in his first over in the last game. They took on Arshdeep Singh when he wasn't getting swing anymore. And with India looking to their change bowlers, they continued to attack.

But Hardik recovers from being hit for a six with an on-pace ball to go offbreak and wider outside off and that's enough to bring the pitch into play. The ball holds in it, comes off slower than Litton Das expects, might have kicked up a slight bit too, and instead of getting the six he wanted over long-on, he's caught at deep midwicket

These are the kinds of innings that India rarely used to play, where a handful of batters fuel their total, because all of them are happy to take risks. Top score of 50 (Hardik Pandya) but that's secondary to the fact that four of the seven batters who went out there scored at a strike rate of 150 or more.

Tanzim Hasan for Bangladesh was exceptional. He's not high pace but he does a lot to be unpredictable. His slower deliveries were on point today and when he chose to go on pace, he was clever enough to hit the deck too and generate extra bounce. Rishad Hossain was impressive, having to bowl a death over to Shivam Dube. His economy rate of 14 but he looked very much up for the fight.

Mel Farrell from the ground: It might be nothing but the clouds are starting to look a little darker as they scud across the sky. There are also ants scurrying about on my desk. I’ve noticed they get frenzied when there are showers about. But they may just be excited by the orange peel sitting there.

Shakib had an over left. But Bangladesh turned to young Rishad Hossain to bowl the 18th over. He's spinning into the left-hand batter Dube's hitting arc and it's a huge hitting arc. He loves going leg side and he shows it the very first ball. Six.

But here's the thing. Rishad recovers so well. He understood the mistake he made was letting Dube free his arms. The very next ball, he bowled a tighter line, on middle and off, Dube still went looking for the six, but the ball beat his inside edge and crashed into the stumps. Quick thinking and no shortage of guts.

Mel Farrell from the ground: Wow. That Dube six was straight into the stiff wind and it’s gone miles. Almost into the pink-tassled bar where a few fans are lining up for a beverage. Rum, no doubt. But the following delivery was a proper rum punch of a ball from Rishad. Could have come served with a cocktail umbrella.

16 overs done. Bangladesh have three overs of pace left - one from Mustafizur and two from Tanzim. They're going to have to bowl spin at some point and Dube is still out there. He's begun six-hitting as well. Two in his last five balls.

This is Hardik deciding to pull the trigger in the 15th over against Mahedi Hasan

India might not even be able to play the XI they're playing today without Hardik. On the Caribbean's slow pitches, and more so in these day games, having the extra spin option is important. To accommodate that, Siraj had to sit out. But that decision would've been a lot harder to make if India didn't have Hardik and his seam-ups. On top of providing that flexibility, Hardik bats at a very difficult time in the innings, often knowing that he will only face about 20 balls if he's lucky. Like today. If he's unlucky, he'd be in having to firefight against a collapse. He has the skills to do that too.

Aren't left-handers supposed to be effortless when they play through the off side? Rishabh Pant played a cover drive to Mustafizur that was basically a voice-goes-low-BGM-goes-high-anti-hero-catchphrase. Utterly chilling. He was 12 off 15 after 10 overs. Then he scored 24 off 8. Now he's gone, out to that trusty reverse sweep of his. Rishad Hossain strikes. Bangladesh were feeling it a little bit there, and their celebrations show relief.

Mel from the ground: I thought this pitch would be made for Mustafizur’s cutters. Pace off has tended to be more productive. But he’s struggled to get his line right. The change of ends meant anything favouring the batter’s leg side was vulnerable because, you guessed it, the cross breeze. Did I mention the wind?

Clever change of pace from Tanzim, and he makes sure Kohli knows it, giving him a send off. The biggest thing the offbreak did was to keep the bounce low. Kohli was charging out of his crease and he could well have hit it out of the park if not for the fact the ball slid underneath his blade

Then in walks Surya. To him, the ball bounces, because it's on pace and Tanzim really bends his back. The first ball doesn't work. The line is too legside and the batter swipes him for six over deep fine. The second one is perfect. In that in-between length outside off, benefitting from a little extra kick off the pitch. Splendid over. And it looked like the execution of a clear gameplan. Don't give Kohli pace. Try and force SKY to hit cross-bat on the off side.

Mel from the ground: Good job Bangladesh remembered to appeal for the Surya wicket. No one in the stadium seemed to realise that was out for a good moment.

Hitting over the top is proving much easier than along the ground. The outfield is quite slow. Kohli started the sixth over - the last of the powerplay - with a trademark cover drive off Mustafizur Rahman but the ball was stopped well inside the boundary. At that point, Kohli had scored only 9 off his last 10 balls. Then in the same over, he got the opportunity to get underneath one and he clobbered it for six. The quicks will want to pitch it up and change their pace in conditions like these.

Rohit faced 11 balls. He tried to hit five of them for boundaries. He succeeded four times. Got caught on the fifth attempt. He's out once more for a low score but he walks off knowing he's provided a good start at a ground where only one team has made more than 150 batting first. Conditions will get harder for boundary-scoring. Good work from Shakib though, can't be easy when you're in the line of fire like that. And he didn't hold back. He kept tossing the ball up.

Melinda Farrell from the ground: I’m sure everyone who’s read any of our match reporting has noticed we mention wind a lot. Not because we’re suffering indigestion, but because the crosswinds are such a key element of T20 cricket here and working out how to use them quickly - both when batting and bowling - is a massive factor in who comes out on top. If you’re looking at the pitch from the Sir Curtly Ambrose end across to the Sir Andy Roberts end, the cross breeze blows from left to right. That boundary where batters are hitting with the wind (which is leg side in the fourth over bowled by Shakib) is slightly longer than was for the Australia v Bangladesh game with this new pitch.

Both of India's openers like pace on the ball. So Bangladesh have denied them that by going twin-spin. The gamble they're playing is that Rohit and Kohli are orthodox batters. Hitting along the ground. Hitting straight.

But in the second over, from Shakib Al Hasan, Rohit opts for the sweep, and Kohli goes over the top, and with the breeze. Spin to these two is usually a good idea, but not when they're willing to take risks. And they've been willing to take these risks for a while now.

Melinda Farrell reports: Gooooooooood morning from Sir Vivian Richards Stadium! It’s one of those days typical of the weather we’ve had in Antigua this week. Some blue sky, a fair bit of cloud. Possible thunderstorms are forecast but that could mean anything from no rain to a passing shower. The temperature is 30 degrees celcius but the app says it feels like 41. I concur. It’s very humid. Fresh pitch for this match, btw. On the DJ’s playlist, shuffling between the Out of This World theme song and the local soca music is Mundian to Bach Ke. My shoulders are getting a good workout and it’ll be earwormed into my brain for days.

Najmul Hossain Shanto says having played in Antigua before will help them. He makes a mention of the wind and says 150-160 would be a good score on the pitch. One change. Taskin is not playing. Jaker Ali is in. That leaves them with only two quicks for the 20 overs. Rohit wanted to bat first so he's happy. He's expecting the pitch to slow up as the sun beats down. Same team

India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rishabh Pant (wk), 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Bangladesh: 1 Tanzid Hasan, 2 Litton Das (wk), 3 Najmul Hossain Shanto (capt), 4 Towhid Hridoy, 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Jaker Ali, 8 Mahedi Hasan, 9 Rishad Hossain, 10 Tanzim Hasan, 11 Mustafizur Rahman