India secured a thrilling victory in the exciting lone T20 match against Japan.
The Asian Games are being held in Nagoya, Japan. The Indian team, which is in Japan to take part in this event, played a single T20 match to celebrate the 75-year friendship between India and Japan.
The match was expected to begin at 9:30 a.m. Indian time on Tuesday at the Sano International Cricket Ground in Kanto, but rain delayed the start of the game.
Since the rain continued until 11:45 a.m., the match was reduced from 20 overs to 5 overs. Following that, India captain Shreyas Iyer, who won the toss, chose to bat first. In this match as well, young player Vaibhav Suryavanshi was not given a chance.
Fans expected India’s top-order batters, known for their aggressive style, to tear apart Japan’s bowling in five overs, but Japan’s bowlers kept delivering shock after shock.
In the first over, India’s wicketkeeper Sanju Samson played cautiously and scored 7 runs, while Abhishek Sharma, the aggressive batter who had smashed a century in 30 balls in the previous match against Afghanistan, was dismissed for a golden duck on the very first ball of the second over and walked back disappointed.
Following him, Sanju Samson was out for 9 runs and Ishan Kishan for 3, while Shreyas Iyer, who played with some restraint and held the innings together to an extent, scored 16 runs. In the allotted 5 overs, the Indian team lost 4 wickets and managed only 32 runs. Charlie Hara took 2 wickets, while Ibrahim Takahashi and Benjamin took one wicket each.
Then, the Japanese players, who came out chasing a target of 33 runs for victory, also impressed with the bat. Opening batsman and captain Kendall Kadowaki scored 12 runs before returning to the pavilion, while Benjamin made 9, Ibrahim 4, and Lachlan Yamamoto 1 run.
With Japan needing 8 runs in the final over for victory, Washington Sundar came on to bowl. He bowled brilliantly, conceding only 5 runs including a wide, and helped the Indian team win the thrilling match by 2 runs. Sundar took 2 wickets for India.
The victory in the thrilling match also marked India’s 200th win in international matches.
Seasoned spinner Axar Patel choked the inexperienced Japanese batters just in time as India survived a scare to win the rain-curtailed one-off T20 International between the two mis-matched sides by a mere two runs here on Tuesday.