“When You Really Want to Win, You Win More”- IM Vantika Agrawal
Vantika was part of the women's team comprising Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, and Tania Sachdev, which won gold at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad .
Following India’s assertive win over Bangladesh in the just-concluded T20I series, former Pakistan pace spearhead Shoaib Akhtar was all praise for the Men in Blue, saying that they are on another level at the moment and stand a good chance of winning next year’s World T20 in Australia.
It is to note that India lost their first T20I match of the three-match series against Bangladesh in New Delhi and hence were trailing 0-1 at one time, but led by stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma, the boys came out with commanding performances in the next two games to clinch the series 2-1.
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“India have proved who the boss is in the match. Though India lost the first game but made a clinical comeback in the series, courtesy Rohit Sharma’s scintillating batting display,” Akhtar said in a video posted on his Youtube channel while mentioning Rohit’s brilliant 85 in the second T20I in Rajkot.
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“Rohit is a great talent, he can score runs any time he wants,” Akhtar added.
On Sunday, riding on great performances from KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube and Deepak Chahar, India won the third and final T20I by 30 runs in Nagpur.
“I thought 3rd T20I will be exciting to watch. However, India came out as a much better side, but hats off to Bangladesh for their spirited performance,” said Akhtar.
The former Pakistan pacer also praised Deepak Chahar, who became the first Indian male cricketer to pick up a T20I hat-trick and registered best figures of 6 for 7 in the history of the shortest format.
“He (Deepak) is a mix of medium pace and seam and he displayed a commendable performance by taking a hat-trick in the game,” he said.
Chasing 175 at the VCA Stadium, Bangladesh looked all set to take the game away when Mohammad Naim and Mohammad Mithun stitched a 98-run partnership. However, the Bangla Tigers lost a flurry of wickets and were bundled out for 144.
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