Virat Kohli pulled off a stunning one-handed catch to dismiss Shakib Al Hasan on Sunday in the first ODI between India and Bangladesh at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, where the hosts registered an epic 1-wicket win a low-scoring thriller.
Earlier in the day, Kohli himself had gotten out to a terrific one-handed stunner by Bangladesh captain Litton Das. The former India skipper returned the favor, showing off his athleticism to get rid of Bangladesh’s main man and their most experienced player, Shakib Al Hasan. Incidentally, Kohli’s catch by Das was taken at the cover position, and Kohli too took this screamer at cover.
In the 24th over of Bangladesh’s chase, Washington Sundar bowled a tossed-up delivery to Shakib. Seeing the flight on the ball, Shakib went for a booming cover drive, but was beaten by the dip on the delivery and mistimed his hit that flew to the right of Virat Kohli, positioned at the cover.
Kohli jumped in the air, flung his right hand out, and plucked the ball out of thin air to complete a spectacular catch. Kohli, perhaps himself was stunned by his effort and his reactions said so.
Watch: Virat Kohli’s sensational one-handed catch to dismiss Shakib
A great catch by King Kohli. pic.twitter.com/MHRGouU9F6
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) December 4, 2022
Meanwhile, captain Rohit Sharma lamented the batting effort as India could only post 186, bowled out in 41.2 overs. Shakib took 5 wickets and Ebadot snapped 4 while KL Rahul, batting at number 5, waged a lone battle with 73 runs.
Indian bowlers replied well by picking regular wickets and even had the game in their hands with Bangladesh at 136/9. However, a miraculous 51-run stand off 41 balls with number 8 Mehidy Hasan and number 11 Mustafizur Rahman stunned India.
Opining that India was 25-30 runs short of what would have been a winning total, Rohit Sharma said: “It was a very close game. We did pretty well to comeback into that position. We didn’t bat well. 184 wasn’t good enough, but we bowled pretty well and they held their nerve in the end. If you look back how we bowled right from ball one – of course we would have loved to bowl better at the end – but we bowled pretty well for 40 overs and took wickets. We just didn’t have enough runs. Another 25-30 runs would have helped. We were looking at 240-250 after the 25-over mark. When you keep losing wickets it is difficult. We need to learn and understand how to play on such wickets.”
