T20 World Cup 2022: Bangladesh batter Liton Das scored a half-century off 21 balls and took his team off to a flying start in the Super 12 match against Rohit Sharma’s India in Adelaide.

T20 WC 2022: Liton Das hits joint third-fastest half-century against India in T20Is. Courtesy: AP

By Sabyasachi Chowdhury: Liton Das, on Wednesday, November 2, hit the second-fastest half-century by a Bangladesh batter in T20Is after Mohammad Ashraful.

Back in the 2007 T20 World Cup, Ashraful scored a 20-ball 50 against West Indies and helped Bangladesh win the match. 15 years later, Das produced another masterful knock for the Tigers.

Das also became the batter with the joint third-fastest fifty against India in T20Is. Cameron Green holds the record after he scored a fifty earlier this year off 19 balls in Hyderabad.

Johnson Charles scored a 20-ball half-century in Lauderhill back in 2016. Liton is joint with Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, who racked up a 21-ball fifty back in 2009 in Nagpur.

The Dinajpur-born Liton scored a 21-ball half-century against Rohit Sharma’s India at the Adelaide Oval in the Super 12 clash of the mega event. The right-hander took the attack to the Indian bowlers right from the outset after Bangladesh were asked to chase 185 in 20 overs.

Liton has arguably been the standout batter for the Tigers in all formats over the last 12 months. In the very first over of Bangladesh’s run-chase, Das smashed Arshdeep Singh for three fours in a row. Thereafter, he took Bhuvneshwar Kumar to the cleaners, hitting him for 6, 4 and 4.

In the same over, India gave Das a much-needed lifeline after Dinesh Karthik dropped a catch off Bhuvneshwar. Das was batting on 27 runs off 10 balls when he was dropped.

When rain interrupted play, Das’s knock had taken Bangladesh past 49, the DLS score needed at the end of seven overs. The Tigers were 66 for no loss in seven overs.