Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan both played as openers in the Indian team. Expectations were high on Rohit as he was coming to play for the first time after the IPL. He played aggressively from the start to fulfill the expectations.
Openers Vacancy:
However, it could not be converted into a big score. He scored 24 runs off 14 balls. Next, Ishan Kishan also did not bowl well with 8 (10).. Then Deepak Hooda and Suryakumar Yadav started to accumulate runs by forming a partnership.
Partnership:
Hooda 33 (17) and Suryakumar Yadav 39 (19) gave a shock when both of them were playing well. As a result, Akshar Patel was given a chance while Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik were expected to play next. Had Dinesh Karthik stepped in with 6 overs left, he would have scored a big score.
But, he was denied the opportunity. This happened when Rishabh Pant was the captain and there were criticisms. Fans started expressing their displeasure on Twitter and Facebook as the same thing happened again. However, in the 17th over, Axar Patel returned to the pavilion with 17 (12). Hardik was dismissed for 51 (33) in the very next over.
Last 2 overs:
Dinesh Karthik and Harshal Patel were in the field during the last 2 overs. Harschel scored only 4 runs off 5 balls in the 19th over. Facing Mills in the last over, Dinesh Karthik drove the first two balls to the boundary and took a walk in the next ball. He managed to score only 11 runs in 7 balls. Next, Harshal Patel was also run out. Thus, the Indian team added 198/8 runs in 20 overs.
Cricket commentators feel that India would have scored 220+ if Dinesh Karthik had been fielded earlier.