Rohit fireworks bring India level

Rohit Sharma hammered 85 in 43 balls to lead India to an easy eight-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the second T20 in Rajkot on Thursday.

The India win levelled the three-game series, after the visitors had won the first one by seven wickets.

Rohit was smashing the Tigers bowlers all over the park from the beginning and the visitors did not have any answer to his fireworks.

The Indian captain slammed six fours and the same number of sixes in his match-winning innings while his fellow opening partner Shikhar Dhawan only contributed 31 in the 118-run first wicket partnership.

Rohit looked all set for another T20 ton, but he fell to Aminul Islam as substitute Mohammad Mithun took a catch near the boundary rope.

Aminul had also taken the wicket of Dhawan.

Put into bat first, a 60-run opening partnership between Mohammad Naim and Liton Das helped Bangladesh make 153 for 6.

The visiting side would certainly be disappointed for not being able to post a bigger total, after having a run rate of over 8 in the first 10 overs.

Naim was the top-scorer with 36 off 31 while the attacking Liton hit 29 off 21 balls.

One-down Soumya Sarkar kept up the tempo with 30 off 20 balls, firing two fours and the innings' only six, while captain Mahmudullah also made 30 in 21 balls, courtesy of four fours.

Yuzvendra Chahal took two wickets for the hosts while Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed and Washington Sundar claimed one apiece.