Cyclone Maha to make landfall in Gujarat a day before India vs Bangladesh 2nd T20I in Rajkot

Team India might not even get a chance to fight their way back in the 2nd T20I against Bangladesh due to Cyclone Maha, which is going to make landfall on the West Coast on November 6. The second match of the three-T20I series will be played in Rajkot the next day.

The Ahmedabad centre of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said Maha would make landfall in Gujarat between Dwarka and Diu on the night of November 6 and bring heavy to very heavy rains till the next day there. It is likely to intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm in the next six hours, the Gujarat Met Centre had said.

This might result in the match getting abandoned without even a ball being bowled, meaning Bangladesh will take an unassailable 1-0 series lead heading into the third match in Nagpur on November 10.

"Severe cyclonic storm Maha lay centered at 580 kilometres southwest of Diu and 550 kms southwest of Veraval," IMD director Jayanta Sarkar told PTI. "It is most likely to intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm and make landfall between Dwarka and Diu on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning with wind speeds of 120 kilometres per hour.

"The storm will cause heavy to very heavy rains in Saurashtra [the region of which Rajkot is a part] and south Gujarat on November 6-7. It is moving towards Oman but will recurve towards Gujarat coast on Monday."

Bangladesh won the first match in New Delhi on Sunday by 7 wickets after they comfortably chased down the target of 149 set up by India. Even the game in Delhi was under threat of being called off just hours before the toss due to the rising air pollution levels in the capital city.

Despite high levels of pollution in the national capital, both the cricket teams played the match and the visitors turned out in large numbers to witness Bangladesh's first-ever T20I win over India.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly even took to Twitter after the game to thank the players from both sides for playing the game despite the thick smog cover.

"Thank u to both the teams to play this game @ImRo45 @BCBtigers under tuff conditions .. well done Bangladesh," Ganguly tweeted on Sunday (Nov. 3).

Thank u to both the teams to play this game @ImRo45 @BCBtigers under tuff conditions .. well done bangladesh .. Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) November 3, 2019

Bangladesh rode on Mushfiqur Rahim's unbeaten 60 to reach the target with 3 balls to spare after India were restricted to 148 for 6 in 20 overs. Mushfiqur was adjudged man-of-the-match as he scored his fifth T20I half-century to guide Bangladesh to a historic win.

"We have had a lot of close games against India, so we promised ourselves that the next time we go into such a phase of the game, we don't want to lose.

"We have learned a lot from those last two games (2016 T20 World Cup semi-final and 2018 Nidahas Trophy final) against India that went into the last over, so we discussed how we can overcome those moments. I was telling Riyad bhai that let's win in singles and doubles rather than going for big hits," Mushfiqur told reporters after the win.