Edgbaston: India stamped their supremacy over Bangladesh with an emphatic nine-wicket win the second semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy at Edgbaston, setting up the dream final with a resurgent Pakistan on Sunday.
Displaying their batting might through centurion Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and skipper Virat Kohli, India crushed Bangladesh’s hopes of reaching an ICC tournament final with 59 balls to spare.
Sharma cracked an unbeaten 123 off 129 balls with 15 boundaries and one six while Kohli remained unconquered on 96 off 78 balls with 13 boundaries. They put on an unbeaten 178 runs partnership in 25.3 overs.
Put into bat by India, Bangladesh’s in form opener Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim cracked half centuries to help Bangladesh to a challenging 264 for seven but that wasn’t enough to put pressure on the Indians.
Squandered chance
Iqbal and Rahim were involved in a 123-run partnership for the third wicket too, but squandered the chance taking the total past the 300-run mark.
In fact, Bangladesh were at one stage 154 for two in 28 overs, maintaining a run rate of six runs per over and had 22 more overs to post a good total.
Unfortunately, the partnership happened to be the only bright spot in Bangladesh’s battle against India.
India chased the total through their openers who have been in brilliant form.
They put on 87 runs in just 88 balls before Dhawan fell for 46 hitting to Mosaddek Hossain at point off Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza.
Kohli hit his first boundary after playing out 15 balls and adding 37 runs with Sharma.
Then runs began to flow from his bat. Rohit raced to his century in 111 balls and Kohli to his 50 in 42 balls.
Though Kohli did not get to score a century he went past the 8,000 run mark in one-day cricket.
Earlier, for Bangladesh, Iqbal hit 70 off 82 balls with seven fours and a six while Rahim scored 61 off 85 balls with four boundaries.
Unfortunately, rest of the batsmen failed to capitalise on the Iqbal-Rahim partnership.
Kedar Jadhav struck two vital blows taking the wickets of both Iqbal and Rehman while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah did the rest with two wickets each.
Rain had delayed start but the sky quickly turned blue providing a beautiful setting for cricket with Indians outnumbering Bangladesh fans.
India got off to a sensation start with Bhuvneshwar Kumar getting the wicket off Soumya Sarkar for a duck with the last ball of the first over.
Sarkar committed the mistake of his front foot going nowhere near the pitch of the ball while driving and chopped on to his wicket for a duck.
Kumar also removed Sabbir Rahman at the score on 36. He used the slower ball, slightly short, forcing Rahman to hit to Ravindra Jadeja at backward point for 19.
Once again it was a mistake of not keeping the ball down when playing such a shot.
Bangladesh played brilliantly after the fall of this wicket through Iqbal and Rahim. They played every ball on its merit. In fact at this stage Bangladesh looked like setting a big total,
Jadhav provided the breakthrough with a ball, straight on the length and Iqbal wanting to hit through midwicket took the eye off the ball. It shattered his wicket.
All eyes turned to Shakib Al Hasan, one of the most experienced Bangladesh players in their team. It was the apt moment for a good knock from him but he perished after playing 23 balls to score 15 runs. Jadeja’s tricky flatter trajectory did the trick.
It took Shakib’s edge and Dhoni pulled off a tough catch, though it looked like a simple one.
At a time when Bangladesh should have kept the scoreboard moving faster, a well set Rahim too fell to Jadhav. He came down and hit straight to Kohli at midwicket.
Jasprit Bumrah rose to challenge in the last ten overs. He had Mosaddek Hossain caught and bowled while attempting to pull for 15. He also removed the dangerous Mohammad Mahamudullah with a sizzling yorker for 21. Bangladesh failed to post a match winning total in the process.
Scoreboard
Bangladesh
Tamim Iqbal b Jadhav 70
Soumya Sarkar b Kumar 0
Sabbir Rahman c Jadeja b Kumar 19
Mushfiqur Rahim c Kohlu b Jadhav 61
Shakib Al Hasan c Dhoni b Jadeja 15
Mahmudullah b Bumrah 21
Mosaddek Hossain c and b Bumrah 15
Mashrafe Mortaza not out 30
Taskin Ahmed not out 10
Extras (lb9, w7, nb2, pen5) 23
Total (7 wkts, 50 overs) 264
Did not bat: Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Soumya), 2-31 (Sabbir), 3-154 (Tamim), 4-177 (Shakib), 5-179 (Mushfiqur), 6-218 (Mosaddek), 7-229 (Mahmudullah)
Bowling: Kumar 10-1-53-2 (1w); Bumrah 10-1-39-2; Ashwin 10-0-54-0 (3w); Pandya 4-0-34-0 (2nb, 2w); Jadeja 10-0-48-1; Jadhav 6-0-22-2 (1w)
India
R. Sharma not out 123
S. Dhawan c Mosaddek Hossain b Mashrafe Mortaza 46
V. Kohli not out 96
Extras 0
Total (1 wkt, 40.1 overs) 265
Did not bat: Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, H Pandya, K Jadhav, R Jadeja, B Kumar, R Ashwin, J Bumrah
Fall of wickets: 1-87 (Dhawan)
Bowling: Mortaza 8-0-29-1; Mustafizur 6-0-53-0; Taskin 7-0-49-0; Rubel 6-0-46-0; Shakib 9-0-54-0; Mosaddek 2-0-13-0; Mahmudullah 1-0-10-0; Sabbir 1.1-0-11-0
Result: India won by nine wickets
Man-of-the-match: Rohit Sharma (IND)
Toss: India
Umpires: Richard Kettleborough (ENG), Kumar Dharmasena (SRI)
TV umpire: Nigel Llong (ENG)
Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG)
