A splendid century from Rohit Sharma and a captain’s knock by Virat Kohli have brought the curtain down on Bangladesh’s Champions Trophy campaign with a crushing semi-final defeat.
Published : 15 Jun 2017, 03:31 PM
The 9-wicket win helped the defending champions set up a mouth-watering India-Pakistan final, securing their fourth final spot in the the quadrennial elite global tournament.
Tamim Iqbal (70) and Mushfiqur Rahim (61) struck fine half-centuries in a 123-run stand, the Tigers’ third century partnership in the tournament, to fashion a strong base for Bangladesh at Edgbaston on Thursday.
But their middle-order failed to capitalise on it as the aspirants of a maiden final at an ICC event managed a competitive 264 for 7.
The total proved inadequate to pose any threat to the seasoned Indian batsmen.
Rohit (123) and Shikhar Dhawan (46) gave India a breezy start before the former paired with Kohli (96) in a staggering unbroken 178-run partnership to send Bangladesh packing with 59 balls to spare.
Asked to bat first in overcast conditions, Bangladesh did not have a great start as Soumya Sarkar (0) and Sabbir Rahman (19) departed early.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar made early inroads in an incisive first spell with Soumya dragging on in the first over and Sabbir walking back after a short burst of boundaries to leave Bangladesh struggling at 36 for 2.
But the experienced pair dug deep, played themselves in and then counterattacked to turn the tables on the men in blue.
With Tamim and Mushfiqur going strong, Bangladesh looked good for a total in excess of 300.
The in-form opener was fortunate when he was bowled by Hardik Panya off a no-ball on 17, but he put the reprieve to good use.
Together with Mushfiqur, Tamim took the fight to India with some aggressive batting, taking calculated risks and scoring at a brisk pace. They brought up the century partnership off 104 balls with 10 fours and one six.
The breakthrough came after India had managed to slow down the run-rate. Tamim had only smashed Ravichandran Ashwin out of the attack with three consecutive boundaries, forcing Kohli to bring on part-time off-spinner Kedar Jadhav.
Then the runs dried up as Bangladesh went six overs without a boundary and with the pressure on, Tamim lost his composure, attempted a wild slog-sweep and saw the ball skid through to the stumps.
After the opener’s dismissal, Bangladesh needed to recalibrate for a final flourish in the late overs having laid a 154-run platform in the 28th over. But only one boundary in the six overs that followed Tamim's fall triggered some panic.
In desperation, Shakib Al Hasan (15) tried to cut a quicker ball from Ravindra Jadeja and bottom-edged it to MS Dhoni behind the wicket.
Five balls later, Mushfiqur gave Jadhav arguably the most important wicket of the day that snuffed the mid-innings promise out as his mistimed shot was snaffled up gleefully by Kohli at mid-wicket.
The quick wickets allowed India to tighten the screws in the middle- and end-overs to peg the Tigers back.
Bangladesh now badly needed Mahmudullah, the other centurion from the remarkable win over New Zealand, to regain the momentum. But he was able to score just 21 off 25 balls before being castled by a Jasprit Bumrah yorker.
Making matters worse for the rattled Tigers, young Mosaddek Hossain (15) failed to grab his moment and also perished off Bumrah in his back-to-back overs.
Their exit left the team teetering on 229 for 7, losing 5 wickets in the space of 70 runs.
Mashrafe (30 off 25 balls) then swung at about everything and managed five boundaries to score 35 in five overs with Taskin Ahmed (11) to give Bangladesh a respectable total.
Chasing the target Dhawan and Rohit played naturally, picking out the gaps and milking boundaries on either side of the wicket with Bangladesh bowlers desperately looking for a breakthrough.
Under no pressure of close-in fielders or late movement of the ball, the openers raced to 87 in the 15th over before Mashrafe took out Dhawan with an offcutter -- the only success for Bangladesh.
Rohit then got his skipper as his partner and propelled India to the win with his 11th ODI century.
They drove, cut, pulled in emphatic fashion to keep the scoring rate brisk and reached 150 in the 23rd over and 200 in the 32nd.
Rohit studded his 129-ball innings with 15 boundaries and a six while the nimble-footed Kohli dazzled at the other end with some superb strokeplay to become the fastest batsman to reach 8000 ODI runs.
The talismanic batsmen smashed 13 fours in his 78-ball knock to sign into the 8000-run club in 175 games, eclipsing South Africa’s AB de Villiers who played 181 games to do the feat.
Scorecard:
Bangladesh: 264/7 in 50 overs (Tamim 70, Soumya 0, Sabbir 19, Mushfiqur 61, Shakib 15, Mahmudullah 21, Mosaddek 15, Mashrafe 30*, Taskin 11*; Bhuvneshwar 2/53, Bumrah 2/40, Ashwin 0/54, Pandya 0/34, Jadeja 1/48, Jadhav 2/22).
India: 265/1 in 40.1 overs (Rohit 123, Dhawan 46, Kohli 96; Mashrafe 1/29, Mustafizur 0/53, Taskin 0/49, Rubel 0/46, Shakib 0/54, Mosaddek 0/13, Mahmudullah 0/10, Sabbir 0/11).
Result: India win by 9 wickets.
Man of the Match: Rohit Sharma.