After suffering their first defeat of the tournament in the previous match against England, India came back strongly to register a convincing 28-run victory over Bangladesh in a group match of the World Cup at Edgbaston, Birmingham. With this win, they also qualifed for the semifinals.
Chasing a target of 315 to win, Bangladesh got off to a cautious start before Tamim fell for 22 with the score on 39. Soumya Sarkar was then involved in a 35-run partnership with Shakib before he became Hardik Pandya’s first victim, getting dismissed for 33.
Pandya went on to pick the wickets of the in-form Shakib and Liton Das to finish with figures of 3 for 60 from his 10 overs. Considering that India didn’t have the luxury of an extra bowler, this was a much-needed performance from the all-rounder.
Shakib’s dismissal left Bangladesh at 179 for 6, still needing 136 to get in 16 overs. Following this, there was a 66-run partnership for the 7th wicket between Sabbir Rehman and Mohammad Saifuddin, which threatened to take the game away from the Indians. Kohli’s go-to man Bumrah then came back into the attack and cleaned up Sabbir with the first ball of the 44th over.
Bangladesh needed 51 runs going into the last five overs with just two wickets in hand. With the required rate climbing, Sabbir tried to up the ante but was castled by Bumrah, who picked up 2 wickets of successive deliveries to end with 4 for 55. Bangladesh were eventually bowled out for 286.
Earlier, with skipper Virat Kohli winning the toss and batting first on the same wicket that was used in the England-India game on Sunday, it was all about starting well for the Indian openers and the duo of Rohit and K.L. Rahul did just that as they took the attack to the Bangladesh bowlers from the word go.
In fact, the otherwise cautious Rohit made his intention known in the first over itself as he hit Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza for a six. And with Tamim Iqbal dropping him on 9, it was just the kind of leeway the opener needed to shift gears and deal in boundaries.
Rahul, on the other hand, was happy to mix caution with aggression as the duo finished the first powerplay on 69/0. With the Indians looking to up the ante, Mortaza finally turned to Soumya Sarkar in the 30th over and the part-time bowler broke the 180-run partnership, the highest in this edition of the World Cup, as he sent back Rohit, moments after he reached his 26th ODI century.
Rahul (77) followed back three overs later as Rubel Hossain got him to cut one that was too close to the body and Mushfiqur Rahim picked up a smart catch behind the wicket. The score read 195/2 as Rishabh Pant joined Kohli in the middle.
It was the 39th over when Bangladesh came right back into the game as Mustafizur first sent back Kohli (26) and then dismissed Hardik Pandya (0) as the scoreboard suddenly went from 237/2 to 237/4.
At the end of the 40th over, the score read 251/4 as Pant and M.S. Dhoni looked to consolidate and also keep up the momentum.
Pant (48) was dismissed in the 45th over as an attempted sweep landed in the hands of Mossadek Hossain who held on after some juggling. Dhoni did try his bit at the end as he hit a 33-ball 35, but the Bangla bowlers came back strongly as they picked 5 wickets in the last 10 overs as India managed to score just 63 runs.
With IANS inputs