ICC World Cup 2019: Match 40, India vs Bangladesh, Review – Men in Blue confirm their semi-final berth; Tigers’ dream ends

India was obviously entering this game as the favourites, but having witnessed what the Bangla tigers are capable of, there were some nerves among the Indian faithful. With a resounding win against the Tigers, India confirmed their berth in the semifinals and also knocked out their opponents in the process.

Virat Kohli earlier had won the toss and elected to bat first. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma didn’t waste a lot of time to get going and made great use of the powerplay restrictions. Interestingly, Rohit was dropped in the third over at deep midwicket by Tamim which eventually proved to be very costly. The duo looked solid in the middle and completed their 100-run partnership.

Rohit got to fifty-first and Rahul followed him after a couple of overs. Their partnership was beginning to take the game away from Bangladesh with no bowler apart from Shakib proving to be effective. Rohit accelerated after getting to the fifty and soon completed his fourth hundred of the tournament. He fell almost immediately to Soumya Sarkar, miscuing a lofted drive over covers.

KL Rahul too was dismissed soon for a well-compiled 77 off 92 balls. An unexpected flurry of wickets followed after that as Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya fell in a short span of time, adding pressure on the new number four Rishabh Pant. The youngster battled against the situation brilliantly and hit some lusty blows, exactly why he’s in the squad. He fell just short of a half-century but made a notable contribution.

Dinesh Karthik couldn’t make any palpable impact on his World Cup debut but MS Dhoni’s 35 off 33 balls helped India get to 314 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. Mustafizur Rahman returned with a five-fer for the Tigers and his spell ensured India couldn’t get past 330 or 340.

Another half-century for Shakib in the tournament

Tamim Iqbal got a fine start by striking some boundaries early on, but he chopped a delivery on to the stumps off Mohammed Shami to provide India their first breakthrough. Soumya Sarkar too was looking impressive in the middle but just the way he did many times this tournament, he threw his wicket away in Hardik Pandya’s bowling.

Shakib Al Hasan barely was concerned with how his partners were playing and he was in a league of his own. He looked comfortable in the middle and was stitching a good stand with Mushfiqur Rahim. The duo added 47 runs for the third wicket before Chahal outsmarted Mushfiqur and sent him back. Shakib shortly after that completed his half-century but batting was becoming difficult.

Liton Das and Shakib did raise some hopes of replicating what they did against the West Indies, but Hardik Pandya sent both these batsmen back in a span of 2 overs to provide a killer blow. The game though was not over yet as Sabbir Rahman and Mohammad Shaifuddin had some fight left in them and accumulated some very important and quick runs off Shami.

A partnership was developing between these two players, which was beginning to make the Indian fans nervous, but Jasprit Bumrah struck once again when it mattered and dismissed Sabbir Rahman. Shaifuddin completed a fifty and fought hard till the end, but Bumrah picked up the final two wickets in the 48th over to finish the game off in style for the Indians.

Brief Scores

India: 314/9 in 50 overs (Rohit Sharma 104, KL Rahul 77, Rishabh Pant 48; Mustafizur Rahman 5/59)

Bangladesh: 286 all out in 48 overs (Shakib 66, Mohammad Shaifuddin 51*; Jasprit Bumrah 4/55, Hardik Pandya 3/60)

Result: India won by 28 runs

Man of the match: Rohit Sharma