Obviously, Team India entered this match as the favorites, but having witnessed what the Bangla Tigers are capable of, there were some nerves among the loyal Indians. India confirmed its position in the semi-finals with a resounding victory against the Tigers and also knocked out its rivals in the process.
Earlier, Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat first. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma didn’t waste much time getting started and made excellent use of the powerplay restrictions. Interestingly, Tamim dropped Rohit at profound midwicket in the third over, which ultimately turned out to be very costly. In the middle, the duo looked strong and finished their 100-run partnership.
Rohit reached his fifty-first and after a few overs, Rahul followed him. Their partnership began to take the game away from Bangladesh with no bowler being efficient apart from Shakib. After reaching the fifty, Rohit accelerated and quickly finished his fourth hundredth of the tournament. He dropped to Soumya Sarkar almost immediately, miscuing a lofted drive over covers.
For a well-compiled 77 off 92 balls, KL Rahul was quickly dismissed as well. After that, an unexpected flurry of wickets followed as Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya dropped in a brief period of time, putting pressure on the new number four, Rishabh Pant. The youngster fought brilliantly against the situation and struck some lusty blows, precisely why he’s in the team. He dropped only a half-century but made a notable contribution.
Dinesh Karthik couldn’t create any palpable effect on his World Cup debut, but the 35 off 33 balls from MS Dhoni helped India reach 314 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. Mustafizur Rahman came back for the Tigers with a five-for and his spell made it impossible for India to get past 330 or 340.
Tamim Iqbal received a good beginning by early on hitting some boundaries, but he cut a delivery off Mohammed Shami to the stumps to give India its first breakthrough. In the middle, too, Soumya Sarkar looked amazing, but just the way he did in this tournament many times, he threw his wicket away in the bowling of Hardik Pandya.
Shakib Al Hasan was barely worried about how his partners played and he was in his own league. He looked relaxed in the middle and with Mushfiqur Rahim he stitched a nice stand. Before Chahal outsmarted Mushfiqur and sent him back, the duo added 47 runs for the third wicket. Shakib finished his half-century soon after that, but batting was becoming difficult.
Liton Das and Shakib raised some hopes to replicate what they did against the West Indians, but Hardik Pandya sent these two batsmen home in a 2-over span to provide a lethal blow. The game wasn’t over yet, though, as Sabbir Rahman and Mohammad Shaifuddin left some fight in them and accumulated some very significant and fast runs off Shami.
These two players developed a relationship that was starting to make the Indian fans nervous, but Jasprit Bumrah hit again when it mattered and dismissed Sabbir Rahman. Shaifuddin finished fifty and fought hard until the end, but Bumrah picked up the final two wickets in the 48th over for the Indians to finish off the game in style.
