India vs. Bangladesh all eyes were on India as everyone wanted an India vs. Pakistan final but could Bangladesh spring a surprise.
India won the toss and chose to field they were powerful from the beginning, Bangladesh got off to a decent start but they lost the wicket of Sarkar very early in the innings he was out for a duck. The Indian bowlers were bowling very well.
After that Bangladesh were batting well and had lots of wickets in hand as Tamim and Mushfiqur were scoring the runs, and the scoreboard was ticking over nicely they were 142/2 in 25 overs. So they had the foundation laid for a big score. Nonetheless the opposite happened and Bangladesh began losing wickets at regular intervals they managed to score only 264 runs on a fresh pitch at Edgbaston.
The Indian bowlers had proved to be too strong for Bangladesh the partnership of Tamim and Mushfiqur was a treat to watch if they had continued Bangladesh would have definitely scored more runs. As that partnership was a hard one for the Indian bowlers to break but they managed to nab the wickets in the end.
India came onto bat and the partnership of Sharma and Dhawan flourished, they were scoring runs freely and they had a healthy run-rate. Sharma and Dhawan were hitting lots of boundaries along the way and were racing towards to the total.
The Bangladeshi bowlers were struggling to contain the runs, but they did get a breakthrough when they got the wicket of Dhawan. Kohli came in and he started scoring runs freely as well. Rohit Sharma was on fire and his and Kohli’s partnership was building upon the foundation laid down by Dhawan and Sharma. It was not long before Sharma got his century and Kohli went onto get his half century in the end he was just four runs short of a century.
India had cruised to victory and set up a final clash with Pakistan. The mother of rivalries was going to resume again in the final. In the group stages India had beaten Pakistan will that be repeated we don’t know, as Pakistan have built momentum for themselves since that match.
So tomorrow is the final now the question who will lift the trophy India or Pakistan?
5.10pm Clinical. From start to finish. Powerful. From beginning to end. And classy. India outlast and outclass Bangladesh in another one-sided semi-final, to give themselves a chance to defend their title on Sunday. Bangladesh can be proud of a terrific effort, they fought and scrapped through the tournament but were eventually done in by the quality of India. That’s two let-downs of semi-finals, but that sets up one heck of a final, at least in foresight. In their chase of 265, they started well – solidly, putting the bad ball away. That’s all they did through the afternoon, to be fair, and romped to a nine-wicket win.
Rohit Sharma is the Man of the Match: “Was a great knock, especially when it comes on a winning note. Trying to get a big one, in the last two games. Was quite determined today. Wicket was brilliant. I kept telling myself to bat as much as possible. We’ve been playing good cricket. One last hurdle, a big game against Pakistan. It felt like he was batting overnight (Virat Kohli). As a captain, he was brilliant.”
Virat Kohli: “Another complete game. We needed to have a clean, collective game. We didn’t expect to win by nine wickets, but that’s the quality of our top order. He’s not a surprise package (Kedar Jadhav), he’s a smart guy, he knows where to pitch the ball and see what the wicket is offering. it could have been close to 300. I wanted to give myself some time, 10-15 balls. Last time, we lost a wicket, so I had to adapt, I like those challenges. I grew in confidence. When you’re coming onto the short ball, you know you’re playing well. We’re taking it as any other game, I know that’s boring but that’s our mindset. Never a worry when your middle order isn’t batting too much. Everyone is hitting the ball magnificently in practice.”
Mashrafe Mortaza: “We could have scored 300, even 320, but our set batsmen getting out was a setback to us. Next time, we’ll come back strongly. We need to learn. Skill-wise we’re fine, but mentally we need to be stronger.”