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Former champions India became the first team to qualify for the World Twenty20 semi-finals after half-centuries from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma secured a comprehensive eight-wicket victory over hosts Bangladesh yesterday. |
Leg-spinner Amit Mishra (3-26) was again among the wickets as India restricted the hosts to a below-par 138 for seven and chased down target with nine balls to spare to secure their third win in three matches in the tournament.
Under tremendous pressure following listless performance this year, Bangladesh were boosted by opener Anamul Haq (44) and Mahmudullah (33) at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan’s struggle for fluency continued as the left-hander fell for one but the steady Sharma (56) and in-form Kohli (57 not out) negotiated the modest Bangladesh attack with ease on the way to a century stand.
Sharma got a reprieve on 34 when both Haq and Sohag Gazi went for the skied chance he offered and the fielders were lucky not to collide after wasting the opportunity to dismiss him.
Kohli played with the poise that has become his hallmark, shunning extravagance and scoring the occasional boundary to complete an comfortable chase.
Put into bat, Bangladesh lost their top three batsmen cheaply after off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Tamim Iqbal and Shamsur Rehman with successive deliveries.
Haq added 46 runs with skipper Mushfiqur Rahim (24) for the fourth wicket to arrest the slide but Mishra castled him with a googly to deny him his fifty.
Mahmudullah added 49 runs with Nasir Hossain for the sixth wicket and Mashrafe Mortaza hit the last ball of the innings for six as Bangladesh made an inadequate total against India.
“We thought about 150 plus as a good total, but unfortunately ended up below that. Two more games to go, so hopefully we can take some positives out of them,” said Bangladesh captain Rahim after the match.
Indian skipper Dhoni said his team couldn’t do too much about making the match interesting. “We have good players and the next few games are going to be extremely tough. We can’t ask Virat Kohli to hit wicket and come back (to make games interesting). We can’t do much about that (lack of challenge),” said Dhoni.
Brief Scores: Bangladesh 138-7 in 20 overs (Anamul Haq 44, Mahmudullah 33 not out; Amit Mishra 3-26, Ravichandran Ashwin 2-15), India 141-2 in 18.3 overs (Virat Kohli 57 not out, Rohit Sharma 56)
