DHONI, RAHUL HEADLINE INDIA’S EASY WIN

Centuries from K. L. Rahul and M. S. Dhoni helped India defeat Bangladesh by 95 runs in their ICC Cricket World Cup warm-up match played at Cardiff,wales yesterday.

Bangladesh, chasing India’s total of 359 for seven were bowled out for 264 runs in the last over despite two splendid knocks from Liton Das (73) and Mushfiqur Rahim (90).

Earlier, K. L. Rahul put on a terrific exhibition of batting (108) and also strung together a gamechanging stand of 164 with M. S. Dhoni (113) as India wriggled out a tricky position to finish with a massive 359 for seven.

When Dhoni joined Rahul in the middle, India were in a spot of bother at 102 for four in the 22nd over. K. L. Rahul celebrates his century

The duo decided to counterattack and changed the course of the innings. Dhoni took on Shakib al Hasan and deposited the ball into the stands in the 25th over.

Rahul joined in the act by collecting a couple of fours off Abu Jayed in the very next over.

Rahul soon found himself in nervous nineties. However, he paddled through the nineties quickly with a six off Mustafizur Rahman and reached his century in the very next over bowled by Sabbir Rahman.

Once Rahul was dismissed by Mustafizur, Dhoni and Hardik Pandya took over with a string of shots to power India past the 300run mark.

The way Dhoni cleared his front leg to thump Jayed into the stands to complete his century gave a glimpse of his pyrotechnics.

India: 359/7 in 50 overs (M. S. Dhoni 113, K. L. Rahul 108, Shakib al Hasan 2/58)

Bangladesh: 264 in 49.3 overs (Liton Das 73, Mushfiqur Rahim 90, Kuldeep Yadav 3/47, Yuzvendra Chahal 3/55). Agencies