India cruise to final berth
A SUPERB century from opening batsman Rohit Sharma spearheaded India to a comfortable nine-wicket victory over Bangladesh, in Yesterday's one-sided Champions Trophy semi-final at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
The result confirmed the reigning champions as Pakistan's opponents for Sunday's final at The Oval in London.
Chasing a tricky target, after half-centurions Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim had pushed the Tigers to a substandard 264 for seven, the Indians proved entirely convincing in front of a near sell-out crowd packed with travelling fans from the sub-continent. They, in fact, triumphed with all of 9.5 overs to spare.
The left-handed Shikhar Dhawan consolidated a small lead as the 2017 tournament's highest run-scorer en route to a commanding 46 from 34 deliveries, while Sharma and captain Virat Kohli ended on 123 not out and 96 not out, respectively. The latter, too, welcomed 8 000 runs in ODI cricket.
The fastest to reach the milestone, the talismanic Kohli only required 175 innings, after South Africa's AB de Villiers needed 182 - and fellow Indian Sourav Ganguly 200. Sharma, meanwhile, relished an 11th ODI ton - his seventh away from India, second against Bangladesh and first in England.
Earlier, maintaining characteristic cool, calm and collection in the wake of the early departures of Bangladesh opener Soumya Sarkar and the talented Sabbir Rahman, the hard-hitting Tamim Iqbal and former captain Mushfiqur Rahim relished a 123-run partnership for the third wicket.
Rahim and Iqbal's initial rearguard alliance soon graduated to a collective counter attack, before the latter eventually fell to part-time spinner Kedar Jadhav. Tamim scored 70 to Mushfiqur's 61, as precious little support flanked them.
Skipper Mashrafe Mortaza's quickfire 31 from 26, though, provided some belated - albeit insufficient - impetus.
Jadhav and fellow slow bowler Ravindra Jadeja were superb in tandem, matching solid economy with regular breakthroughs.
They, too, were well aided by the recalled Ravichandran Ashwin. Ashwin was not in the playing XI for India's opening Champions Trophy matches, but has blossomed since replacing seamer Umesh Yadav.
The Tigers' innings, interestingly, witnessed five penalty runs, when the ball bounced on wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's unhanded glove. There was also a rare short run, when Iqbal failed to ground his bat behind the crease in turning for a second. Bangladesh wickets Kohli had opted to bowl on a pitch that had - on average - afforded the team batting first a reasonable final score of 277. Kohli, like Mortaza, named an unchanged XI.
Bangladesh earned a position in the tournament's top four by finishing second in Group A, after victory over New Zealand, defeat to England and a washout with Australia.
India, meanwhile, topped Group B on the back of wins over Pakistan and South Africa - and defeat to Sri Lanka.
Yesterday marked Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh's 300th ODI. He is 20th cricketer to reach the milestone - and fifth Indian, after the retired Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Azharuddin.
BANGLADESH: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Mosaddek Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Taskin Ahmed, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman
INDIA: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (capt), Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah. - AFP.