India-Bangladesh: Men in Blue win a semi-final spot

Edgbaston in Birmingham was the venue of a crucial World Cup contest between India and Bangladesh. Having lost their previous encounter against England, Team India knew that a win in this match would take them to the semi-finals. Bangladesh, on the other hand, needed a win to stay in the hunt for a spot in the semis. The match, in short, had immense relevance for both.

And, India won. The victory margin of 28 runs was an indication that Bangladesh kept the Indian fans in a state of unease for a fairly long time. The main difference with the bat between the two teams was Rohit Sharma, who went on to score his fourth century in this World Cup. Sharma (92-ball 104) and KL Rahul (92-ball 77) shared a solid 180-run opening partnership for the first wicket, which laid the foundation of Team India’s score of 314/9.

Batting first on a pitch that seemed to get slower by the minute, India’s final score was definitely above par. Bangladesh had touched the 300-run mark thrice in this World Cup. Given the conditions, however, overtaking the target set by India wasn’t going to be easy. Bangladesh fought hard, but Jasprit Bumrah bowled two extraordinary wicket-taking deliveries to bring their innings to an end with the score at 286.

Several Bangladeshi batsmen got starts, with Shakib Al Hassan’s fluent 74-ball 66 being the highest. Mohammed Saifuddin batted beautifully for his unbeaten 51 off 38 deliveries. He shared a 66-run seventh wicket partnership with Sabbir Rahman (36-ball 36) that ended just when it was beginning to look threatening. What Bangladesh needed - but failed to have - was a knock in the region of a three-figure mark from one of its batsmen. Nobody delivered that big one on a day when the team needed it desperately.

Armed with variations and pace, Jasprit Bumrah has been the best Indian bowler in the tournament. His figures (4/55) did justice to the quality of his bowling against Bangladesh. Replacing Kuldeep Yadav in the playing eleven, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (1/51) was particularly impressive towards the end.

Hardik Pandya went for 60 runs, but his three wickets – including that of Shakib Al Hassan’s - were crucial. Yuzvendra Chahal (1/50), too, played his part. Mohammed Shami (1/68) had a disappointing day, bowling the wrong length from time to time, which the Bangladeshi batsmen negotiated without problems.

Indian batsmen posted a substantial score without a major contribution from skipper Virat Kohli. Kohli couldn’t get to his sixth consecutive half-century, falling for a 27-ball 26. Rahul was characteristically workmanlike for his 77. Sharma played the Bangladeshi bowlers with graceful ease after being dropped by Tamim Iqbal when he was on 9. Moments after he completed his century, however, he indulged in a lazy lofted drive over extra cover only to get caught off a Soumya Sarkar delivery.

Neither Pandya (0) nor Dinesh Karthik (8), who made to the playing eleven as a replacement for Kedar Jadhav, got going. Rishabh Pant was exciting to watch when he played for his 41-ball 48, while Mahendra Singh Dhoni (33-ball 35) was criticised – once again – for his inability to step up the scoring rate at the appropriate time. That said, Dhoni looked far more purposeful than he did while batting against Afghanistan and England.

The match had its share of highlights. Apart from Bumrah’s four-for, Mustafizur Rahman (5/59) bowled an inspired spell for Bangladesh. For the sheer significance of the record, however, the day belonged to Rohit Sharma, who has been truly special in this World Cup.

Sharma, who had scored hundreds against South Africa, Pakistan and England before his fourth century against Bangladesh, equalled the Sri Lankan batting maestro Kumar Sangakkara’s all-time record of scoring an equal number of hundreds in a single edition of the World Cup.

The prolific opener is now placed at the joint second position in the all-time World Cup century makers’ list with five centuries along with Ricky Ponting and Sangakkara. Sachin Tendulkar is the leader with six World Cup centuries.

However, Sharma has taken only 15 matches to score his five centuries, indicating a far better conversion rate than Sangakkara and Ponting who touched the magical three-figure mark five times in 37 and 46 matches, respectively. Tendulkar took 45 matches to score his six hundreds, which will be Sharma’s next goal when he goes out to bat against Sri Lanka in India’s last group stage match.

Now that India have made it to the semi-finals, fans of the Men in Blue must be a relieved lot. All of them must be simultaneously wondering: will our team win the World Cup?