JULY 2, 2019
Brief Scorecard: India 314 for 9 (Rohit 104, Rahul 77, Pant 48, Mustafizur 5-59) beat Bangladesh 286 (Shakib 66, Saifuddin 51, Bumrah 4-55, Pandya 3-60) by 28 runs
Rohit Sharma sends Mohammad Saifuddin over the extra-cover boundary. – Getty Images
EDGBASTON, ENGLAND – India beat Bangladesh by 28 runs at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Tuesday. With this result, Bangladesh have been knocked out of the World Cup, now that they are three points behind 4th-placed England, with one round of group matches remaining. India hold on to second spot in the table.
Toss: Captain Virat Kohli won the toss and decided that India would bat first.
First Innings: Rohit Sharma (104) and KL Rahul (77) got India off to the most perfect start possible, putting on 180 runs for the opening partnership. Sharma was dropped on 7 by Tamim Iqbal. The first Indian wicket fell in the 30th over.
With the tone of the first innings set by the opening duo, the Indian middle order did not take much time to settle, going for run-a-ball strike rates from the outset. Virat Kohli (26) failed to reach the 50-mark for the second time in the World Cup, Rishabh Pant (48) proved his caliber at No. 4 and MS Dhoni (35) remained unbeaten at the end as India posted a total of 314/9 in 50 overs. Mustafizur Rahman (5/59) and Shakib al Hasan (1/41) were the best Bangladesh bowlers on display.
Second Innings: Bangladesh did well to keep up with the required run rate from the very beginning, but the problem for them was that they kept losing regular wickets. All their batsmen got starts but only Soumya Sarkar (33) and Shakib al Hasan (66) were able to take their scores beyond the twenties. When Shakib went out in the 34th over with 136 runs still to get, India looked to have bagged the match.
Hardik Pandya picked up the crucial wickets at regular intervals. – Getty Images
There was then a brave resistance put up by a partnership between Sabbir Rahman (36) and Saifuddin, but when Jasprit Bumrah came back at the death and rattled his stumps, Bangladesh were left staring at the inevitable.
Gamechanger: The opening stand between Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul set the tone of the match very early on. The 180 runs they added between them put Bangladesh on the back foot straightaway in what was a must-win match for them. Their 180-run partnership is the highest opening stand for India in World Cup history.
Courtesy/Source: Indian Express
