So it was the Indian Lions against the Bangladeshi Tigers at the semi final on Thursday at Edgbaston, Birmingham for the second semi final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. It was a professional Indian unit that comprehensively beat the Bangladesh team to set up a much desired subcontinental clash between arch rivals India and Pakistan for the finals.
Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to field first. This tactic has served India well previously and did yesterday as well.
Bhuvneshwar Kuman managed to bowl out opener Soumya Sarkar almost right away and he departed without scoring duck. Not much later, Sabbir Rahman departed too (19 from 21).
Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal played an innings of class and character (70 off 82) to steady the innings. Mushfiqur Rahim supported him with his 61 off 85. Later skipper Mashrafe Mortaza also chipped in with a valuable 30 off 25.
Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Kedar Jadhav took two wickets; Jadhav’s spell of 6 overs and economy of 3.66 proving very valuable for India. India needed to score at just over 5 and over.
Playing through the innings, Rohit Sharma was masterful! His 123 came off 129 balls and he remained not out till the end. He was the obvious choice for the Player of the Match award.
Kohli at 96 just missed out on a century (he also reached 8000 runs on a personal front) but he didn’t mind as India won convincingly; losing just one wicket of Shikhar Dhawan (46 off 34) and reaching the set target with almost ten overs to spare.
The Indian captain was generous in his praise for the Pakistanis. After being completely outclassed by India in the league match, the Pakistanis managed to pull off two wins against Sri Lanka and South Africa. “Credit to them, they've turned around things for themselves really well,” said Kohli.
The Indian batsmen rule the roost when it comes to batting in this tournament. However, it is a Pakistani bowler who is the leading wicket taker of this competition. Will it be a case of Indian batting versus Pakistani bowling on Sunday at the oval? The entire cricketing world is waiting with bated breath to find out!
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