Melbourne: India won the toss and chose to bat against Bangladesh in the World Cup quarter-final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday. The winner will face either co-hosts Australia or Pakistan in the semi-finals on March 26 at Sydney.
Here are the live updates.
India were off to a bright start as Rohit Sharma looked in a fine touch hitting boundaries with a lot of ease and more importantly, without offering any chnaces to Bangladesh.
Dhawan, meanwhile, faced a run-out scare in the fifth over as he slipped. But fortunately for India, that did not cause any damage to Team India.
Post that the duo faced no trouble as it brought up fifty-run partnership in the tenth over.
Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan remained largely untested as Bangladesh bowlers did not put them under any sort of pressure. Dhawan, though, faced some issues with the sightscreen and made Rubel Hossain stop twice in his run-up.
Bangladesh then introduced their premier player Shakib Al Hasan into the attack in the 17th over. The all-rounder wasted no time as he removed Dhawan in his over to give Bangladesh their first breakthrough.
The Indian left-hander dragged his foot forward and wicketkeeper wasted no time to dislodge the bails.
Bangladesh struck big quickly when Rubal Hossain removed Kohli for a paltry score of three. The Indian vice-captain tried to chase a wide delivery and hit it through the covers but ended up edging it to the wicketkeeper.
The Bangladesh bowlers did a fantastic job of restricting the run flow by bowling tight lengths. While the Indian batsmen tried hard, the runs were not easy to come by. India brought up their hundred but their joy was short-lived as Taskin dismissed Rahane after the right-hander had scored 19.
Rohit was joined by Suresh Raina as the Indian fans hoped for a revival to Indian innings. While the right-hander seemed untroubled by the Bangladesh attack, Suresh Raina had a nervous moment when he was wrapped onto the pads and the Bangladesh decided to use their review.
Fortunately for Raina and India, the ball was pitched marginally outside the leg-stump and Raina survived.
But as the batting powerplay was introduced, Raina hit the attack mode and tripped the Bangladesh attack. He first smashed two boundaries off Mortaza, then danced down the teack against Shakib Al Hasan to hit him for a six.
The Rohit-Raina dup then frustrated the Bangladesh side as they scored fifty in the batting powerplay with Raina doing the chunk of socring. Rohit then brought up his first ever World Cup hundred.
While his innings was flawless, he was lucky to be given not-out when umpire misjudged height of the full toss and judged him not-out.
However, India lost Raina as he attempted to up the scoring rate even further. But the left-hander played his part as he scored aggressive 65 to push Bangladesh on the backfoot.
Rohit, as he often does, started hitting the big shots after crossing the hundred. The Indian right-hander eventually got out but not before hitting 14 fours and three sixes at the Melbourne. Dhoni could not do much as he got out soon.
But Ravindra Jadeja’s handy 23 off 10 balls guided India to 300-plus score.
Indian team made no changes to their winning combination while Bangladesh skipper made a comeback and replaced Taijul in the playing XI.
India have reached the knockout rounds unbeaten in their six group games and bowled out their opposition in the process taking 60 wickets.
Bangladesh have made the last eight after beating England, Scotland and Afghanistan along with a rained-out point with Australia.
It would be a considerable upset if ninth-ranked Bangladesh can dethrone the champions before an Indian-dominated MCG crowd.
While the two-time champion Indians are familiar with the pressure of sudden-death World Cup cricket, this will be Bangladesh’s first quarter-final.
Bangladesh can count among their three wins in 28 ODI encounters against their neighbours an upset five-wicket win in the pool stages at the 2007 tournament in the West Indies.
Bangladesh sent their country into raptures with their stunning 15-run victory to knock England out of the tournament and lock in on a quarter-final berth.
India field an unchanged team while Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza returns after missing the last pool game against New Zealand.
