Asia Cup 2018: Super Four, Match 1 - Bangladesh vs India - Report

India continued their splendid form going in the Asia Cup as they won against Bangladesh by seven wickets and with 82 balls to spare. It was an all-around show from the Men in Blue as they won their third match on the trot in the ongoing tournament. Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to ball first. India delivered a fine performance with the ball as they skittled out Bangladesh for just 173 runs.

Ravindra Jadeja made a fine return to the ODI side as he scalped four wickets. Furthermore, Jadeja didn’t let the batsmen off the hook as he conceded only 29 runs in his ten overs quota. In fact, Jadeja took out two important fishes as he was able to take wickets of Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan. Therefore, Jadeja was able to announce his arrival in style.

India was able to tick the right boxes.

Mehidy Hasan provided some resistance with the bat to take Bangladesh total to 173. The Tigers were struggling at 101-7, thus Hasan’s 42 helped them in going past the 150-run mark.

Meanwhile, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were able to continue with their fine form. India’s pace battery scalped six wickets between them to put Bangladesh on the backfoot. However, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal went wicketless but they bowled economically to not let loose India’s grip on the match.

On the other hand, India’s openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan gave a perfect start to the run-chase. They put together an alliance of 61 runs to take the first right step towards the target.

Shikhar Dhawan was the aggressor as he crunched some hard shots through the off-side. The southpaw was able to find the middle of the bat against the pacers as he rocketed some fine drive to the off-side.

Meanwhile, India’s skipper Rohit Sharma took the more cautious approach in his innings. Rohit brought his back to back fifty as the right-hander took India close to the target.

MS Dhoni was promoted to the troublesome position of number four. Dhoni was able to spend some quality time in the middle as this knock must have added to his confidence before he tried to finish the game off and perished in the process. Dhoni scored 33 off 37 as he batted with confidence whereas Rohit scored a fine 83.

India will now take on Pakistan in their next Super Four fixture on 23 September at the same venue of Dubai International Cricket Stadium.