Kohli hundred gives India fourth straight win

PUNE: Virat Kohli scored his 48th ODI hundred as India coasted to a seven-wicket win over Bangladesh to draw level on points with New Zealand in a Cricket World Cup match played at Maharashtra CA Stadium here Thursday.

A target of 257 was going to be a challenging one, but Rohit Sharma put India in control with a 40-ball 48 and Shubman Gill helped himself to a maiden World Cup fifty (53 off 55 balls, 5 fours, 2 sixes), but it was Kohli who dominated the batting from there onwards.

Bangladesh was not able to curb the run-flow, even after dismissing Sharma and to an extent, they only had themselves to blame, offering Kohli two free hits to get him underway. The game gradually slipped out of their grasp as Kohli and Lokesh Rahul carried India to victory with an unbroken 83-run stand.

It didn’t look as if Kohli could reach his century when India was coasting along with about 25 runs to win, but Kohli took it onto himself to reach three-figures. He refused singles unless it was the last ball of the over, ran hard to convert ones into twos and left Rahul watching, as a mere spectator as he reached his hundred with the winning blow, a six off 97 balls (6 fours, 4 sixes).   

Bangladesh never really tested this strong Indian batting line-up and they’ve slipped to their third straight loss. India’s only worry would be the injury to all-rounder Hardik Pandya who seemed to twist his ankle while fielding and did not come out to bat.   

India made a splendid comeback after a shaky start to keep Bangladesh down to 256-8, a total which seemed quite unlikely when Bangladesh raced away to 90-0 after 14 overs.

Tanzid Hasan did the bulk of the scoring taking down the Indian bowlers towards the back end of the powerplay to score 51 off 43 balls (5 fours, 3 sixes) and Litton Das kept things ticking, getting to his half-century off 62 balls. As has been the case in the World Cup, India’s spinners stifled the opposition in the middle overs. Kuldeep Yadav got the initial breakthrough, with Ravindra Jadeja then picking up the Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto soon after. Jadeja then accounted for Litton for 66 (82 balls, 7 fours) and set in motion a mini-collapse. Mahmudullah salvaged the innings towards the end with 46 off 36 balls (3 fours, 3 sixes) that saw his team past the 250-run mark. – (ST)

Scores: Bangladesh 256-8 (50) (Tanzid Hasan 51, Litton Das 66, Mushfiqur Rahim 38, Mahmudullah 46, Jasprit Bumrah 2/46, Mohammad Siraj 2/60, Ravindra Jadeja 2/38)

India 261-3 (41.3) (Rohit Sharma 48, Shubman Gill 53, Virat Kohli 103*, Lokesh Rahul 34*, Mehidy Hasan 2/47)