At the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bowl first against Bangladesh.
Shakib Al Hasan’s elegant knock and Mustafizur Rahman’s lethal strike helped Bangladesh defeat India on Friday night at the R Premadasa Stadium to round up a successful Asia Cup 2023 campaign. Shubman Gill’s theatrics and Axar Patel’s fireworks fell short.
Bangladesh’s captain Shakib and Towhid Hridoy’s 101-run partnership for the fifth wicket helped Bangladesh escape a dangerous 59/4 in the final Super Fours match. The Tigers put together a decent 265 for eight thanks to cameos from Nasum Ahmed and Mahedi Hasan in the last over.
Since Rohit Sharma was out for a duck, the India batting order has stumbled without the maestro of the chase Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya, both of whom are rested.
Even though Shubman scored his fifth ODI century, his fourth in 2023, and Axar joined the party towards the finish, India was always in trouble.
Axar, who sustained left hand injuries twice while batting, and Shardul Thakur’s demise in the penultimate over gave India its last chance. Bangladesh achieved an exciting six-run victory as a result of Mohammed Shami being run out on the last ball.
Since Rohit Sharma was out for a duck, the India batting order has stumbled without the maestro of the chase Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya, both of whom are rested.
Even though Shubman scored his fifth ODI century, his fourth in 2023, and Axar joined the party towards the finish, India was always in trouble.
Axar, who sustained left hand injuries twice while batting, and Shardul Thakur’s demise in the penultimate over gave India its last chance. Bangladesh achieved an exciting six-run victory as a result of Mohammed Shami being run out on the last ball.
Shubman played an excellent effort to keep India’s hopes alive despite frequent wicket losses at the other end. He rarely showed signs of difficulty, rotating the strike without fuss and clearing the border by taking calculated risks. He was joined by Axar with 96 needed off of 74 balls.
Axar decided to give Shubman the strike after Ravindra Jadeja perished after missing a daring heave from Mustafizur. After that, the opener let fly but was caught trying to hit Mahedi from long-off.
India had to rely on the batting depth provided by Axar and Shardul Thakur to do the job with 57 needed off 38 balls. The main wrecker was Axar, who gingerly waggled the long handle. In the 48th over, his straight four and a six over long-on reduced the equation to 17 off 12.
However, Mustafizur came back for another over to deflate India’s run-chase.
India preferred to rest five regulars and offer valuable playing time to the World Cup backups and reserves as the squad had already secured a spot in Sunday’s championship game.
Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, and Mohammed Siraj also received respite. They were replaced by Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Shami, Shardul, and Prasidh Krishna, all of whom were debutants.
More than a slow pursuit, India would be disappointed with its capturing. India dropped three regulation catches early on, just as it did in the preliminary game against Nepal.
In the same over, Tilak (midwicket) and Suryakumar (second slip) both offered Mehidy Hasan Miraz a reprieve. Tilak was then denied his first wicket by K.L. Rahul, who dropped Shakib.
The dropped catch proved to be the most expensive. India must be careful not to repeat their shoddy catching in the final against Sri Lanka on Sunday.
