Bangladesh ace pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman’s brilliant five wicket haul restricted India at 314/9 during the ICC Cricket World Cup match in Birmingham on Tuesday. At one stage, it was looking India will cross the 350-mark with ease. However, Fizz became the difference maker for Bangladesh as his brilliant bowling confined India at 314.
He turned it around with a double-wicket maiden in the 39th over to get Virat Kohli, along with Hardik Pandya, then came back with three more wickets for just six runs in his final two overs at the death. He scalped 5 wickets by giving away 59 runs. Earlier, India won the toss and elected to bowl first. The big news from the toss was Rubel Hossain’s inclusion for Mehidy Hasan while Mahmudullah failed a fitness test on his calf tear and was replaced by Sabbir Rahman.
Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul utilized the opening power-play of the innings and gave India a perfect start. However, Rohit was dropped by Tamim Iqbal in the fifth over of the innings when he tried to hit Mustafizur Rahman over deep square leg. India then went onto enjoy their best batting power-play of this World Cup as they scored 69/0 after the end of 10 overs. Bangladesh bowlers looked blunt as India crossed the 100-run mark during 18th over. Rohit and Rahul then brought up their fifties and were raring to go for more. Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza kept on rotating his bowlers but could not force a breakthrough.
They crossed the 150-run mark during 24th over, at that time it was looking like India will post a mammoth total. Rohit’s drop catch proved really costly for Bangladesh as he scored 90 ball 100. It was his fourth century of the World Cup. Bangladesh finally got the breakthrough during 29.2 overs when Soumya Sarkar got the wicket of Rohit, to break the 180-run stand. Before departing, he scored 92-ball 104, with 7 fours and 5 maximums. Skipper Virat Kohli joined Rahul after the fall of Sharma but Rahul (77) was out shortly afterwards, caught by wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim off the bowling of Rubel Hossain, leaving India at 195/2 after 32.4 overs.
Skipper Kohli and Rishabh Pant were two new batsman on the crease, trying to rebuild team’s innings. However, then Mustafizur came into the attack removed Kohli (26) and Pandya (0) in the same over, leaving India at 237/4 after 38.4 overs. Amid falling of wickets, Pant was looking dangerous and was hitting boundaries. However, Pant (48) couldn’t stay till the end as Shakib dismissed him during 44.1 overs, leaving India at 277/5. Fizz struck again in the 47th and 50th over to remove Dinesh Karthik and Mohammad Shami respectively. Dhoni at the end played a 35-run innings to ensure India cross the 300-run mark.
