India 141 for 2 (Kohli 57*, Rohit 56) beat Bangladesh 138 for 7 (Anamul 44, Mishra 3-26) by 8 wickets Indian fans have liked this movie so much they have watched it three times in a row. Now they won’t mind it in the semi-finals either. Forget whatever is happening with their administration in India, the cricket team has put in another big performance to become the first entrants into this World T20 semi-finals. Once again MS Dhoni won the toss – his 15th consecutive in completed matches, once again a nervous opposition self-combusted despite an early life to a top-order batsman, once again their spinners pulled things back, and once again the batsmen knocked off a sub-par total with ease. Amit Mishra was the key man with the ball again, with three wickets, but R Ashwin once again bowled the dirty overs, and had two wickets to show for this time. Bangladesh tried to go hard at India, taking 13 off the first over, Tamim Iqbal had been missed by Shikhar Dhawan, and then R Ashwin produced two wickets in his first two overs, for just three runs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar chipped in with Shakib Al Hasan’s scalp to make it 21 for 3 in the fifth over. All three had fallen to ordinary shots, leaving the passionate home crowd shell-shocked. Anamul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim steadied the ship with a 46-run stand, but at 67 for 4 in 11 overs, the ship had hardly left the harbour. Anamul looked impressive for his 44 off 43, Mahmudullah tried his best to provide the late impetus with an unbeaten 33 off 23, but Mishra’s final over put paid to all hopes of a fight. The 20th over began at 131 for 7, but two Mishra deliveries later – a trademark stumping and a hole-out to long-off – Bangladesh had ceded control of the match again. India are the only team apart from Nepal to have not conceded 140 in this tournament. And their record chasing such low totals has been good: nine wins out of 10 before tonight. It wasn’t about to go bad here. A familiar story unfolded when India came out to chase. Dhawan looked ungainly and fell trying to force his way out of a rough patch, but Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli saw India through with a consecutive century stand. Both went to their fifties. The only time they saw trouble was when Rohit put one in the air, but Sohag Gazi ruined Anamul’s catch by running back and into Anamul at deep midwicket. It was yet another satisfactory evening for India even as manure has hit the fan back home in India. MS Dhoni, the man whose name has been drawn into court proceedings, promoted himself to have his first hit in this tournament, and finished the chase off in Kohli’s company…. ESPN
