India continue their winning streak in ICC CWC’23 after defeating Bangladesh by 7 wickets
Virat Kohli scored his 48th ODI century which is just one short of equalling the record of Sachin Tendulkar.
In what was an extremely entertaining match for the Indian fans, India beat Bangladesh at the MCA Stadium in Pune by 7 wickets as Virat Kohli hit a six to finish up the game in style and complete his century. This means that India continues to increase their winning streak in this World Cup after they won the 4th consecutive game in the WC yet.
With serious allegations of mismanagement looming over the Maharashtra Cricket Association after fans had to stand in the scorching afternoon heat for hours just to get inside the stdium, a good game of cricket is something that will make the fans forgive everything, even the trouble they went through just to get a ticket and watch the game in the stadium. India’s game against Bangladesh was just that ‘good game’ that made the fans forget their previous struggles and just enjoy the moment.
On a rather flat pitch which is suitable for batting, Bangladesh chose to do exactly that after winning the toss and the suitableness for batting was shown in the performance of Bangladesh’s opening partnership.
Tanzid Hasan and Litton Das scored 93 runs for the opening partnership, however, this good start did not get converted into something greater as after Tanzid’s dismissal on 93, Bangladesh looked to lose wickets at regular intervals, all thanks to great spells by Jadeja, Bumrah and Siraj. Bangladesh somehow managed to reach 256 runs thanks to important contributions by Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim other than the openers. Unfortunately, Hardik Pandya got injured during the Bangladesh’s batting while trying to stop the ball because of which we got to see Virat Kohli bowl in ODIs after 6 long years.
Chasing a total of 257, the Hitman and Shubhman Gill started off really well, scoring valuable runs in the powerplay. While, Rohit could not complete his half-century, getting caught after pulling a shot straight to the fielder, Gill managed to get his maiden fifty of this ODI WC but soon got caught in the deep while attempting to hit a six. India also lost Shreyas after a short innings of 19 after being caught in the deep as well to the same bowler. It was all upto Kohli and KL Rahul who played beautiful innings to get India through the line with almost 9 overs remaining.
Rarely do we see anyone do something which KL Rahul did last night. While KL could have easily scored his half-century, he did not let Virat Kohli take any singles except on the last ball so that Kohli could complete his 78th century, an act which was highly appreciated by the fans in the stadium and those watching on the television. Another ‘controversy’ from the match was when Nasum Ahmed bowled a wide ball on purpose so that Kohli would not be able to score his ton but it was not called a wide by the on-field umpire Richard Kettleborough.
This win keeps India unbeaten in the 2023 World Cup with 8 points out of the possible 8 and in the second position next only to New Zealand because of the NRR. India will now face group toppers New Zealand on Sunday in Dharamsala in what will be a spectacular match in the India-New Zealand World Cup rivalry.
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