World Cup 2019: Talking Points, India vs Bangladesh

India became the second team after Australia to confirm their qualification for the top four after a close encounter with Bangladesh. The Eastern tigers were impressive and fought valiantly to the trouble Indian team in the World Cup match of IND vs BAN. It was the perfect entertainment for the crowd at Edgbaston. Rohit Sharma and Shakib Al Hasan continued to entertain as always.
Rohit- The Record Maker

IND vs BAN game started well as India won a very important toss and decided to bat first. Rohit and KL Rahul added 180 runs for the first wicket to register a new record for India in World Cups. The Indian openers broke a 4-year-old record set by Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan for the highest opening partnership for India in a World Cup match. The duo had recorded a 174-run stand for the opening wicket in the 2015 World Cup match vs Ireland in Hamilton. India chasing sown 260 had won the match successfully by eight wickets. Rohit and KL also surpassed the record the highest opening partnership made by Jason Roy-Jonny Bairstow in the match against England at the ongoing World Cup 2019. Rohit Sharma added yet another century to his name and this is his 5^th World Cup century. This World Cup has alone seen him registering four ODI centuries. In the course, he went on to cross Sachin Tendulkar to register more than 500 runs in a single World Cup.
Sharma is now the owner of a new record. He holds the record of the second most number of centuries in World Cup history jointly with Ricky Ponting and Kumar Sangakkara. All of them have five centuries while Sachin Tendulkar leading the list with six World Cup 100s. He took only 15 matches to score these five tons and the master blaster recorded his six in 45 matches. Sangakkara and Ponting took 37 and 46 matches respectively for their share of centuries.
Middle Order Debacle Continues
KL Rahul, although wasn’t looking comfortable enough, made 77. Virat Kohli had a rare failure as he scored just 26 runs but was in his usual good. In IND vs BAN match, the turning point was when India lost Kohli and Hardik Pandya in the same over. Everyone expected some fireworks from Dhoni. Rishabh Pant held onto the number four position and played an enterprising inning to score 42. He looked a lot more comfortable and at ease which was missing in the previous encounter. He was trying to get some quick runs and got out in the 45^th over. MS Dhoni was expected to utilize the slog. He scored a 35 off 33 although was there for the entire last 10 overs. India were once threatening to score 350 plus but finally ended with 314/9. India could add just 134 runs in the last 20.5 overs and lost 9 wickets whereas at one point they were 180 without the loss of a wicket in the initial 29.1 overs.
Magnificent Mustafizur
Bangladesh had the first breakthrough in the 30th over and then got eight more wickets in the next 20 overs. Shakib was as usual the pick of the bowlers. With a wonderful display of left-arm spin bowling, he finished with 41/1 in his 10 overs. Mustafizur Rahman finished with five for 59. He took the wickets of Kohli and Pandya in the same over. Pandya’s presence at death could be destructive.

Shakib Shines Again
Bangladesh delivered a spirited show during the chase and ran India close. Almost everyone in the top eight got good starts and a few converted those to big ones. Shakib played another important inning of 66 and his wicket was the key. Shakib Al Hasan became the first player to have scored 500 runs and scalp 10 wickets in one edition of the World Cup. He also became the 10th batsman to have scored 500 runs in one edition of the World Cup to join another elite list of players. However, post his wicket Sabbir Rahman and Mohammad Saifuddin added 66 runs in less than 10 overs and tried to keep Bangladesh in the match. Saifuddin deservingly got his fifty but at the end finished as a lone fighter at the non-striker end as Bangladesh number ten and eleven were gone in two back to back deliveries.
Bumrah, the savior

 
Indian cricket team even with a shaky middle order can dream of winning the title for two reasons; its top order and the bowling unit. Indian bowling squad is led by Jasprit Bumrah who is arguably one of the best India has ever produced.  India had a different look to his bowling today with Bhuvneshwar Kumar replacing Kuldeep Yadav. Even there was no scope for Kedar Jadav’s optional spin bowling as well. However, Hardik Pandya came handy again and took three key wickets of Shakib, Soumya Sarkar,
and Liton Das. Mohammad Shami had a rare bad day. But at death, everything was covered by Jasprit Bumrah. He finished with four wickets including the wickets of dangerous Shabbir. Then at the end when Saifuddin was preparing to steal the match with the tail he scalped Rubel and Mustafizur on back to back deliveries to end the match with a 28- run win for India.