#championsTrophy #semiFinal2

Earlier today the final semifinal match of  the ICC Champions Trophy took place where India and Bangladesh faced off against each other.

On winning the toss the Indians decided to have a field first. What an incredible start their bowlers had, removing  Soumya Sarkar in the first over after he was bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Kumar striked again removing the wicket of Sabbir Rahman in the 7th over. Batting at 2-31, opener Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim took responsibility and  started to attack the Indian bowlers. These two played great against the Indian spinners. Hardik Pandya made a major mistake when he bowled Iqbal when he was on 12 runs however, he overstepped the line resulting in a no ball. 

Iqbal and Rahim had a partnership of 123 runs, before there was a change in bowling. Coming into bowl was Kedar Jadhav, he broke this partnership after he bowled Iqbal for a well played 70 runs. Rahim didn’t last long after he was dismissed for 61 runs with the bowling of Jadhav once again. From here on the Bangladeshis innings started to dampen. Wickets started to come for the Indians in quick succession. Towards the ending of the innings Jasprit Bumrah claimed two quick wickets, one being Mahmudullah which he bowled and the other Mosaddek Hossain who was caught and bowl. Slipping from 149-2 (25 overs), surely looking like they would have reached a target of 300+ runs. This wasn’t to be as the Indian bowles crippled the remaining batsmen restricting them to 264-7 from their 50 overs. 

Chasing 265 for victory the Indian openers started of confidently and were very dominant. Openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were aggressive to the Bangladeshi bowlers as they kept getting boundaries. These two had an opening partnership of 87 runs before Dhawan clipped one and was caught being dismissed on 46. This surely wasn’t a problem for the Indians as captain Kohli and Sharma steered the Indians ship to victory. Sharma reached yet another ODI century inclusive of 15 4s. Kohli ended on 96 runs, although he didn’t get to a century, he became the fastest to 8000 runs in ODIs. The Indians got to their target quite comfortably, reaching it in 40.1 overs, they now join Pakistan on June 18th for the final of this year’s ICC Champions Trophy.