India pacer is a wonderful combination of attack and containment. It was he who put an end to Bangladesh's qualification hopes with deadly deliveries
India pacer Jasprit Bumrah (centre) celebrates a Bangaladeshi wicket with teammates Rishabh Pant (left) and Yuzvendra Chahal during a group stage match at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Tuesday. Pic/Bipin Patel
In the huddle that now occurs prior to every fielding session, surely the Bangladesh captain's final words at Edgbaston were, "Bowl well boys and don't drop Rohit Sharma.
With Rohit on nine Tamim Iqbal did just that — a sitter on the boundary — and Bangladesh paid a high price; they were headed for the World Cup exit. Following that reprieve Rohit drove and pulled his way to a fourth century in the 2019 World Cup and in the process gave India a defendable total and the chance to clinch a final four spot.
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Rohit was more expansive in the opening ten overs and this provided KL Rahul with the opportunity to ease his way into the innings. Their entertaining one hundred and eighty run opening stand set India up for a mammoth score. They fell short of a lofty target thanks to some excellent bowling by Mustafizur Raham and Shakib Al Hasan, an ever slowing pitch and a tardy last ten overs by India.
Sluggish batting
The regular loss of wickets contributed to India's sluggish progress in the final ten overs. However it's obvious it will help if one of Rohit, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya or Rishabh Pant are still in occupation in this period of any knockout match. Pant has been a good inclusion in the side but there's still uncertainty about the other batting spot. Dinesh Karthik's appearance had some merit on the score of his finishing ability but it leaves India with just the bare five bowlers, a dangerous ploy against the top sides.
Not surprisingly Bhuvneshwar Kumar was another change to the team and he'll be better for the work out. His expertise — especially if they play Australia — will come in handy in the knockout games but the choice of which spinner to retain will be a difficult one.
Bangladesh were galant in response but the top five all produced scores in excess of twenty but only one over fifty and that told the story. The one exception was Shakib who has had an excellent tournament, with his move to number three paying huge dividends.In the end it was Jasprit Bumrah who put paid to Bangladesh's qualification hopes with his intriguing mixture of fast deliveries, change of pace and a deadly yorker. Bumrah's bowling is a wonderful combination of attack and containment, which makes him Kohli's greatest asset in the field.
Pandya's form encouraging
The other encouraging aspect of India's bowling was the form of Pandya. He missed out with the bat but delivered 10 respectable overs for three valuable wickets; India will need a continuation of this form if they only pick five viable bowlers.
India have reached the qualifying stage without a century from Kohli which is an encouraging sign. They now need to put the finishing touches on their preparation at Headingley and this will include deciding on their best eleven.
More than likely they face a second semi-final at Edgbaston which could be against England; an exciting prospect. It also means only two days of rest before the final rather than the four days the successful 1st semi-final team will face. That appears to be the preferable scenario, provided there are no injuries and India win their semi-final.
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