Responsible Rohit sees off Bangladesh threat
Rohit Sharma's acceleration from 60 off 80 to 137 off 126 undid some excellent defensive bowling by Bangladesh to help India post a winning total
Rohit Sharma's acceleration from 60 off 80 to 137 off 126 undid some excellent defensive bowling by Bangladesh to help India post a winning total
Scorer: Binoy | Commentator: Alagappan Muthu
That's about all we have from the G tonight, India will hope to be back here on March 29 but for that they'll either have to take on the might of Australia or the mercurial Pakistan. Bangladesh have made a terrific show of themselves and even today they were in the game for the first 35 overs. Thanks for your company, we hope to see the lot of you tomorrow for the third quarter-final from Adelaide. Until then, this is Alagappan Muthu fading to black
"It has been good, we can't shy away from the fact that we are playing some good cricket. But at the same time a month back we were struggling," says Dhoni. A lot of credit needs to go to the boys and the support staff. The good thing is not many players form our side are in the top run-scorers list, but the batting has performed. That was an area we wanted to improve [bowling teams out] Even in New Zealand and South Africa, we were struggling with that, but now we are doing much better. It's difficult to pin point how it changed. Just like a batsman out of form gets back into form, cricket has a lot of abstracts, but we need to do a lot of the small things right. Put in the intensity and hope it all turns out. [The catch] Fluke happens. It was an important catch, a decent partnership was going and I just dived. I thought it was a bit away from me, I dived and the ball came and sat in my hands. [300-plus scores] A lot of it is because of the fifth fielder being inside and the T20 influence and with teams keeping wickets in hand, it helps. If the wicket is dry, some reverse swing happens. But if it's a flat wicket, 300 is something most teams will score"
"Could have been, we'd like to bat first as well, But can't control that. At that time, Rubel and Shakib were bowling well, but we couldn't get through. 300 is difficult to chase, but 280 could have been better. I think, except today, they should be happy. Most of our players are just starting their careers and they should be very happy with their efforts and the fans should be happy as well," Mashrafe says, "I hope, the way we are performing at the moment, we don't have the experience yet, but once we go back home, we know how to play and hopefully this year is exciting for us. Thanks to all the supporters for coming to all the games"
Rohit Sharma is the Man of the Match "I think it will be right up there, it was an important situation where the team needed it the most. I was determined, I wanted to bat as long as possible and put the team into a good situation and the bowlers did a fantastic job. Batting at the top of the order, its important to get big hundreds and I wand to make the most of it when I go out to bat and I'm happy with the way it turned out. We played as a team. Bowlers are taking wicket,s batsmen are scoring runs, we just need to take this momentum into the semis. We've talked a lot about momentum and how big a part it plays in big tournaments. We have two more games to go. I didn't hear that [said pointing to the crowd as they roar] We just need to do what we're doing, we're creating big partnerships with the bat and the bowlers are working in tandem as well"
10.20 pm Seven matches, seven teams, seventy wickets. India's bowlers have been phenomenal in the World Cup and their march into the semi-finals has been largely unobstructed. Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma hustled Bangladesh with some zip. The kept the ball largely at the stumps, cramped the batsmen for room and stifled them so well. R Ashwin's control of flight was impressive, and the pressure simply kept increasing. No one has ever chased 300 down at the MCG and you'd argue that Rohit Sharma, with a hugely composed 137, and Suresh Raina, with a rapid 65, were the architects of this win
siv: "Choose the best answer: Q: How to stop India to in getting all the 10 Wickets? A: Retired hurt? B: Declare"
Naresh: "Well...you missed out the rained-out option."
Greg: "@siv C: Get them to bowl to Australia"
Balvinder Singh: "Heading for Ind vs Pak .............semi-final?......."
Amod: "Good win. but in that sticky period in the Indian innings .. those two iffy decisions made a big difference! Raina'a LBW and Rohit's catch of a no-ball. How many runs were added after that? and did that break Bangla momentum? Another day could have been a different story..."
Malik: "India restriced Bangladesh to the same score which Bangladesh restricted India in 2007 WC. Then India was knocked out now Bangladesh" ---- Close, that was 191
Nandu: "Another one sided QF comes to an end hope tomorrow we see some competitive cricket"
Kiran: "The World cup has gone according to expectation so far, with India and SA both into Semis. Time for the hosts nations to their bit. This will set us up for some mouth watering match ups."
Sabbir Rahman c Mohammed Shami b Yadav 30 (68m 40b 2x4 0x6) SR: 75.00
Rubel Hossain c Ashwin b Yadav 0 (2m 3b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
Rubel is in, and he has a crowd of India fielders in his ears
Sharda from the ground says the atmosphere has suddenly gone out of the match⊠the Indian fans are cheering and there is noise and drums, but the general vibrancy has been leached. The bottom tier of the stand is also emptying out. It was fully packed when the bangladeshis came in to bat
Short, slight, fast, skiddy, moves it sideways, in-drifts it, and gets good bounce. And the last Australia probably saw of him was two one-over spells
ICC chief executive David Richardson has called ICC president Mustafa Kamal's criticism of the umpires "unfortunate," after Rohit Sharma was caught off a full-toss, which was called a no-ball, in the second quarter-final against Bangladesh on Thursday
Stats highlights from the second quarter-final, between Bangladesh and India at the MCG
The depth and strength of a team's or a player's belief cannot be accurately measured but it has certainly emboldened India's World Cup challenge
The ICC protocol, which suggests that a no-ball can be checked only if there has been a dismissal, could do with some tweaking. If an umpire's assessment of an lbw can be questioned, why not a no-ball?