India 2-141 (Virat Kohli 57*, Rohit Sharma 56, Mashrafe Mortaza 1-23) beat Bangladesh 7-138 (Anamul Haque 44, Mahmudullah 33*, Amit Mishra 3-26, Ravichandra Ashwin 2-15) by eight wickets.

A deadly bowling by the Blue Shirts, followed by the fifties from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, crushed Bangladesh as the visitors entered the semi final.

The hosts managed 138 runs with three wickets in hand in 20 overs and the tourists piled up 141 for the loss of just two wickets in 18.3 overs.

Ravichandra Ashwin (India) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his destructive bowling.

The ICC World T20 – 24th match, Group 2, was played on Friday, March 28, 2014, at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur.

Ravichandran Ashwin - Player of the match
Ravichandran Ashwin – Player of the match

Earlier, MS Dhoni won the toss for India and invited Bangladesh to bat first. The home side went down by three wickets at 21 when their skipper Mushfiqur Rahim and Anamul Haque tried to consolidate the innings. The score was taken to 67 as the first was gone for 24 and his partner departed for 44 off 43 balls with 2 lofty sixes and 5 fours. Mahmudullah and Nasir Hossain shared an association of 49 runs and the latter was stumped smartly by Dhoni off Amit Mishra for 16. Mahmudullah secured his end for 33 as the Bengal Tigers reached 7-138 after 20 overs.

Amit Mishra was the star performer with three wickets, Ravichandran Ashwin held two whereas Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami got one wicket each.

The Men in Blue lost their first wicket at 13 when Shikhar Dhawan was clean bowled by Al-Amin Hossain for just one run. Virat Kohli joined in with Rohit Sharma and started their journey towards the target. The latter was dropped at 32 whereas Kohli was punishing the rival bowlers at will. Sharma attained his seventh T20 fifty in the 14th over and the score went past the hundred runs mark as well. Virat Kohli gathered his sixth T20 half century in the process and his partner became the victim of Mashrafe Mortaza for 56. MS Dhoni walked in next and enjoyed his brief stay at the wicket with 22 off just 12 while Kohli remained unbeaten for 57 and enhanced the score to 2-141 with nine balls to spare.

India won their third successive match of the tournament and reserved their berth in the top four with six points.

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