India Beat Bangladesh, book the berth for the big finale against Pakistan

India hammered Pakistan by 124 runs in the teams’ Champions Trophy opener at Edgbaston 11 days ago. After the recent India-Pakistan match at Edgbaston in the United Kingdom, in which Pakistan lost by 124 runs, he gave a day’s free service to local residents.”On Wednesday night, I received a threat call from an unknown number”. It is only the second time that the two teams are meeting in the final of an ICC tournament. They were lucky against Australia when the match washed out.

That is particularly the case given that the next Cricket World Cup is in England in 2019.

As far as Ashwin and Jadeja go, they have been forced to be defensive on pitches where the ball has not gripped the surface and spun much. “We didn’t expect to win by nine wickets, but that’s the quality of our top order”, Kohli said at the post- match press conference.

Tamim was fortunate when he was bowled by Hardik Panya off a no-ball when he was on 17, but he took good advantage of the reprieve. And then came skipper Kohli, who treated the opposition attack as a bunch of net bowlers, adding 178 runs for the second wicket off 153 balls.

The highlights of their stand included three straight fours from Tamim of spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and Mushfiqur’s overhead scoop beyond Dhoni for two runs to bring up the century partnership.

Earlier, Indian skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bowl first. Dhawan is now fourth in the list of all-time run-getters in this tournament. His charge was only ended by an terrible slice to point off Mashrafe.

Rohit Sharma took the charge in the fifth as he flicked the ball towards midwicket for another boundary.

Virat Kohli on Thursday became the fastest to 8000 one-day global runs, breaking the record held by South African skipper AB de Villiers for almost two years. They have won home ODI series against India, Pakistan and South Africa over the past two years but need more exposure away from home in different conditions. At one point of time, it did looked like that they were going for a big score but after Tamim’s dismissal, the lack of confidence can be seen in Bangladeshi batsmen. “We’ve been playing good cricket”.

Bangladesh has picked themselves up after a humiliating loss against host England in their opening match.

While coach Chandika Hathurusingha tries to instill some sense of calmness playing the “underdog card”, there are people in Bangladesh camp, who already, in their dreams, have set their foot in the final. “For me, the batting [is strong], they’ve got the death bowlers – they’re so well rounded at the moment”.