Asia Cup23 : Bangladesh surprise India despite Gill's glorious hundred in last super 4 match

  

Shubman Gill scored a brilliant hundred but it was not enough to stop a determined Bangladesh to beat India by 7 runs in an exciting finish in the last super 4 game . India however has already reached the final .

Being a regulation match with no bearing on the group outcome for themselves , India wanted to test the strength of the reserve bench.  Rohit Sharma made five changes in the team.  Changed cricketers disappointed in the game mostly .  Batting first, Bangladesh scored 265 runs.  Shakib Al Hasan scored 80 runs.  India lost regular wickets to chase runs and came under pressure for a while.  Shubman Gill was fighting alone.  But he did not get any help.  Shubman could not win the team even after scoring a hundred.  Rohit lost to Bangladesh in the last match of Super Four.  This performance will keep Rohit worried ahead of the Asia Cup final on Sunday.

 India did not bowl first in any match in this year's Asia Cup.  So Rohit won the toss and decided to bowl first against Bangladesh.  Mohammad Shami and Shardul Thakur started well.  Bangladesh's top order did not get runs.  4 wickets fell for just 59 runs.  It seemed that Bangladesh will not be able to score more runs in this match.  But Shakib and Touhid Hridoy managed to take forward the  team's innings.

 India's fielding facilitated Bangladesh's batters.  Several catches were made.  The Bangladesh batters took advantage of it.  The two batsmen scored half century.  It seemed that Shakib would make a hundred.  But Shardul bowled Shakib for 80 in his second spell.

Shakib scored a half-century before getting out.  He maintained his consistency in this competition.  Hridoy was dismissed by Shami for 54 runs.  In the end, Nasum Ahmed's 44 and Mehdi Hasan's 29 runs took Bangladesh past 250. They scored 265 runs after losing 8 wickets in 50 overs.  For India, Shardul took 3 wickets, Shami 2 wickets and Prasidh Krishna, Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel 1 wicket each.

  In reply, Rohit got out on the second ball chasing runs.  Debutant Tanjim Hasan Shakib gave India a big shock by dismissing him off a slower ball caught at point region .  The youngster  was bowling  well.  His line and length were troubling the Indian batsmen.  Tilak Verma(5) , who made his debut for India in this match, got out after not understanding Tanjim's ball and leaving it only for his off stump to get knocked over. 

  Lokesh Rahul paired with Shubman after falling two wickets.  With the absence of Virat Kohli, the duo had a big onus.  They were playing well.  Rahul was slowly settling down but Mehndi broke the pair.  He returned Rahul (19) caught at square leg.  Ishan Kishan (5) got out cheaply trying to reverse sweep .  They were in trouble in front of the spinners of Bangladesh.  Due to the slowness on the wicket, Shakib kept the spinners in the attack.

  Suryakumar Yadav got a chance in this match.  The stage was ready.  But he was bowled by Shakib trying to sweep again after scoring 26 runs.  Surya was playing too many sweep shots and finally succumbed to one .  Shubman was playing well.  He played a few big shots as the run rate slowed down a bit.  The Indian opener was slowly moving towards the century and played several gorgeous shots with effortless ease and great timing . 

Shubman completed his century with 117 balls.  But he was not getting help from other side.  Jadeja (7) also did not get many runs.  All the responsibilities fell on Shubman's shoulders.  After making a hundred, he started to open his hands.  But the asking run rate was steadily increasing.  As a result, India had no choice but to play big shots.

 India needed 78 runs to win in the last 10 overs.  That is, India had to score 8 runs per over.  Shubman and Akshar were at the crease.  Shubman was trying to score quick runs by hitting big shots.  He returned after scoring 121 runs  With Shubman out, India's hopes of winning further dwindled.

 India's last pair were at the crease.  Both Akshar and Shardul can bat.  That's what the fans wanted to see.  It was becoming difficult to play big shots against the spinners on the Colombo wicket.  Akshar was trying in that.  Akshar scored 10 runs in the last two balls of the 48th over.  17 runs were needed to win from the last 12 balls.  Akshar could not get that run despite trying hard.  Mustafizur Rahman ended India's hopes of winning by dismissing Shardul (11) and Akshar (42)  in one over.  Finally  Bangladesh won the exciting  match by 7 runs when Shami was runout . For Bangladesh, Mustafizur took 3 wickets while impressive new boy Tanzim took 2 wickets .