The best team at ICC events since 2010 marched into its fourth final in seven tournaments to set up a summit clash against Pakistan, pitting the tournament’s best bowling sides against each other.
Like they did in the 2015 World Cup quarter-final, first time semi-finalists Bangladesh went toe to toe with India for about 30 overs – even inched ahead perhaps – but came apart against the non-turning, part-time, extremely slow off spin of Kedar Jadhav. They slipped from 142 for 2 in 25 overs to only 264 on a fresh pitch at Edgbaston. While Jadhav brought down the total from the realms of 320, Jasprit Bumrah‘s final spell of 5-0-27-1 shaved a further 20 off what Bangladesh looked good for.
In response, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan put up an exhibition, picking apart Bangladesh’s bowling with delectable stroke-play. Rohit brought up his first hundred of this tournament and moved to No. 2 on the run-scoring charts; Dhawan reclaimed the lead from Tamim Iqbal; and Kohli – who had been scoring runs despite not looking at his best – signaled a return to sublime form while becoming the fastest to 8000 ODI runs. It was an ominous sign for India’s opponents in what will be their third final appearance in the last four 50-over ICC events; in the other event they lost in the semi-final.
Summarized scores: India 265 for 1 (Rohit 123*, Kohli 96*) beat Bangladesh 264 for 7 (Tamim 70, Mushfiqur 61, Jadhav 2-22, Bumrah2-40) by 9 wickets