Bangladesh registered a consolation 6-run victory over India in the last Super-4 match of the ongoing Asia Cup at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Friday (September 15).
Invited to bat first, Bangladesh rode on half-centuries from skipper Shakib Al Hasan (80) and Towhid Hridoy (54) to post 265/8 on the board. Nasum Ahmed also played a vital knock of 44 in 45 balls lower down the order.
While the pace trio of Mohammad Shami (2-32), Prasidh Krishna (1-43) and Shardul Thakur (3-65) shared six wickets among them, the spin duo of Akshar Patel (1-47) and Ravindra Jadeja (1-53) claimed one scalp each.
In reply, the Men in Blue lost skipper Rohit Sharma for a two-ball duck while debutant Tilak Varma fell for 5 batting at No. 3. However, Shubman Gill led the charge for India as he added 57 runs for the third wicket with KL Rahul (19) to steady the ship.
Even though India kept losing wickets at regular intervals, Gill held the one end firmly and brought up his fifth ODI ton on a tough pitch off 117 balls.
Shubman was looking determined to finish the game but the right-handed opener miscued a shot against Mahedi Hasan and fell for 121 off 133 balls (8 fours and 5 sixes).
While Akshar Patel tried his best to take India over the line with an attacking knock of 34-ball 42, he didn’t get enough support from the other end. In the end, India’s innings folded for 259 in 49.5 overs.
Despite this loss, India will play the Asia Cup 2023 final as they had earlier defeated Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Super-4 round to qualify for the summit clash.
For his valiant knock, Shubman Gill received rich praise from the cricket fraternity on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
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