Gautam Gambhir played a brilliant inning of 107 runs of just 101 balls to helped India to reach the target of 223 runs in just 35.1 overs with the loss of three wickets and beat Bangladesh by 7 wickets. This was Gautam Gambhir 5th century of his ODI career and second against Bangladesh. He took just 96 balls to reach the landmark.
With this win now India will play against Pakistan in the Final of Kitply cup triangular series on Saturday June 14th.
Chasing a modest total of 223 runs for victory Indian openers once again gave India a rollicking start by smashing the Bangladesh new ball bowlers all over the park. In the initial overs of Indian innings Virendra Sehwag looks in ominous form as he smashed his 27th half century in just 29 balls with 2 huge six over extra cover and seven sparkling drives for four. He and Gautam Gambhir added 85 runs in 10 overs before Sehwag departed after picking up 24 runs in Dolar Mahmud over for 32 balls 59.
After departure of V.Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma (26 runs of 43 balls) put on crucial 56 runs for 2nd wicket. Rohit Sharama got out by playing a needless cross batted shot on the bowling of Abdur RazzakIndia 82 runs away from another easy win.
Yuvraj Singh also played his part by putting crucial 75 run partnership for the 3rd wicket but unfortunately he got out when India were 7 runs away from win. But in the end G.Gambhir and S.Raina (0 runs of 2 balls) guided India home to a comfortable seven wickets win in just 35.1 overs.
Earlier Md. Ashraful won the toss and elected to bat first in a do-or-die game. However there batsman seems to follow the same script that played out against Pakistan as their top order failed once again. They were tattering at 17/2 in the 6th over. But thanks to Raqibul Hasan knock of 89 runs of 117 balls and with some help from lower order batsman they manage to get pass 200 runs before getting bowled out for 222 runs in 49.5 overs.
M.Ashraful (36 runs of 67 balls), Alok Kapali (20), Mahmudullah (24) and Mashrafe Mortaza (13) chipped in with useful cameos at the death to boost their score to 222.
From India it was R.P.Singh and Irfant Pathan who did most of the damage to Bangladesh innings by picking up three and two wickets respectively. While Y.Pathan, P.Chawla and Praveen Kumar picked up one wicket each to break the backbone of Bangladesh Innings.
Gautam Gambhir was declared Man of the Match for his inning of 107 runs of just 101 balls.
