Virat Kohli seals Indian victory with a ton

Zeecric Bureau/Pratik Dogra Mirpur: Displaying amazing calm and composure, Virat Kohli slammed his second ODI century as India raced home to yet another comprehensive victory over Bangladesh in the final and inconsequential league match against of the Idea Cup at Mirpur today. Batting on 94 runs with 7 runs needed to win, Kohli completed the formalities with successive boundaries off Shakib Al Hasan to take India home in 43 overs with six wickets to spare. Kohli remained unconquered on 102 runs, his classy 95 ball knock studded with 11 sublime hits to the fence.Suresh Raina helped himself to a run-a-ball 18, doing the sensible thing by giving Kohli the bulk of the strike that enabled him to complete his century.With 2 wins in 2 days, India topped the group table with 13 points from 4 games while Sri Lanka lagged along to the second place with 12 points from 4 games. With 4 defeats from 4 matches, hosts Bangladesh failed to open their account, paving way for an India-Sri Lanka final on Wednesday. Earlier, chasing 248 runs for victory, India lost its first wicket when makeshift opener Dinesh Karthik was adjudged caught behind after lengthy deliberations between the umpires of the bowling of Shafiul Islam at a score of 34. A little later, Gautam Gambhir’s was the next wicket to fall when the southpaw was beaten by flight off Naeem. Charging down the track, Gambhir missed the line completely, to have his middle stump uprooted. He made a breezy 41 off 46 balls, hitting 5 fours. Yuvraj Singh scratched around for a while before Islam trapped him LBW. He too was guilty of playing down the wrong line, contributing just 13 runs to India’s score. For a brief while, Bangladesh bowlers, especially Naeem Islam seemed to be pegging back Indian batsmen with regular wickets even though at half-stage of their innings, the visitors appeared to have firmly placed themselves on the drivers’ seat. But Kohli had other ideas. Along with his skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, he churned out a brisk 68 run-partnership as India raced past 200 runs in the 36th over. But with victory in sight, Dhoni made a beeline to the pavilion after he chipped up a simple catch at mid-on to Imrul Kayes off the bowling of his opposite number Shakib Al Hasan. Dhoni made 32 runs from 35 balls with 3 fours. Raina and Kohli profited from some dropped catches by Bangladeshi fielders to see India home. Kohli was named the Man of the Match. Naeem, with 2/35 after 8 over, was the only bowler who looked likely to pick a wicket. Shakib, Mahmudullah help B’desh to 247/6 In the evening, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan led his team’s revival with a brilliant 85 off just 97 balls as hosts posted a competitive 247/6 from their allotted 50 overs. Reeling at 96/5 halfway through their innings, Bangladesh recovered thanks chiefly to the lion hearted efforts of Shakib and Mahmudullah, who stitched together a fantastic 106 run partnership for the sixth wicket to take the team score past 200 runs in the 46th over, a landmark that seemed unlikely at one point of time. Shakib was eventually derived of a well deserved century by Ashish Nehra when the former failed to control a pull-shot, only to be caught behind by Dhoni. He hit 8 fours and a six during his delightful stay, indulging in some good sensible batting in the middle-overs. His 85 was also the highest ever score by a Bangladesh captain versus India. Meanwhile, Madmudullah too slammed a half-century, his fourth ever and second against India. He ended unbeaten on 64 runs of 80 balls while Naeem Islam chipped in with a quickfire 22 runs of 14 balls as Bangladesh pinched away 46 runs from the last 5 overs. For India, Ashish Nehra, with 2/58 from 10 overs was the most successful bowler while Yuvraj, who conceded 33 runs from his 10 overs, was the most economical. Things however, didn’t seem as positive for the minnows when Yuvraj Singh deceived Mushfiqur Rahim with a flighted slower one. He induced the batsman early into the shot, only for a mis-timed drive to fly straight to Suresh Raina at covers. Mushfiqur made just 7 runs in his 18 ball stay, during which he completed his 1000 ODI runs. A stroke of bad luck, coupled with Ashish Nehra’s timely strike, had threatened to nip Bangladesh’s early rebuilding efforts in the bud as the hosts, after recovering briefly from 15/2 to 60/2, slumped to 67/4 in the 18th over. Yuvraj had displayed great presence of mind to smartly flick a return shot from Shakib Al Hasan off his own bowling onto the stumps just in time to find non-striker Raqibul short of the crease. Raqibul was looking well set until his dismissal for 28 runs. He played 46 balls. Earlier, Nehra had removed Tamim Iqbal after the opener had scored 17 runs. Careless batting proved to be Bangladeshi batsmen bane as their all first 3 wickets to fall could be accredited to recklessness rather than any extraordinary brilliance by the Indian bowlers. Tamim’s attempt to clear the long-off of a full-delivery came a cropper as he just ended up scooping up a simple catch at mid-off to Sudeep Tyagi. He put on 45 runs for the third wicket with Raqibul Hasan. Bangladesh had lost their first 2 wickets by the 4th over with just 15 runs on the board. They were dealt their first blow of the afternoon when young Tyagi snapped up the wicket of Imrul Kayes, with the latter attempting a wide slash outside the off-stump, straight to Virat Kohli. Kayes fell in just the third over after scoring 9 runs Sreesanth then cleaned up Mohammad Ashraful in the next over when the former Bangladesh captain charged down the wicket only to manage a thick inside edge to his bat from where the ball rolled on to the stumps. He made 4 runs. In the afternoon, Dhoni had won the toss and made the obvious decision to field first. India had already booked their spot in the finals virtue of their 8-wicket thumping of Sri Lanka yesterday while Bangladesh were out of reckoning. Teams: Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan*, Mushfiqur Rahim†, Mahmudullah, Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Syed Rasel, Shafiul Islam India: G Gambhir, KD Karthik, V Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni*†, SK Raina, A Mishra, RA Jadeja, S Sreesanth, S Tyagi, A Nehra