Ind vs Ban: India trample Bangladesh to (cake)walk into World Cup semifinals

Melbourne: Defending champions India ended battling Bangladesh's World Cup with a crushing 109-run win at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to power into semi-finals on Thursday. The two-time champions stretched their unbeaten tournament run to seven wins and will now face either co-hosts Australia or Pakistan in Sydney on March 26.

Here is how the action unfolded.

Rohit Sharma made 137 and Suresh Raina 65 as India accelerated after some tight opening overs by Bangladesh.

Chasing 303 runs to win, Bangladesh openers were watchful till Tamim Iqbal smashed Shami for three boudaries in the fourth over of the innings. The star in Bangladesh's 2007 World Cup win over India though survived a scare after umpire could not hear the edge and Indian side decided not to opt for a review.

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But his part was over when Dhoni took a neat catch off Umesh Yadav's bowling to give India their first breakthrough. Then came the utter confusion between Imrul Kayes and Soumya Sarkar and India got their second wicket via a run-out.

Kayes tried to steal a single but Jadeja's brilliance in the field and Yadav's common sense to qucikly run towards the stumps ended Kayes' stay in the middle.

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Mahmudullah and Sarkar then steadied the ship for a while. But Bangladesh's hopes of revival were quickly dashed when Shikhar Dhawan dsiplayed superb composure to take neat catch near the boundary rope. The left-hander juggled the catch to send Mahmudullah back to the dressing room.

Then came, MS Dhoni's turn to pull off a stunner. The man who recently confessed of not having done wicketkeeping drills for three years, took a ripper of a catch to send Sarkar packing. Dhoni dived towards his left side, almost close to a potential first slip.

India landed another blow to dent Bangladesh after they crossed the 100-run mark. Ravindra Jadeja, who dazzled in the field, struck to dismiss Shakib Al Hasan in the 29th over. Mohammed Shami, who was stationed at short third-man, took an easy catch.

As soon as the batting powerplay was introduced, Bangladesh lost their sixth wicket. Umesh Yadav grabbed his second wicket as Dhoni took a neat catch to end Mushfiqur Rahim's stay in the middle.

Nasir Hossain and Sabbir Rahman put up some fight. But their effort was never enough. Ravindra Jadeja removed Nasir Hossain to give India their seventh wicket. Ashwin, who was standing in the covers, took a low catch.

Then struck Mohit Sharma to end Mortaza's World Cup. In came Rubel Hossain and the cameras zoomed onto Virat Kohli's face with whom Hossain had an altercation.

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But he could only last for three balls and gave Ashwin an easy catch. The final wicket fell in the same over when Sabbir Rahman top-edged one to the third-man where Mohammed Shami took a simple catch to seal India's 109-run win and confirmed their entry in the semifinals of the World Cup.

No side has made more than 300 batting second to win a one-day international at the MCG.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma's first World Cup hundred fuelled India to 302 after they elected to bat.

India were off to a solid start as Rohit Sharma looked in a fine touch hitting boundaries with a lot of ease and more importantly, without offering any chnaces to Bangladesh.

Dhawan, meanwhile, faced a run-out scare in the fifth over as he slipped. But fortunately for India, that did not cause any damage to Team India.

Post that the duo faced no trouble as it brought up fifty-run partnership in the tenth over.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan remained largely untested as Bangladesh bowlers did not put them under any sort of pressure. Dhawan, though, faced some issues with the sightscreen and made Rubel Hossain stop twice in his run-up.

Bangladesh then introduced their premier player Shakib Al Hasan into the attack in the 17th over. The all-rounder wasted no time as he removed Dhawan in his over to give Bangladesh their first breakthrough.

The Indian left-hander dragged his foot forward and wicketkeeper wasted no time to dislodge the bails.

Bangladesh struck big quickly when Rubal Hossain removed Kohli for a paltry score of three. The Indian vice-captain tried to chase a wide delivery and hit it through the covers but ended up edging it to the wicketkeeper.

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The Bangladesh bowlers did a fantastic job of restricting the run flow by bowling tight lengths. While the Indian batsmen tried hard, the runs were not easy to come by. India brought up their hundred but their joy was short-lived as Taskin dismissed Rahane after the right-hander had scored 19.

Rohit was joined by Suresh Raina as the Indian fans hoped for a revival to Indian innings. While the right-hander seemed untroubled by the Bangladesh attack, Suresh Raina had a nervous moment when he was wrapped onto the pads and the Bangladesh decided to use their review.

(Photo: AP)

Fortunately for Raina and India, the ball was pitched marginally outside the leg-stump and Raina survived.

But as the batting powerplay was introduced, Raina hit the attack mode and tripped the Bangladesh attack. He first smashed two boundaries off Mortaza, then danced down the teack against Shakib  Al Hasan to hit him for a six.

The Rohit-Raina dup then frustrated the Bangladesh side as they scored fifty in the batting powerplay with Raina doing the chunk of socring. Rohit then brought up his first ever World Cup hundred.

While his innings was flawless, he was lucky to be given not-out when umpire misjudged height of the full toss and judged him not-out.

However, India lost Raina as he attempted to up the scoring rate even further. But the left-hander played his part as he scored aggressive 65 to push Bangladesh on the backfoot.

Rohit, as he often does, started hitting the big shots after crossing the hundred. The Indian right-hander eventually got out but not before hitting 14 fours and three sixes at the Melbourne. Dhoni could not do much as he got out soon.

But Ravindra Jadeja's handy 23 off 10 balls guided India to 300-plus score.

Indian team made no changes to their winning combination while Bangladesh skipper made a comeback and replaced Taijul in the playing XI.

(Photo: AP)

(Photo: AP)

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