Despite Shubman Gill’s 121 and Axar Patel’s 42, Bangladesh defeated India by 6 runs in the final Super 4 match of Asia Cup 2023 on Friday. Chasing a 266-run target, India were bundled out for 259 in 49.5 overs.
Shubman Gill scored his fifth ODI ton and has almost single-handedly led India’s chase but he eventually fell on 121 off 133. Only KL Rahul had managed to stay with Gill in the middle for a considerable period of time. The pair put up 57 runs for the third wicket before Rahul fell to Mahedi Hasan.
After that, Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja fell without troubling the scorers too much and Gill had Axar Patel for company when his innings ended. Axar then gave India some hope by scoring 42 off 34 balls. His dismissal all but confirmed India’s loss and the match was done when Mohammed Shami was run out off the second last ball of the last over of the Indian innings.
Earlier, Bangladesh rode on important knocks from Shakib Al Hasan (80) and Towhid Hridoy (54) after a top-order collapse, as the duo propelled the side to a competitive score of 265/8 after Indian captain Rohit Sharma opted to bowl in Colombo.
Shardul Thakur (3/66) was the most impressive — but also the most expensive — of all Indian bowlers, as Mohammed Shami (2/32), Prasidh Krishna (1/43), Axar Patel (1/47), and Ravindra Jadeja (1/53) were all among the wickets in the innings. Shami took the opening wicket early for India and they kept the pressure on Bangladesh throughout the initial few overs. before Shakib and Hridoy led the rescue for Bangladesh.
Team India put up a solid fight as things went right down to the wire but it was Bangladesh who won the match. Bangladesh ended their Asia Cup 2023 campaign on a high by beating finalists India in the final Super 4 game.
