India defeated Bangladesh by nine wickets on Friday to advance to the final of the cricket competition at the ongoing Asian Games in Hangzhou thanks to a stellar bowling performance from spinner Sai Kishore and explosive innings from the skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tilak Varma. India won the toss and decided to field first. The Bangladeshi batting order was completely destroyed by the Indian spinners, who also quickly eliminated the top order.
At the end of the powerplay, Bangladesh was at 21/3 in six overs.
Sai Kishore, Washington Sundar and Tilak Varma were at their destructive best, reducing Bangladesh to 40/4 in ten overs. Pavez Hossain Emon (23 in 32 balls) was the top contributor till that point.
Wickets kept falling for Bangladesh, but wicket-keeper batter Jaker Ali (24* in 29 balls) and Rakibul Hasan (14) helped Bangladesh reach 96 in their 20 overs at the loss of nine wickets.
Sai Kishore (3/12) was the pick of the bowlers for India. Washington (2/15) also bowled well. Tilak, Arshdeep Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed and Ravi Bishnoi got a wicket each.
After scoring a century against Nepal in a previous match, India lost opener Yashasvi Jaiswal for a four-ball duck in the 97-run chase. However, India’s skipper Gaikwad and Tilak Varma began to score runs quickly after that, propelling them to 68/1 in six overs. Gaikwad (40* in 26 balls with four boundaries and three sixes) and Varma (55* in 26 balls with two fours and six sixes) were both unbeaten as India reached the target of 97 in just 9.2 overs.