Sai Kishore starred in India men’s thumping nine-wicket semifinal win over Bangladesh in the Asian Games cricket tournament here at the Pingfeng Cricket Campus on October 6.
After the women’s team won a maiden gold last week, Ruturaj Gaikwad and his men now have the chance to complete the set on October 7 in the final against Afghanistan who beat Pakistan in the other semifinal.
With overcast conditions, Ruturaj won the toss and put Bangladesh into bat. But despite the cloud cover, it was spin which was going to have a major say in the game at the venue which has been used 24 times since the start of the Asiad across two surfaces. India also gave a debut cap to tweaker Shahbaz Ahmed in place of pacer Avesh Khan.
After three overs of pace in the powerplay, Ruturaj turned to Washington Sundar and Sai Kishore, with the latter providing the breakthrough. The left-arm spinner (4-0-12-3), in his opening over, claimed the scalp of Mahmudul Hasan Joy.
Washington, who mixed up his pace in the powerplay, then picked up two wickets in the next over. Bangladesh was rocked early at 21/3 after six overs. In his second spell, Sai accounted for the wickets of Shahadat Hossain and Afif Hossain in back-to-back overs. Wicketkeeper batter Jaker Ali (24* off 29) played himself in and finished the innings off for Bangladesh at 96/9 after 20 overs.
At the restart, Ripon Mondol’s pace caused Jaiswal some trouble and the southpaw flicked a full delivery straight to the shot third fielder to fall for a four-ball duck. But any hopes of a Bangladesh fightback was dashed immediately by Ruturaj (40 off 26) and Tilak (55 off 26).
Tilak reached his fifty off 25 balls with his sixth maximum to his favoured side of the ground before Ruturaj saw India over the line with 64 balls to spare.
The scores:
Semifinals
Bangladesh 96/9 in 20 overs (Sai Kishore 3/12, Washington Sundar 2/15) lost to India 97/1 in 9.2 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 40 n.o., Tilak Varma 55 n.o.);
Pakistan 115/10 in 18 overs (Fareed Ahmad 3/15) lost to Afghanistan 116/6 in 17.5 overs (Noor Ali Zadran 39).
