India stormed into the finals of the Asian Games men's cricket competition on Friday by thrashing Bangladesh by nine wickets. The win in Hangzhou assured India of a medal in men's cricket and also sets up a likely prospect of facing Pakistan in the finals.
Last month, the Indian women's cricket team scripted history by winning their maiden gold medal in Asian Games 2023 by defeating Sri Lanka by 19 runs in final.
India will face the winner of the second semifinals, which will be played between Pakistan and Afghanistan later in the day, on Saturday.
Opting to bowl first after winning the toss, the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led India side limited Bangladesh to a paltry score of 96/9 as the bowlers took wickets at regular intervals. At one point, Bangladesh were reduced to 45/5 and looked to be bundled out within 70 runs.
But resistence from lower order batters Jaker Ali (24 not out) and Rakibul Hasan (14) took Bangladesh close to 100. For India, Tamil Nadu's R Sai Kishore, playing only his second international match for India, was the star bowler, picking up three wickets by giving away just 12 runs.
Gaikwad deployed as many as five spinners on a sticky wicket, with Arshdeep Singh being the only frontline pacer. The spinners picked eight wickets between themselves as the Bangladeshi batters found it hard to play their shots.
India bowled 16 overs of spin, with Sundar (2/15), Ravi Bishnoi (1/26) and Kishore bowling their full quota of four overs. Tilak Varma (1/5) and Shahbaz Ahmed (1/13) bowled two each. Arshdeep Singh bowled three overs and took one wicket for 10 runs.
For Bangladesh, only three batters were able to reach double figures. Jaker Ali was the highest scorer while Parvez Emon made 23 and Rakibul Hasan scored 14 off 6 as Bangladesh set a target of 97 for India.
While the Bangladesh struggled to make runs, Indian batters made merry and romped home within 10 overs by losing just one wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal, the centurion of the previous game against Nepal.
However, Gaikwad and Tilak Varma ensured India did not suffer any more hiccups and launched a counterattack on Bangladeshi bowlers as fours and sixes rained at the Zhejiang University of Technology cricket ground.
Gaikwad and Varma stitched a 97-run unbeaten stand to successfully complete the chase in 9.2 overs. While Gaikwad smashed 40 off 26, with the help of four boundaries and three sixes, Varma scored a 26-ball 55. Varma's knock was peppered with two boundaries and six towering sixes.
Bangladesh will now hope to bag the bronze medal when the face the losing side from the other semifinal game between Pakistan and Afghanistan.