KL Rahul’s stylish hundred at No 4 and a throwback to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s days of yore were the big gains for India in their emphatic 95-run win over Bangladesh in the second World Cup warm-up game at Sophia Gardens on Tuesday. Rahul (108 off 99 balls) took the attack back to the opposition after early dismissals while Dhoni’s free-spirited approach also got him a century (113 off 78 balls) as their 164-run stand powered India to 359 for 7 against a Bangladesh attack that went off the boil.
Bangladesh batsmen barring Liton Das (73) and Mushfiqur Rahim (90), who added 120 runs for the third wicket, were never in charge. They were all-out for 264 in 49.3 overs.
If Rahul and Dhoni were the biggest positives to have emerged from batting, Kuldeep Yadav (3/47 in 10 overs) and Yuzvendra Chahal (3/55 in 10 overs) also gained in much-needed confidence going into the tournament proper. It was a walk in the park for India, whose pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled only 14 out of the 49.3 overs. For skipper Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri, the biggest satisfaction has to be Rahul’s performance at No 4. His technique was perfect and the risk-free attacking batting as per Shastri’s lingo was “just what the doctor ordered”.
