India confirm semi-final end Bangladesh campaign

India 314 for 9 (Rohit 104, Rahul 77, Mustafizur 5-59) beat Bangladesh 286 (Shakib 66, Saifuddin 51*, Bumrah 4-55, Pandya 3-60) by 28 runs

Birmingham: India finally confirmed their place in the World Cup semi-finals with a comfortable if not flawless win which eliminated spirited Bangladesh.

After Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul hit the highest opening partnership of the tournament, a fine 180, India ran out of steam to post a disappointing 314.

Bangladesh needed to win their final two games to have any chance of progressing to a first semi-final.

But despite another half century from Shakib al Hasan they fell short.

An England win against New Zealand in Durham on Wednesday is likely to see both sides join India and holders Australia in next week's semi-finals.

Bangladesh did well to keep up with the required run rate from the very beginning, but the problem for them was that they kept losing regular wickets.

All their batsmen got starts but only Soumya Sarkar (33) and Shakib al Hasan (66) were able to take their scores beyond the twenties. When Shakib went out in the 34th over with 136 runs still to get, India looked to have bagged the match.

There was then a brave resistance put up by a partnership between Sabbir Rahman (36) and Saifuddin (51*), but when Jasprit Bumrah (4/55) came back at the death and rattled his stumps, Bangladesh were left staring at the inevitable.

Bumrah took consecutive wickets off the last two balls of the 48th over the end the match.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma (104) and KL Rahul (77) got India off to the most perfect start possible, putting on 180 runs for the opening partnership. Sharma was dropped on 7 by Tamim Iqbal. The first Indian wicket fell in the 30th over.

With the tone of the first innings set by the opening duo, the Indian middle order did not take much time to settle, going for run-a-ball strike rates from the outset.

Virat Kohli (26) failed to reach the 50-mark for the second time in the World Cup, Rishabh Pant (48) proved his caliber at No. 4 and MS Dhoni (35) remained unbeaten at the end as India posted a total of 314/9 in 50 overs.

Mustafizur Rahman (5/59) and Shakib al Hasan (1/41) were the best Bangladesh bowlers on display.