Suresh Raina guides India to a 7 wkt win over Bangladesh

The superb batting by the two Indian left handers overshadowed a spectacular 115 runs from Alok Kapali who hit his maiden century to steer Bangladesh to their highest total of 283 for six against India.

India finished on a convincing 284 for three in 43.2 overs with Raina hitting the winning run, a single off Abdur Razzak, despite resting Virender Sehwag, Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla.

It was India’s fourth straight win in the six-nation competition and it brought them closer to a place in the final as they now have four points in the super league stage having carried over two from the qualifying round.

Raina, who has been in excellent form in the competition, followed up his scores of 101 (against Hong Kong) and 84 (against Pakistan) with an unbeaten 116 from 107 balls reaching his second career hundred by glancing spinner Abdul Razzak for a boundary in the 40th over.

Raina and Gambhir put on a spectacular 139 from 133 balls for the third wicket while the centurion teamed up for an unbeaten stand of 89 from 70 balls with Yuvraj Singh (36) to finish off the match.

Raina’s 100 from 93 balls included 10 fours and two sixes while Gambhir stroked 10 fours and one six in his 84-ball innings.

Gambhir missed out on a chance to score his third successive hundred against Bangladesh when he fell in the 32nd over caught at mid-wicket by Mashrafe Mortaza off Farhad Reza.

Pacer Mortaza was left cursing his luck when Gambhir and then Raina got reprieves off on his bowling in successive overs due to some inept fielding efforts.

Farhad first floored a sitter at point when Gambhir on 56 charged the bowler and miscued a high shot while Mahmadullah floored a difficult chance at deep fine leg when Raina couldn’t control his shot.

The catches were dropped at India’s total of 97 and 104 and Bangladesh were to blame themselves for squandering the opportunities to make it harder for India to overhaul the target.

Gambhir, who blazed his way to his 10th fifty from only 36 balls with a flat six off Mahmudullah to long on, carried on his aggression even after India lost Robin Uthappa (2) early on at the team total of 14 bowled by Reza while Rohit Sharma fell to a catch at mid-wicket off Hossain after making 22 runs to leave India at a spot of bother at 56 for two.

Earlier, all-rounder Alok Kapali (115 from 96 balls) was mainly responsible for pushing Bangladesh to a fighting total after his team had slipped to 120 for four and then 169 for five.

He also put on 112 runs from 96 balls with Mahmudullah (26 not out) for the sixth wicket to raise 97 runs in the final 10 overs.

Indian left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha (2 for 43) scalped two key wickets in the middle overs besides taking three catches to have a successful debut.

Kapali, who came into bat in 24th over with his team on a precarious 120 for 4, played a brilliant innings with his 100 coming from 86 balls with eight fours and five sixes.

It was a satisfying innings for the leg-spinning all-rounder as he was not picked in the original Asia Cup squad and came in as a replacement for injured Aftab Ahmed.

Kapali, who was particularly severe on off-spinner Yusuf Pathan and pacer Manpreet Gony (2/65), was dismissed on the penultimate ball of the innings, caught at deep square leg by Ojha off Gony, after hitting 10 sixes and five fours.

Kapali reached his sixth fifty in 43rd over by hitting Pathan for two sixes and then in the next over savaged Gony for two successive sixes to take 19 runs from the costly over.

His hundred overshadowed a fine 55 from opener Tamim Iqbal who survived a dropped chance on 11 to hit seven fours in his 67-ball knock.

In the middle overs, Ojha had pushed the Bangladeshis to the backfoot by snapping up Raqibul Hasan (25) and Mushfiqur Rahim (22).

He first broke a 49-run stand for the fourth wicket by bowling Hasan and than had Rahim caught behind by wicketkeeper MS Dhoni off a failed cut shot.

The two wickets were a big setback for Bangladesh who were staging a slow recovery from the early loss of opener Nazimuddin, who was caught at third man by Ojha off left-arm seamer RP Singh, and captain Mohammad Ashraful (20) who fell to Gony caught by Ojha at mid-off.

Tamim was also lucky as he was missed by Gautam Gambhir at mid-wicket off Gony while on 11.

RP Singh was expensive returning figures of one for 65 from his 10 overs while young Ishant Sharma conceded 48 for the lone wicket of Tamim.