Led by a swashbuckling 210, the fastest ODI double ton, by Ishan Kishan and Virat Kohli's international hundred No. 72, India romped home to a 227-run victory against Bangladesh in the third ODI. Having racked up a mammoth 409/8, India proceeded to defend it with ease as Bangladesh crumbled under a combination of clinical bowling coupled with scoreboard pressure.
India, put in to bat first in the final ODI in Chattogram, had started on a sedate note with Mehidy Hasan trapping Shikhar Dhawan LBW in just the fifth over. Kishan, drafted into the playing eleven after Rohit Sharma's injury, joined hands with Kohli thereafter to steady the innings. The duo managed to do that without getting bogged down too much. With Kohli not finding his rhythm until he hit the thirties. Kishan was the one setting the tone early. Cashing in on width outside off, cutting and driving for his first four boundaries, he quickly took on the role of enforcer in the 290-run stand.
As Bangladesh corrected their lines to go straighter against Kishan, he began to pull and sweep successfully to add to the pressure on the bowlers. His fifty came up off just 49 balls, but not without a few close shaves. Kohli was put down on 5 by Litton Das, who once again saw another chance falling just beyond his reach off the same batter. As Kishan switched gears, unafraid to hit with abandon, he gave a chance to deep midwicket where a diving Shakib Al Hasan, could not prevent the catch from being grassed despite a juggle.
Kishan, now with a good measure of the pitch, was also finding his hitting zone against the unfavourable matchup of Mehidy Hasan's offspin, managing to loft and slog him straight down the ground. His rate of scoring increased post his fifty, with the second one coming off just 36 balls, bringing about his maiden ODI ton. Meanwhile, Kohli too had found his groove, lofting Shakib inside out over cover for a boundary, but he took the sensible path of playing second fiddle to a rampant Kishan.
On an easy paced pitch, Kohli also found strike rotation to be easy, even as Kishan threw his bat out at every ball after getting a hundred. His third fifty took another 18 balls, before the fourth took 23. Nothing that Bangladesh threw at Kishan would faze him, as he managed to be inventive with shots increasingly as he went past various milestones.
The double hundred, which came off his 126 balls, saw Kishan became the fourth Indian to scale the landmark. He became the youngest male batter to do so and also the quickest to get to the milestone in terms of balls faced, overtaking Chris Gayle's mark of 138 balls.
As he continued in the same vein, more records were under threat but on 210, he was finally dismissed when he failed to clear long on. It ended a knock that contained 24 fours and 10 sixes in all, and that had powered India past the 300-mark in just the 36th over.
Kohli, now emerged out of Kishan's shadows, targeted the cover region extensively and raced away to a 85-ball ton, his first in the ODI format since August 2019. It was a hundred that took him past Ricky Ponting's tally of 71 international hundreds.
India's finish was hampered a little when they lost Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Kohli himself in quick succession. However, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar played useful hands lower down the order, putting on 46 that eventually helped India to the highest-ever ODI total in Bangladesh.
It was a total that also made sure Bangladesh were kept on the backfoot right through the chase. The hosts never managed to come to the party, as India's spinners found their groove. Axar set the tone with a wicket in his first over, and was ably supported by the pacers as Mohammad Siraj and Umran Malik too got into the wickets column. The spine of Bangladesh's batting came apart swiftly, as Axar first had Mushfiqur Rahim bowled missing a sweep, which was soon followed by Shakib, the lone man to offer some resistance, chopping on to be dismissed for 43 against Kuldeep Yadav. The result remained a formality after Bangladesh lost half their side with just 124 on the board in 23 overs. Shardul Thakur had a three-wicket haul coming his way as Bangladesh went in pursuit of quick runs.
The victory, India's third highest in terms of runs, also ensured that it saved them the ignominy of a clean sweep by Bangladesh, who suffered their second biggest loss in ODIs.
Brief Scores: India 409/8 in 50 overs (Ishan Kishan 210, Virat Kohli 113; Shakib Al Hasan 2-68) beat Bangladesh 182 in 34 overs (Shakib Al Hasan 43; Shardul Thakur 3-30, Axar Patel 2-22) by 227 runs.
Source: Cricbuzz