ICC Champions Trophy 2017, India vs Bangladesh: 5 things that went wrong for Bangladesh

Bangladesh could not contain a splendid Indian side in the second semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 at Birmingham and eventually lost the contest by nine wickets. Despite looking good to build on a Tamim Iqbal-Mushfiqur Rahim stand to pile up a 300+ total, Bangladesh lost their way against the spinners.

The surprise package came in the form of Kedar Jadhav, who dismissed both the settled batsmen to put India in front. Bangladesh never recovered from the double blow and went on to post a below par 264.

If the highly noisy Bangladesh fans thought that their bowlers would exert pressure on the Indian batsmen early on, they were proven wrong in the first five overs itself. Their bowlers were all over the place and allowed India to get off to a brisk start.

While Bangladesh surprised themselves with a semi-final berth in the eight-team tournament, the energy levels were surprisingly low right from the start of the crunch game. That and some poor bowling from the big players let them down in the all-important game.

Here are five things that went wrong for Bangladesh.

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#5 Loss of early wickets

Soumya Sarkar departed in the very first over of the innings

Bangladesh had to build a good opening stand and a firm platform for their middle-order batsmen to capitalise on. Though Tamim Iqbal played a decent innings, Soumya Sarkar failed to do it for the Tigers this time around.

Sarkar was cleaned up by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the very first over of the game and Sabbir Rahman followed suit by smashing the same bowler to Ravindra Jadeja at point. Bangladesh were pegged back rather early and although they did recover from the rut, they could not quite get going.

#4 Underestimating Kedar Jadhav

Kohli's gamble with Jadhav paid rich dividends as he got rid of both settled batsmen

All the talk during the build-up to the semi-final was about Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja and it came as no surprise that Bangladesh were well prepared for them. They cannot be blamed as no one expected Virat Kohli to pull off a Dhoni and hand the ball to Kedar Jadhav.

The part-time off-spinner had the settled Tamim Iqbal bowled with a skiddy delivery. It broke a threatening 123 run stand between the opener and Mushfiqur Rahim. Jadhav wasn't done though and did Rahim with a juicy low full-toss. The Bangladesh keeper could only chip to Kohli at short mid-wicket, who gleefully accepted the dolly.

#3 Failure to get an early breakthrough

Rohit Sharma blazed to his 11th ODI hundred

With just 264 runs on the board on a batting pitch, Bangladesh needed their quick bowlers to step up and get early wickets. However, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, who were phenomenal right through the tournament, continued their golden run with another pompous stand and didn’t give Bangla bowlers a moment of peace.

Dhawan dug into a lacklustre Mustafizur Rahman with two boundaries in his first over while Rohit followed suit with three. The Mortaza led unit were flat upfront and barely bowled a wicket taking delivery all through the powerplay overs. The poor start with the ball did not stand them in good stead after a below-par total on board.

#2 Mustafizur Rahman's off day

The Fizz had an off day as he conceded quite a few boundaries early in his spell

The wily left-arm seamer, Mustafizur Rahman, was Bangladesh's trump card coming into the game but failed to control his line and length against a rampant opening pair. However, he conceded five boundaries in his first two overs and let the Indian openers settle down fairly easily.

He returned when Virat Kohli was at the crease but bowled too full despite getting little help from the surface. The Fizz tried too many variations against the Indian maestro in desperation, only to end up conceding more boundaries. That their premier weapon failed to impact the game affected Bangladesh in their first ever ICC semi-final.

#1 Lack of intent

Bangladesh seemed to be overawed by the occasion as they put in a lacklustre display

The biggest mistake committed by Bangladesh today was the evident lack of intent. They were cruising at almost six an over after 20 overs but failed to capitalise on that and kept losing wickets. The batsmen were content in defending out the spinners but eventually, the approach led to their downfall.

With atleast 20-30 runs short, Bangladesh had to come in charging at the Indians with the ball but save for their big-hearted skipper, none of the other bowlers did justice to their talents. As has been the case with the side in big games, when it mattered Bangladesh could not make the step up.