World Cup: Clinical India thrash Bangladesh to enter semifinal.

Hello and welcome to the LIVE coverage from the second quarterfinal between India and Bangladesh in Melbourne. 
India's bowlers put up a thoroughly professional performance to bundle out the opposition for a modest score and reach the semi-finals of the World Cup. With this victory, MS Dhoni has now captained India to 100 wins in the ODI format. Dhoni also has led his country to 11 consecutive victories in World Cups. To make it a great day for India, they have now bowled out seven teams in a row and Mohammed Shami with 17 wickets to his name, is the leading wicket-taker in this World Cup.
It was Umesh Yadav, who produced the initial breakthrough by sending the dangerous Tamim Iqbal back to the pavilion. Shami then followed it up by taking a couple of wickets to put India in a position of strength. Interestingly, Shami has used the short ball superbly in this tournament and today, he took the wicket of Mahmudullah with it. Mushfiqur Rahim and Sabbir Rahman showed self-belief to essay decent knocks, but by then, India had all but won the game. Umesh ended up with four wickets and Shami two.
In fact, even Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja shone brightly with the ball in hand. With subtle variations of drift, Ashwin kept the batsmen in check. In this tournament, Ashwin has struck to the old maxim of using the off-spinner as the stock delivery. He has also used the drifter. The fielding too was sharp. Earlier, Rohit Sharma played with royal flourish to pierce through the minutest of gaps with surgical precision to compose a marvellous hundred. Rohit started his innings with a flurry of boundaries before he was forced to hold the innings together as a result of India losing their way in the middle overs. The sublime art and craft of Rohit's batsmanship can be encapsulated by how he expertly guided Taskin Ahmed through the third-man region for a delectable boundary in the 39th over.
Suresh Raina played his part as well by cracking some powerful shots to help India to up the ante after they found themselves in a spot of bother. For Bangladesh, Shakib Al Hasan and Rubel Hossain put up a fine show during the middle part of the game. Rubel teasing and tempting Virat Kohli outside the off-stump before he produced the edge to snaffle his wicket has to be one of the highlights of the day. But Raina and Rohit took the game away from the grasp of Bangladesh. To make it worse for them, Rohit was caught off a no ball for height but on replays, it was clear that the full toss was bowled below waist.
India will take on either Australia or Pakistan in the semi-final at the SCG. On the other hand, Bangladesh played with spunk and spirit in the mega event, but it was always going to be an uphill task to take on one of the form sides of the tournament, India, and on expected lines, they lost the match.
Teams:
India: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma
Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim(w), Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza(c), Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed
Toss: India won the toss and have opted to bat.
Preview: Having decimated six oppositions without much trouble, India's real title defence starts with a tricky quarterfinal clash against a confident Bangladesh in the World Cup, in Melbourne on Thursday.
India with their power-packed performance throughout the past one month have emerged as worthy contenders for retaining the Cup alongside former champions Australia and co-hosts New Zealand.

However the format of the tournament is such that the real test starts from the knock-out stages, which means that effectively three matches can ensure the Cup as qualification for the last eight was a foregone conclusion.
However to India's credit, the initial momentum that they seized after crushing Pakistan in the first game stayed with them throughout the league phase. South Africa were blown away, UAE were no match, West Indies at best gave a scare, Ireland got pummeled and Zimbabwe never had the bowling to shake India up.