Cardiff: K.L. Rahul made a strong case for the No. 4 slot and Mahendra Singh Dhoni also played some breathtaking strokes, their twin hundreds propelling India to 359 for seven against Bangladesh in a World Cup warm-up game on Tuesday.
After another insipid show from the openers, Rahul (108 off 99 balls) and Dhoni (113 off 78 balls) counter-attacked a potent Bangladesh bowling line-up, which had reduced India to 102 for four in 22 overs in their final tune-up. Rahul and Dhoni added 164 runs with their contrasting approaches, which yielded favourable results for the title contenders.
Dhoni used the platform created by Rahul to launch a brutal assault in the final overs to take the score past 350. While Shikhar Dhawan (5) was back in the hut after being adjudged plumb in-front by Mustafizur Rahaman, Rohit Sharma (19 off 42 balls) struggled for the better part of his stay, even as skipper Virat Kohli (47 off 46 balls) looked solid at the other end.
Rahul looked solid from the beginning and found the gaps with ease, hitting 12 boundaries and four sixes. Dhoni’s innings had eight boundaries and as many as seven sixes. With the composed Dhoni dealing with the singles and the occasional boundary, Rahul was in his flowing self during his stay at the crease.
However, after the first 25 balls in which Dhoni scored 24, he suddenly changed gears, attacking young off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraj and Bangladesh were left ducking for cover.
Rahul started with a cut off Abu Jayed followed by an off-drive. Jayed repeatedly provided him width and he beat the off-side cordon with ease. When Shakib Al Hasan bowled short, he was dispatched over the mid-wicket fence for a maximum.
The rusty Shakib (2/58 in 6 overs) was taken to the task by both Rahul and Dhoni, who got easy runs off the world’s No. 1 ranked all-rounder. Rahul hit Mustafizur (1/43 in 8 overs) for two sixes over square leg before being dismissed by Sabbir Rahaman’s part-time spin in the 44th over.
