Rohit Sharma rose to the occasion with a scintillating century as India scored a commanding 302 for six against Bangladesh in the quarter-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup, here today.
Courtesy Rohit's spectacular 137 off 126 balls and his rollicking 122-run fourth wicket stand in only 15.5 overs with the belligerent Suresh Raina (65), the 'Men In Blue' were able to post a competitive total despite some tight bowling by Bangladesh for the better part of the Indian innings.
At one stage India were in a bit of trouble at 115 for three before Rohit and Raina bailed the team out of the tricky situation.
In the last 10 overs, India managed to score 97 runs.
This was Rohit's seventh ODI hundred that had 14 fours and three sixes, while Raina had seven fours and a big six off Shakib Al Hasan to his credit in his 57-ball innings.
Rohit's penchant for scoring big hundred was again evident as he now has two ODI hundreds at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (he has scored 138 vs Australia) and has got runs when it mattered the most, in a crunch game, with his team under some kind of pressure.
While the Mumbaikar paced his innings brilliantly scoring the first 50 off 70 balls and the next 87 runs off only 56 balls, the left-hander from UP was more adventurous in his shot selection as he treated both pacers and spinners with equal disdain.
Despite scoring two half-centuries, Rohit has had a quiet tournament. So the very first ball bowled by rival captain Mashrafe Mortaza was hit through the covers and certainly that calmed his nerves. He also had a firm push back past the same bowler for a boundary.
Shikhar Dhawan also handsomely drove Taskin Ahmed in the very next over as Indian openers were off the blocks.
Mashrafe introduced Nasir Hossain's part-time off-spin as early as sixth over and Rohit quickly cashed in on the opportunity to loft him over extra cover for a boundary.
While Shikhar was happy to rotate the strike, Rohit did hit some audacious shots. It included a six down the ground off Nasir as 50 runs came in 9.3 overs.
The first 15 overs yielded 70 runs and the first wicket fell in the 17th over when team's No. 1 player Shakib was brought into the attack. He induced Dhawan with a tossed up ball to come out for the drive and miss it as Mushfiqur Rahim completed the stumping.
