Who Said What: World reacts to Rohit Sharma's masterclass and India's sensational victory
India sailed into the final of the Nidahas Trophy with a convincing 17-run win over Bangladesh. The skipper Rohit Sharma set the ball rolling with a composed half-century, and cameos from Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina helped propel the total to 176/3, a more than competitive score on a sluggish surface.
India's rising T20 sensation Washington Sundar then took matters into his own hands, wrecking Bangladesh's top order with three quick wickets. While Mushfiqur Rahim fought hard, lack of support from his teammates meant his side were never going to overhaul the stiff target.
For his stellar contribution at the top, Rohit walked away with the Man of the Match honours.
Here's how the cricketing fraternity reacted to India's win:
Rohit Sharma, Man of the Match: It was important for me to step up. Like I said at the toss I tried to take my time with the bat at the start and then play my shots later on. I felt we were 10-15 runs short with that bat at the end, but they bowled brilliantly at the death.
But Washington started brilliantly with the ball and his magical spell changed the game for us. The entire bowling unit too stuck to their plans and pulled it off for us. The wicket wasn't the usual wicket we've been playing on for the last week. It was gripping and was slow and hence difficult to play on the up and that is why I wanted to take my time.
One set batsman had to bat and I knew a new batsman would find it tough. The partnership between Raina and me was key; he has been timing the ball brilliantly and that is great to see. Hope he can do it for us in the finals as well. [Praising Sundar] He is never afraid of flighting the ball, sets his own field and it says a lot about an individual. It allows me also to breathe easy and set the field accordingly. In the series we played against Sri Lanka in India we saw that from him and today was no different.
Mahmudullah, losing skipper: The effort was there. A bit disappointed though; had someone stood up and made 20-30 quick runs it could have made a difference with Mushy. The chase was on, we needed a good flying start. But we lost wickets early and didn't get the momentum we needed.
We also could have conceded 10 fewer runs and that could have made the difference. The plan was to take the pace off the ball and stick to your strengths as a bowler, but they didn't execute that well. Looking forward to the next game, the good thing is that we have a chance to prove ourselves and we need to do it.