PHOTOS: India take Bangladesh in stride to make World Cup semis

Images from the ICC World Cup quarter-finals played between India and Bangladesh at the MCG on Thursday.

Rohit Sharma scored a patient hundred as defending champions India stormed into the semi-finals of the cricket World Cup, thrashing Bangladesh by 109 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday.

Riding on the opener’s spectacular 137 off 126 balls, and his rollicking 122-run fourth-wicket stand, in only 15.5 overs, with Suresh Raina (65), India, after opting to bat, posted 302 for 6.

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In reply, Bangladesh were dismissed for a paltry 193 in 45 overs.

The victory was India’s seventh on the trot in the ongoing tournament.

India will now meet the winner of Friday’s third quarter-final, between Australia and Pakistan, at the Sydney Cricket Ground on March 26.

In the process, India's also notched its 11th successive World Cup victory, which includes four in the last edition of the mega event.

Such is India’s domination in the tournament that whenever they batted first, they scored 300 or more and took all 70 opposition wickets in the seven matches so far.

Umesh Yadav (4-31 in 9 overs) was bang on target during his entire spell despite a flurry of boundaries in Tamim Iqbal’s run-a-ball 25 that ended with Dhoni taking a low catch off the bowler.

Imrul Kayes (5) was run-out due to a mix-up. Bangladesh’s two in-form players, left-hander Soumya Sarkar (29) and Mahmudullah Riyadh (21), steadied the ship with 40-run stand before Shikhar Dhawan took an acrobatic catch to get rid of the latter on the boundary line.

Once Mahmudullah was gone there was an air of inevitability about the result with Soumya Sarkar being caught by Dhoni, diving to his left, and Shakib Al Hasan caught at backward point off Jadeja.

Mohammed Shami (2-37 in 8 overs) took his wickets tally to 17 while Ravichandran Ashwin (0/30 in 10 overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/42 in 8 overs) again operated well in tandem with big MCG boundaries as cushion.

The day however belonged to Rohit, who hit his seventh ODI hundred, which included 14 boundaries and three sixes, while Raina, with seven fours and a big six off Shakib Al Hasan, played an equally attractive as well as game-changing knock off 57 balls.

The first 15 overs yielded 70 runs and the first wicket fell in the 17th over when Bangladesh’s key player Shakib al-Hasan was introduced into the attack. He induced Dhawan with a tossed up ball and the batsman came out for the drive only to miss it and Mushfiqur Rahim completed the stumping.

Rubel, then got rid of an out of form Virat Kohli as he got a thickish edge to a fuller delivery from Rubel Hossain as Rahim completed formalities.

Rubel, the fastest bowler (he clocked nearly 147 kmph) to have ever played for Bangladesh, troubled Dhawan, Kohli and even Rohit to some extent working up brisk pace. His first spell of six overs cost him only 14 runs and the final figures of 1/56 in 10 overs were somehow damaged by Raina and Rohit.

Ajinkya Rahane (19) was not in his elements as he could not clear Shakib, who took a smart catch off Taskin’s bowling as India were in a little bit of trouble at 115 for 3.

But it was the entry of Raina in the 29th over that completely changed the course of the proceedings. Raina started taking on the bowlers which also enabled Rohit to play his natural game.

Raina’s delicate back cut between cover and point fielder was one of the stand-out shots as was his huge six off Shakib.

Gaining confidence, Rohit inched towards his century with a steer that got him to 96. The century came with a double towards deep extra cover off Mortaza’s bowling.

Raina was out trying to give Mashrafe the charge; the ball ballooned for Rahim to complete the catch.

Rohit, however, upped the ante hitting Rubel and Taskin for a six each. It was Taskin, who had something to cheer as he got rid of Rohit with a yorker but the opener had done more than enough by then.