Hangzhou: Title favourites India confirmed a medal in men's cricket competition with a crushing nine-wicket win over Bangladesh to storm into the final of the Asian Games here on Friday.
They will meet Afghanistan's in Saturday's gold medal match. The Afghans stunned Pakistan by four wickets in the second semifinal.
Earlier, Indian skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad's decision to field first after winning the toss was vindicated by his bowlers, who produced a disciplined effort to restrict Bangladesh to a below-par 96/9.
In reply, the Indians hardly faced any difficulty and completed the task in 9.2 overs to enter the final in their maiden appearance in the cricket competition at the continental showpiece.
India lost Yashasvi Jaiswal for a duck in the very first over but that was the only success Bangladesh had as Gaikwad (40 not out off 26 balls; 4x4, 3x6) and Tilak Varma (55 not out; 26b; 2x4, 6x6) sealed the win with 64 balls to spare in the T20I match.
The duo of Gaikwad and Varma toyed with the Bangladesh bowling and were mostly dealing in fours and sixes at the small Zhejiang University of Technology Cricket Field.
Bangladesh's bowlers had no answer to the onslaught launched by Gaikwad and Varma who seemed to be competing with each other in hitting fours and sixes.
Varma, who struck a 25-ball fifty, had an emotional celebration after reaching the milestone when he lifted his shirt to reveal a tattoo dedicated to his parents.
Left-arm spinner Sai Kishore was the most successful bowler for India as he finished with excellent figures of 3/12 from four overs, while Washington Sundar also bowled impressively to end with a tidy 2/15 in his full quota of overs.
There was a wicket apiece for Arshdeep Singh, Varma, Ravi Bishnoi and Shahbaz Ahmed.
Kishore and Sundar struck in tandem to restrict Bangladesh who struggled against the slow bowlers.
For Bangladesh, Parvez Hossain Emon (23), Jaker Ali (24 not out), and Rakibul Hasan (14) were the notable contributors with the bat.
India surprisingly picked only one seamer - Arshdeep - in their playing XI, while Shahbaz made his T20I debut.
