‘No intention to bowl a wide to deny Kohli century’

PUNE: Bangladesh's stand-in captain Najmul Hossain Shanto rubbished suggestions that spinner Nasum Ahmed 'intentionally' bowled a wide ball to deny Virat Kohli a century towards the end of India's chase in their World Cup league match in Pune on Thursday.

Kohli was batting on 97 with nine overs left and India needing another two runs to achieve the target of 257, when Ahmed bowled a delivery down the leg side, which surprisingly was not adjudged a wide by the on-field umpire Richard Kettleborough.

A couple of deliveries later, Kohli swung the spinner over midwicket to finish the game in grand style with a six, which also brought up his 48th ODI century and completed India's comfortable seven-wicket win.

Shanto defended Ahmed after Bangladesh's third defeat on the bounce saying they wanted to play a 'proper game' and they didn't have any plans to deny Kohli a century.

"No, no. There was no such plan. It was a normal plan. No bowler had the intention to bowl a wide ball. We tried to play a proper game. It was not intentional,” Shanto said after the match.

Shanto, who led the team in absence of regular skipper Shakib Al Hasan after he was sidelined with a quad injury, defended the team's preparations against the rampant Indian team.

"The preparation was very good, to be very honest. The place where we were struggling, the top order, it did well," he said.

With no official update on Shakib's availability yet, Shanto said Bangladesh were hoping to have their skipper back in the side soon. Agencies

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