In the end, it was a comprehensive victory for a young Bangladesh team. I’m not sure if India went into the match a touch complacent but they did err in opting to bat on winning the toss. Both the Bangladesh opening bowlers were accurate and didn’t give too much width to the Indian batsmen. By now, every fast bowler must now have this template hung up on their refrigerator doors. Bowl an incutter from outside off stump to Sehwag and he will oblige by playing the Chinese cut onto his stumps which is what he did today to get out cheaply. Robin played a loose shot while Sachin departed without inspiring any confidence. When Dravid got out, India was in a soup of its own making. Yuvraj and Ganguly steadied the innings with a good partnership but got out at crucial moments. It’s perhaps a touch easier to forgive Ganguly for his bad stroke since he batted for almost 43 overs and held up one side. “Parattai” Dhoni was tricked into playing a loose stroke outside off and ended up giving a catch in gully. Except for a face saving partnership between the last pair, there was nothing much to write about the rest of the batsmen. I was quite impressed by Bangladesh’s commitment on the field and their excellent fast bowling performance. The spinners also kept varying their line, length and pace and never gave the Indian batsmen a chance to break free.
Even at the break, I was confident that India could pull the match through. When Bangladesh began their innings, Tamim Iqbal set the tone for their innings blasting the bowlers around. It did not help that India did not put their best foot forward in the fielding department. Given that the total was small, both Sakib and Rahim bided their time at the crease and guided them home. Munaf was the only bowler who looked threatening initially while Sehwag did bowl well.
Even though Bangladesh’s record is nothing to crow about, they must be doing something right to have so many talented youngsters in their team. In course of time, they will mature and hopefully establish themselves as a consistently good team. It didn’t help that they were pushed into the international fold by Dalmiya’s shenanigans and not on merit. But based on their display in this match, they did all the right things towards winning the game. A win is a win and that’s all matters.
India on the other hand, have to take this loss in their stride and try and play their best to win the next couple of games comprehensively. It might come down to run rate in deciding the Super 8 entries from this group. India doesn’t have too much bench strength either to tinker around with the squad. It also didn’t help to inspire any confidence to see Pathan sitting around with a huge ice pack on his left shoulder during the game.
I’m wondering if this WC does not turn out too well for India, will we see the return of Ganguly as the skipper? That will be an interesting possibility…
Anyways, we are only one game down in the schedule and so we’ll see how India fares in the next few games. This loss must definitely hurt them. There’s no doubt about that!!
Anyways, the cup just got interesting…
