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Batting first after losing the toss, India opened with Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. At about 60 for 0 after 10 overs, India looked set for a huge score. But then Tendulkar (28) fell to a run out and India went through a period of consolidation with Gautam Gambhir (39) at the crease. Just as he and Sehwag threatened to get away from Bangladesh, Gambhir fell. Gambhir’s wicket brought Virat Kohli (100 not out) to the crease and he grabbed the opportunity he received ahead of Suresh Raina with both hands. Starting cautiously, he let Sehwag blossom and then cut loose to finish with his fifth ODI hundred. He combined with Sehwag to forge a 203-run partnership in just 24.1 overs to take the game totally beyond Bangladesh.
While Kohli, Tendulkar and Gambhir played their parts, the star of the match was undoubtedly Virender Sehwag (175). He has recently said that he wants to bat for long and score big scores in ODIs. His effort today puts him at the joint second-highest scorer for India in World Cup cricket behind only Sourav Ganguly and joint with Kapil Dev. Sehwag’s innings was his usual mix of exhilarating strokeplay and some doubtful moments! But in typical Sehwag style, he sailed through it all to register a massive total. One over in particular from Abdur Razzaq will be a memorable one. He carted the hapless bowler for two brutal fours punctuated by a massive six.
He plundered 175 off 140 balls, as India overpowered Bangladesh by 87 runs in the opening match of the World Cup on Saturday. Bangladesh made a spirited chase of the daunting target before ending at 9-283 with opener Tamim Iqbal making 70 and Shakib playing a captain’s knock of 55 off 50 balls in the Group B match. Munaf Patel picked up four wickets and Zaheer Khan took two, but the Bangladeshi batsmen exposed the limitations of the Indian attack in containing runs on slow wickets.
Shakib said it was their best combination for the match. ‘That’s why we picked this team.’ ‘The plan was to bat properly, and play cricketing shots. We knew the wicket was good, and if either Tamim or Junaid kept going, we could have got a very good total. That was our plan, and I thought we executed our plan very well in batting. We didn’t try to hit too many slogs, we played all cricketing shots, and got close to 300. I thought we batted really well and sensibly.’ ‘Obviously there are so many things we can improve on. If you think about our batting and fielding, we executed our plans. Our fast bowlers and spinners need to bowl in the right areas more often.’
Asked whether the team missed fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza, Shakib said: ‘He is not in the squad, so we couldn’t think of him. If he could have been in the team, it would have been a different ball game. I thought our fast bowlers have been bowling really well for the last 12 months. Today wasn’t their day, but hopefully they will come back strongly.’
