The Indian team has done India proud. The men in blue kicked off their World Cup 2011 camapaign in style by thrashing co-hosts Bangladesh by a whopping 87 run margin thereby giving the ghosts of their ignonimous defeat at the hands of the same team in the 2007 edition of this premier fifty over tournament a ceremonious burial, the 'men in blue' have triumphed and all's well in Dhoni land.
India did indeed get off to a rollicking start with Sehwag and Tendulkar sharing a fity plus opening partnership in quick time till Sehwag committed the unpardonable crime of turning his back on his opening partner thereby selling him the proverbial dummy,however, the Gauti Sehwag partnership did flourish for a while and did keep the tempo going until Gauti played a rather casual shot and saw his castle disturbed by Shafiul Islam.
The advent of the new kid on the block did indeed herald the purple patch of the Indian innings and the calm demeanour,temperament an ability of Virat kohli to rotate the strike and play second fiddle to a rampaging Sehwag did certainly provide an additional fillip to Sehwag's efforts,not that he needed any and inspired Sehwag to launch a blitzkrieg that will not be forgotten for a long,long time. Sehwag ended up amassing his highest ever ODI score of 175 off 140 balls with the help of 14 crisp and neatly struck boundaries and five massive sixes that had the jampacked stadium marvelling in awe,however the blow on his knee and Gambhir's running the last forty five runs of his innings for him,must indeed be a cause for concern to both the team management as well as the Indian teams legion of fans.
The Sadi Dilli partnership of Sehwag and Kohli did take the Indians well past the 300 mark and though Sehwag dragged an innocuous delivery from one of the Bangla triumvirate of left arm trundlers, Kohli carried on on his merry way and reached his century off 83 balls of the fourth ball of the fiftieth and last over of the Indian innings,Kohli seems to have developed a special affinity for the Banga Bahadur stadium at Mirpur Dhaka as his last innings at the same ground did also see him ending up with a personal score of 102* if one's memory serves one right.
Though the Baroda Basher Yusuf Pathan was dismissed with a pithy personal tally of eight runs to his credit of the final ball of the Indian innings, the Indians final tally of 370/4 did indeed seem well beyond the Bangla tigers suspect batting abilities at the start of their reply.However, a wayward,aimless and directionless spell of medium fast bowling by the chameleon like Shantakumaran Sreesanth did indeed provide the Bangla bandhus with a slender ray of hope as the maverick Kerala pacer did concede 24 runs in the fifth over of the Bangladeshi innings and ended up conceding 44 runs in all in a five over spell.
The Bangladeshi innings was soon derailed by the Baroda Express Munaf Patel who had the marauding Imrul Kayes dragging one back onto his stumps and tied the remaining Bangladeshi batsmen in knots thereby ending up with the rather impressive figures of 4/48 from his allotment of 10 overs, he was ably supported by the equally impressive Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh who ended up with two and one wickets respectively for not too many. The fifth bowling option of Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj Singh did also perform creditably and Yusuf pathan had one wicket to show against his name in the ultimate analysis.
Though, the Bangladeshi captain and vice captain namely Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal did amass individual scores of fifty plus, tamim's laboured innings did seem to detrimental to his team's cause as Tamim Iqbal could really never get going and repeat his pyrotechnics of 2007 which served as the foundation stone for the Bangladeshi's immortal victory against the Indians and while Shakib did indeed keep up with the striking rate and end up with 55 from 53 balls a burgeoning rate of eight plus runs per over for the best part of thirty odd overs did indeed prove to be an insurmountable obstacle to the finest Bangladeshi batsman of the last decade or so.
The indian ground fielding does remain a cause for concern for the Indian think tank, though the fielding has improved by leaps and bounds in recent times,the Indians profligacv and inherent ability to concede an extra fifteen-twenty runs on the field could certianly end up hurting the team in a really close game against higher ranked opponents.Mr. Virender Sehwag will also need to put in the hard yards and run far more quickly between the wickets as his tardiness between the wickets did indeed cost his team an additional twenty runs if not more.
These minor hiccups notwithstanding,the Indian teams emphatic victory certainly has us holding our heads up with renewed pride and renweing the clarion call of "YEH DIL MAANGE MORE", best of luck for the remaining matches team India and do keep doing us proud.
SUNDEEP CHOPRA.
India did indeed get off to a rollicking start with Sehwag and Tendulkar sharing a fity plus opening partnership in quick time till Sehwag committed the unpardonable crime of turning his back on his opening partner thereby selling him the proverbial dummy,however, the Gauti Sehwag partnership did flourish for a while and did keep the tempo going until Gauti played a rather casual shot and saw his castle disturbed by Shafiul Islam.
The advent of the new kid on the block did indeed herald the purple patch of the Indian innings and the calm demeanour,temperament an ability of Virat kohli to rotate the strike and play second fiddle to a rampaging Sehwag did certainly provide an additional fillip to Sehwag's efforts,not that he needed any and inspired Sehwag to launch a blitzkrieg that will not be forgotten for a long,long time. Sehwag ended up amassing his highest ever ODI score of 175 off 140 balls with the help of 14 crisp and neatly struck boundaries and five massive sixes that had the jampacked stadium marvelling in awe,however the blow on his knee and Gambhir's running the last forty five runs of his innings for him,must indeed be a cause for concern to both the team management as well as the Indian teams legion of fans.
The Sadi Dilli partnership of Sehwag and Kohli did take the Indians well past the 300 mark and though Sehwag dragged an innocuous delivery from one of the Bangla triumvirate of left arm trundlers, Kohli carried on on his merry way and reached his century off 83 balls of the fourth ball of the fiftieth and last over of the Indian innings,Kohli seems to have developed a special affinity for the Banga Bahadur stadium at Mirpur Dhaka as his last innings at the same ground did also see him ending up with a personal score of 102* if one's memory serves one right.
Though the Baroda Basher Yusuf Pathan was dismissed with a pithy personal tally of eight runs to his credit of the final ball of the Indian innings, the Indians final tally of 370/4 did indeed seem well beyond the Bangla tigers suspect batting abilities at the start of their reply.However, a wayward,aimless and directionless spell of medium fast bowling by the chameleon like Shantakumaran Sreesanth did indeed provide the Bangla bandhus with a slender ray of hope as the maverick Kerala pacer did concede 24 runs in the fifth over of the Bangladeshi innings and ended up conceding 44 runs in all in a five over spell.
The Bangladeshi innings was soon derailed by the Baroda Express Munaf Patel who had the marauding Imrul Kayes dragging one back onto his stumps and tied the remaining Bangladeshi batsmen in knots thereby ending up with the rather impressive figures of 4/48 from his allotment of 10 overs, he was ably supported by the equally impressive Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh who ended up with two and one wickets respectively for not too many. The fifth bowling option of Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj Singh did also perform creditably and Yusuf pathan had one wicket to show against his name in the ultimate analysis.
Though, the Bangladeshi captain and vice captain namely Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal did amass individual scores of fifty plus, tamim's laboured innings did seem to detrimental to his team's cause as Tamim Iqbal could really never get going and repeat his pyrotechnics of 2007 which served as the foundation stone for the Bangladeshi's immortal victory against the Indians and while Shakib did indeed keep up with the striking rate and end up with 55 from 53 balls a burgeoning rate of eight plus runs per over for the best part of thirty odd overs did indeed prove to be an insurmountable obstacle to the finest Bangladeshi batsman of the last decade or so.
The indian ground fielding does remain a cause for concern for the Indian think tank, though the fielding has improved by leaps and bounds in recent times,the Indians profligacv and inherent ability to concede an extra fifteen-twenty runs on the field could certianly end up hurting the team in a really close game against higher ranked opponents.Mr. Virender Sehwag will also need to put in the hard yards and run far more quickly between the wickets as his tardiness between the wickets did indeed cost his team an additional twenty runs if not more.
These minor hiccups notwithstanding,the Indian teams emphatic victory certainly has us holding our heads up with renewed pride and renweing the clarion call of "YEH DIL MAANGE MORE", best of luck for the remaining matches team India and do keep doing us proud.
SUNDEEP CHOPRA.
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