The two sides will be once again facing each other in a couple of hours at the opening match to be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Both sides would look to play their best. Bangladesh would look to entertain the local crowd with a win and India would look to take revenge for their defeat in the 2007 world cup.  The Indian fans do not have sweet memories of their last encounter. When the two sides met at Port-of-Spain and Dravid chose to bat first, no one would have expected that a team that had some of the world’s best batsmen would collapse like a pack of cards. Bangladesh, who has always been a tough opponent for the men in blue, played some fearless cricket as they had nothing to lose. Indian batsmen appeared to be more reckless than being ruthless in their approach.  Before the fans could settle inside the stadium, Sehwag, Uthappa, Tendulkar and Dravid were back to pavilion contributing 2, 9, 7 and 14 respectively at the score of 72 runs. It was followed by a partnership of 85 runs between Yuvraj Singh and Ganguly who tried to reconstruct the derailed Indian track. But after Yuvraj fell at the score of 157, the next four wickets fell within four runs. Thanks to the 32 runs partnership for the last wicket between Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel that India helped India to reach a score of 191 runs. Mortaza ended his spell picking 4/38. The alarm bells had already rung. There was still some hope that Indian seam bowlers would try and make a match out of it.  But Tamim Iqbal began Bangladesh innings in a way that it was hard to believe that he was playing his 5th ODI. In spite of facing a blow earlier in his innings off a short ball from Zaheer, Tamim Iqbal was still high on confidence. It has been four years since the match was played, yet it is difficult to forget the shot he played charging down the wicket to Zaheer Khan pulling him over midwicket for a six. Such was his dominance that when he fell as the second Bangladesh wicket at the score of 69, he alone had scored 51 runs at a brisk pace. It was a half century that Indian cricket fans would remember for long, though for wrong reasons.  It has been four years. There have been several changes in both the teams. India is now led by Dhoni who has led India to several major wins under his captaincy both in India and abroad. Bangladesh is led by Shakib Al Hasan, who has proved to be a prolific all-rounder in recent times. Bangladesh has a lot of depth in their batting line up but once again when you look on papers, Indians are once again the favourites.  Both the sides have met for 22 times, of which India has won 20 matches.  There will be a lot of support for Bangladesh at their home ground at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium and India would be very well aware of it. In case if India entertain any chances of beginning their world cup campaign with a win, they will have to score nothing less than 300 runs if they bat first.  India won’t repeat the mistake of being under the impression of taking the match lightly and for sure the opening encounter of cricket’s biggest festival could guarantee massive entertainment for all!  Author: Suyash srivastava (Delhi)   … [Read more...]