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India almost do a Cup repeat

Bangladesh missed a crucial run out and their captain a few tricks that allowed Team India to escape to a five-wicket victory in the opening match of the three-match ODI series at the Mirpur Stadium on Thursday.

If Bangladesh didn't inflict a 'double' on India, blame it on Abdur Razzak. The left-arm spinner failed to gather the return cleanly at the non-striker's end with Dinesh Karthik well short of his crease.

Scorecard
Match in pics

India were 146 for two in the 30th over and Karthik was on one. He went on to remain not out on 58 after having added 107 runs for the sixth wicket in a match-winning partnership with Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The Jharkhand stumper, who was promoted to No 3 by skipper Rahul Dravid, played a pugnacious knock (91 not out) despite being bothered by cramps for the better part of his innings.

Man-of-the-match Dhoni, who started in a belligerent fashion, settled down nicely in the company of Dravid and even though he needed Yuvraj to run for him later on, never let the asking rate veer out of control.

It was largely due to Dhoni and Karthik's risk-free cricket that frustrated Bangladesh, who were not helped by their captain Habibul Bashar's reluctance to attack the last recognised Indian pair. The three left-arm spinners — Razzak, Rafique and Saqibul — on whom rested much of Bangla's hopes, bowled well in their opening spells but wilted under pressure towards the end.

At 144 for five in the 29th over, it looked curtains for Team India. But for Razzak's bungling, it could have been a very different ending and the thousands of Bangla fans, who had turned up watch their World Cup heroes play, would have gone home happy.

It was not to be only because Dhoni not only played through pain but also decided to stay there till the every end. All he needed was support and Karthik was more than happy to provide it. But for a couple of tight run-out calls, primarily because of misunderstanding with Dhoni's runner, Karthik played sparkling cricket.

He placed that ball well, ran hard between the wickets and played the big shots only towards the end. The rest was an often repeated tale of batsmen throwing away their wickets after getting quick 20s and 30s as India looked to chase down Bangladesh's rather competitive tally of 250 for seven in a game that was reduced to 47 overs per side because of a rain-delayed start.

Virender Sehwag, who looked to be in sublime touch, Gautam Gambhir, Dravid himself and Mongia, were all guilty of the same offence, while Yuvraj didn't even bother to hang in there long enough.

And when Mongia, who had earlier used his experience to bowl his full quota of overs, picking up three for 49 in the process, was also fooled by Sakib into popping up a catch, the stage was set for India's two wicket-keeper-batsmen to take centrestage, which they did in style.

Earlier, the Bangladeshi batsmen failed to turn the heat on India especially after the visitors lost the services of Sreesanth because of cramps.

The Kerala pacer, who bowled the best among the three pacers, suffered an attack of cramps soon after finishing his opening spell during which he repeatedly beat the bat. He could not return to bowl at the death and his quota had to to be made up India's part-time spinners, Mongia and Sehwag whom the Bangla batsmen found hard to get away.

Bangladesh got off to a brisk start, thanks to young Tamim Iqbal and the experienced Javed Omar, who too on the Indian pace attack head on.

A few audacious shots by Tamim had Indians scratching their heads, but the youngster got carried away and holed out to Sehwag in the deep off Mongia.

After skipper Bashar only managed to spoon up a simple catch to mid-on, it was left to Omar to anchor the innings, a task, he performed to perfection. He got good support from Sakib (50) and Ashraful (29).

Bangladesh missed not only Mashrafe Mortaza the bowler, but also his big-hitting during the slog as they perhaps ended up 20 runs short.