India beat Bangladesh- Asia Cup 2010
Team India beat Bangladesh by six wickets here on Wednesday and registered its first win of the Asia Cup tournament. India who is looking to bounce back from two consecutive disastrous tours; first one being the T20 world cup, which was followed by the Tri-series in Zimbabwe, where they lost two matches to the un-fancied hosts. They didn’t even manage to make it to the final of the tournament; yes India did not have their best 11 in the event, but with the likes of Zimbabwe, one of the 3 teams they were surely expected to be in the final.
With all their key players back in the side, India looked an altogether different team, and once again it was Bangladesh, who are considered not one of the main stream teams in world cricket, but still the manner of win for India demonstrated that they were miles ahead when it came to head on comparison.
A convincing 6 wicket win really made a statement, and this tournament is by far the biggest tournament for the sub continental teams before the world cup next year (which will be staged in India, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh).
Bangladesh after winning the toss decided to make first use of the pitch which did not look to have too many demons in it. And the roller coaster start by Bangladesh certainly vindicated the decision, as they stormed to 35 in the 3rd over, Tamim Iqbal was the first one to be dismissed for 22 runs, who was caught by Suresh Raina on the bowling off Praveen Kumar(Iqbal smashed 2 fours and 1 six). Next man in was the dynamic Muhammad Ashraful and he carried on the momentum alongside Imrul Kayes as both put on 46 for the 2nd wicket, Ashraful was dismissed for 20 caught by Kumar on the bowling of Ashish Nehra, and Kayes Soon followed after scoring 37 from 35 balls (including 7 boundaries), Kayes was caught by Sehwag on the bowling of Nehra.
And that is pretty much when Bangladesh lost their way, as wickets kept tumbling one after the other, the captain Shakib al Hasan failed to impress as he was sent back for just 7 runs cleaned up by Harbhajan Singh for just 7 runs.
And it kept getting worse, the main destroyer was an unlikely candidate, Virender Sehwag with his slow off spinners picked up 4 wickets. More then half of the batting line up did not even manage to get into double figures, and final 3 batsmen did not even open their account. As they whole team was dismissed for just 167 runs inside 35 overs.
In reply India started in typical fashion, with Sehwag back in the line up, and the right hander smashed 2 boundaries before being sent back for caught behind off the bowling of Mortaza, but his Patner Gautham Gambhir looked in excellent form, and held up one end, and the former under 19 captain Virat Kohli failed to continue his form from Zimbabwe and scratched around for 22 balls for only 11 runs, before being caught by the keeper off the bowling of Captain Shakib Al Hasan. Next in was another in form player Rohit Sharma who scored to back to back centuries in Zimbabwe, but this time could not even score a single run, as he as trapped in front of the wicket on the very first bal by the left arm spin of Shakib.
But with the meager target of only 168 insight, and Gambhir going strong at the other end there was not too much to worry about for India, as the captain Mahender Singh Dhoni Stepped in to join Gambhir, and both steadied the ship putting on 78 for the 4th wicket. Gambhir was dismissed just 8 runs away from the target as Mortaza got the better of him trapping him in front for a brilliant 82 run inning, (Gambhir smashed 6 boundaries), while Dhoni knocked off the rest of the runs, and India got home inside 31 overs. Dhoni remained not out on 38(3 fours and 1 six).
Gautam Gambhir was named man of the match for his 82 runs; India will play Pakistan next on 19th. The latter have lost their first match to hosts Sri Lanka.
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