Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli absolutely blitzed the hapless Bengali attack to amass a mammoth 370 from their allotted 50 overs. The tigers bowling was absolutely woeful, with not a single bowler returning figures to be proud of. The bowling was a mixture of poor line and lengths, lacklustre effort and ill discipline as a total of 15 wides were sent down. Mind you perhaps this was the effect of the brutal onslaught that Kohli and Sehwag subjected them to. Sehwag had the highest world cup score in his sights when he was finally bowled out for 175 while Kohli too reached his century. By reaching such an imposing total in the first match of a world cup and that too on Bengali soil sends a very ominous message of intent to the other teams in the competition.
The Bengalis did their best not to be over-awed and gave their suffering fans something to cheer at long last by starting their innings in blistering fashion. Imrul Kayes latched onto Sreesanth to the tune of 24 runs in an over to typify Bangladesh's frenetic start. Surprisingly the tigers most attacking player, Tamim Iqbal was rather subdued and meandered along to a half century. It was Munaf Patel that extinguished any outlandish hopes Bangladesh may have had, with his nagging line and length.
Nonetheless the Bengalis did put up some serious resistance with their top six batsmen all scoring above 25 runs, with Shakib and Tamim posting half centuries to lead their team to 283-9 in their 50 overs. Under normal circumstances this wouldve been seen as an excellent effort from the tigers but on the day it paled into insignificance in the face of India's colossal score.
The Indians thus start their World cup campaign with a resounding 87 run win.
Osiris's Views
Well cricket fans all over were psyched up for a cracking opener to CWC 2011, in the event it turned out to be depressingly one sided. I must admit that having to sit and watch India mauling the Bengali bowlers was not particularly pleasant, but this is a fact that we must all accept, the Indian batting lineup is simply awe inspiring. India's opponents need to make plans to not only restrict the free flowing nature of the Indian top order but to dismiss them early with the new ball, for if the likes of Sehwag or Tendulkar get set with Dhoni, Kohli, Yuvraj and Pathan waiting in the hutch....quite frankly you'll be toast. New Zealand found that out in Chennai when India smashed 360 against them in a warm up game and the Bengalis found that out first hand today.
The indian bowling is perfectly suited to the conditions though the Bengalis did show today that it can at least be tackled. India were out for revenge today and boy did they banish the ghosts of that 2007 match in style. At this point in time the Indians are looking like an unstoppable force.
The Bangladeshis are likely to be quite depressed but I feel they can take a lot of heart out of their batting performance, and with home conditions in their favour I would tip them to knock over one or two of the more fancied teams in their group and advance to the quarter finals. Dhaka might be a little gloomy tonight but I think it won't be long before the spark and vibe returns.
Finally it is very interesting to draw a direct comparison with Pakistan here, for we also played Bangladesh at this very same venue in a warm up match. On paper it would seem that the Indians trumped our performance by miles since we scored 285 in our first innings in comparison to their 370. However interestingly our margin of victory was by 89 runs while Indias win today was by 87 runs. This shows that despite the dew factor, the bengalis found life a lot tougher against Pakistans bowling attack than they did against Indias. Despite this though the fact still remains, India are hot favourites while Pakistan are very much outsiders. Lets see what exactly we can muster up as the tournament progresses!
Tomorrow I will be reporting on the New Zealand vs Kenya match, while Isis will be reporting on the match up between Sri Lanka and Canada. So join us then for Day 2 of the World Cup!
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