Bangladesh has witnessed some memorable victories in ODI cricket but nothing compares to today’s victory against India in World Cup Cricket 2007. It is the greatest and most memorable victory because from the first over of the match, Bangladesh dominated India. It was a one sided match and India failed to offer any sort of resistance against Bangladesh. Bangladeshi players were always in control. In the end, Bangladesh won by 5 wickets.
Replying to a total of 191 made by Team India, Bangladeshi batsmen played very confidently from the first over. They played a number of great shots. The interesting thing is that most of the players of Bangladesh team are very young (17-24 years old) and they were not afraid of experienced and aged Indian players at all. Tamim Iqbal played an impressive innings of 51 runs from just 53 balls. He hit 7 boundaries and 2 over boundaries. Saqibul Hasan also played a great knock of 53 (86 balls). Mushfiqur Rahim played the role of an anchor and I am sure that his performance would silence his critics now.
Indian bowling was not up to the mark and Indian fielding was sloppy. I think that Rahul Dravid is not a good captain and he should depend on the advice of Sourav Ganguly in the next two matches.
Earlier in the match, Indian batsmen could score just 191 runs in 49.2 overs. Towards the beginning of the Indian innings, Bangladeshi bowlers bowled extremely well and dismissed four Indian batsmen. Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh put up a great partnership but then the batting collapse happened. In just 16 balls, India lost 5 wickets for 2 runs. I have never seen such a collapse of Indian middle order. Ganguly scored 66 and Yuvraj made 47 runs. Except them, no Indian batsman could put up any resistance against Bangladeshi bowling. Running between the wickets was not good at all. In the end, Zaheer Khan and Patel put up a nice partnership (of 32 runs) and only for that Indian score looked some decent in the end.
It is now very late in Bangladesh but thousands of cricket fans stayed awake to watch the match in TV. Whenever, Bangladeshi bowlers got a wicket or Bangladeshi batsmen scored a boundary, many people cheered loudly. Bangladeshi players wanted to win this match in memory of Manzarul Islam who died yesterday. I am happy that they could pay the best tribute to Manzarul Islam- their former comrade.
Bangladesh is best. Just wait few weeks, Bangladesh will rock the cricket world.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2007 3:20 PM | Permalink to Comment