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Sourav leads the slaughter

Faisal Shariff

India made up for a lethargic performance in the field by displaying an authoritative batting display and winning their first match against Bangladesh in the Pepsi Asia Cup, with over ten overs and eight wickets to spare.

Sourav Ganguly, who blasted the Bangladesh attack for a huge ton, opined in the post-match conference that his team's performance in the field was rusty and, despite the fact that Bangladesh batted well, he thought his side bowled badly.

Bangladesh, hoping to surprise the Indian opening pair, opened the bowling with spinner Mohammad Rafique, but the move failed to have any impact. Ganguly smashed the bowler out of the park and that opened the floodgates.

Manjarul Islam learnt a lesson about why Sachin wields the willow better than most others, when the genius slaughtered 23 runs of his single over. Sachin drove the first delivery of the over through extra cover for a boundary, following it with a smartly placed pull. The next two deliveries reached the fence as well. Four boundaries in as many consecutive deliveries and the master blaster wasn't done yet. He finished off Islam's trauma by pulling him over the fence.

The maverick innings by Sachin set the pace for the rest of the evening as Sourav took over and the result of the match was never in doubt after that.

Tendulkar, however, miscued a shot off debutant Mushfiq Rehman, and Habibul Basher at mid-on held on to the dolly. Sachin scored 36 in 25 balls in his enterprising innings before making way for debutant Hemang Badani.

The youngster gave ample support to Sourav, rotating the strike and running well between the wickets. His fine knock eventually ended in a whimper when he stroked a long hop straight to Aminul Islam off Enamul Hoque at the half way mark. Hemang scored 35 runs on debut though he did look a touch nervous during what was a sensible innings.

Mohammad Azharuddin and Ganguly then toyed with the Bangladesh attack and saw India through to an easy victory. The former skipper scored a steady 35 as Sourav went berserk after his ton smashing two huge sixes to finish with 135 runs from a mere 124 balls. The innings was studded with more sixes than fours.

An unimaginable field setting also helped India coast to their target as Azhar, using his supple wrists, and Ganguly, with his awesome timing, kept piercing the field.

Resuming at a healthy 98/2 in the 26th over, Bangladesh kept the tempo up and demolished the visibly distraught and undisciplined Indian bowling. Former captain Akram Khan was particularly in an attacking mood, racing away to a quickfire 66 in just 52 balls.

He took 20 runs off Ganguly in a single over. Akram was finally caught by Hemang Badani off the bowling of Ajit Agarkar. Akram Khan was at his attacking best when he clobbered 20 runs in an over from Ganguly. The Indians bowled way too straight and short to curb the flow of runs.

Naimur Rehman gave ample support with an unbeaten 39. With a score of 249 on the board, Bangladesh would have been happy, even considering the depleted bowling attack India came into the tournament with. One indication of this was that 91 runs were plundered in the last ten overs.

Ganguly picked up the man of the match award and was richer by another $1000 for hitting the maximum number of sixes (7).

Scoreboard

Bangladesh
Shahriyar Hossain c Joshi b Kumaran 11
Javed Omar b Kumaran 1
Habibul Basher c Azharuddin b Tendulkar 57
Aminul Islam c Kumble b Tendulkar 47
Akram Khan c Badani b Agarkar 64
Naimur Rehman not out 41
Mohammad Rafique b Kumaran 8
Enamul Haq not out 3
Extras: (lb9, w2, nb6) 17
Total (for six wickets) 249
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-30, 124, 4-131, 5-234, 6-243
Bowling: Agarkar 10-2-34-1, Kumaran 9-0-52-3, Ganguly 4-0-37-0, Kumble 9-0-42-0, Joshi 7-0-31-0, Badani 1-0-6-0, Singh 4-0-14-0, Tendulkar 6-0-24-2.
Overs: 50

India
S. Ganguly not out 135
S. Tendulkar c Basher b Mushfiq 36
H. Badani c Aminul b Enamul 35
M. Azharuddin not out 35
Extras: (lb4, nb2, w5) 11
Total (for two wickets) 252
Fall of wickets: 1-85, 2-152
Bowling: Monjurul 7.1-0-57-0, Rafique 7-0-46-0, Mushfiq 9-0-55-1, Naimur 10-0-47-0, Enamul 5-0-30-1, Basher 2-0-13-0
Overs: 40.1

Result: India won by eight wickets

Man of the match: Sourav Ganguly (India)

Thursday's match: India v Sri Lanka