subject: India vs Bangladesh ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Live Updates [print this page] India vs Bangladesh ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Live Updates
The inaugurating match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 between India and Bangladesh witnessed a dazzling performance by the celebrated Indian batsman, Virender Sehwag. Due to his skillfully crafted innings of 175 from just 140 balls, India started the World Cup campaign with a comprehensive win of 87 runs. Although, Bangladesh retaliated a bit in the second half but they were eventually outshone in every single aspect of the game.
The match took place at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium of Mirpur, where the Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and decided to field. The deadly duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag commenced the innings for India. Although, the master blaster got dismissed from a silly run out initially, but Sehwag fully lived up to his expectations. He was well supported by the young Virat Kohli, who is making his World Cup debut. Kohli made a stunning century from just 83 balls and India finished the scoreboard with a massive total of 370 by losing only four wickets.
Although the mere contributions of Tamim Iqbal (70 from 86 balls) and Shakib Al Hasan (55 from 50 balls) helped Bangladesh to fight back initially, but it was really an arduous task to cope with this stupendous asking rate. Only some miracle could have saved Bangladesh, but unfortunately there was none. They eventually collapsed at a total score of 283.
However, the very first match raised few questions on the inconsistency of the Indian bowling attack. The miserable performance of S Sreesanth is one such well-known instance, which can be mentioned in this context. This upcoming fast bowler of Kerala spared 53 runs from just five overs at an economy rate nearly 10.6. However, Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan once again proved their credentials and played a significant role in securing the victory of India. Munaf picked up four wickets while Zaheer fetched two.
Keeping in note of the mere statistics, the Bangladeshi captain Shakib Al Hassan put Indian into bat. However, his bowling attack disappointed him severely and was simply no match in front of the stature of Sehwag and Kohli. Since the very beginning, Sehwag followed his natural and aggressive style of game and started to dispatch the bowlers in every single corner of the ground. The wonderful hand and eye co-ordination of this legendary batsman is simply a treat to watch. In his massive innings of 175, Sehwag scored fourteen boundaries and five sixes at a strike rate of approximately 125. This ravishing performance utterly left no other choice for the judges rather than selecting him as the "Man of the Match".
Sehwag even surpassed his previous best score of 146, which was being scored against Sri Lanka two years back. When he departed at the 48th over of the game, India has already reached a score of 355. It even narrowly survived the record of Sourav Ganguly's 183, which is till now the highest score of any Indian batsman, being scored in the World Cup.
