Feb. 19: Virender Sehwag couldn’t manage to bat out the 50 overs like he wanted wanted to, but his strategy of mixing caution with aggressive batting still worked sensationally.

He battled fatigue, a knock on the knee, a slow track and Bangladesh bowlers in a superbly, well-paced 175-run knock (140 balls, 14x4, 5x6) to help India kick-off their World Cup campaign on a bright note with a 87-run mauling of the hosts in their Group B match at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium on Saturday.

India amassed 370/ 4 in 50 overs with Sehwag adding 69 and 83 runs with Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir at the top, before combining for a massive 203-run alliance in 24.1 overs with No. 4 Virat Kohli (100 not out, 83b) for the third wicket.

Bangladesh, to their credit, fought hard while chasing, with opener Tamim Iqbal (70) leading from the front. He and one-down Junaid Siddique (37) tried to emulate Sehwag and Kohli adding 73 runs for the second wicket, but in the end the runs required were too many, the balls too less. Bangladesh could only manage 283/9, Munaf Patel taking full advantage of India’s mountain of runs to scalp 4/48 in his 10 overs.

The assured start put India at the top of Group B, at least for now, with matches against tougher opposition — South Africa and England among others — lined up. M.S. Dhoni’s men will face the latter next in Bengaluru on February 27.

Sehwag had managed just two when India played their opening match of 2007 World Cup in the West Indies against the same opposition. His early loss had effectively set the stage for a Bangladesh win and India’s eventual exit from the competition, but he wasn’t about to repeat the same mistake again.

Bangladesh skipper Shakib-al Hasan elected to field first mindful of the fact that the last 12 day-nighters at the venue had been won by the team batting second. The same strategy had worked for his side last time around, but up against an in-form Indian batting line-up, it proved costly. Sehwag hammered the first ball of the World Cup to covers and then along with an equally fired-up Sachin Tendulkar plundered 32 runs in the first three overs. The frentic start though was only a bluff and Sehwag thereafter started dealing more in singles and doubles than fours.

SCOREBOARD
India R B 4s 6s SR
V. Sehwag b Shakib Al Hasan 175 140 14 5 125
S. Tendulkar run out 28 29 4 0 96
G. Gambhir b Mahmudullah 39 39 3 0 100
V. Kohli not out 100 83 8 2 120
Y. Pathan c Mushfiqur b Shafiul Islam 8 10 0 0 80
Extras (b 1, lb 2, w 16, nb 1) 20
Total (for four wickets in 50 overs) 370
FoW: 1-69, 2-152, 3-355, 4-370.
Bowling: Shafiul 7-0-69-1, Rubel 10-0-60-0, Razzak 9-0-74-0, Shakib 10-0-61-1, Naeem 7-0-54-0, Mahmudullah 7-0-49-1.

Bangladesh
T. Iqbal c Yuvraj Singh b Patel 70 86 3 1 81
I. Kayes b Patel 34 29 7 0 117
J. Siddique st Dhoni b Harbhajan 37 52 1 1 71
S. Al Hasan c Harbhajan b Pathan 55 50 5 0 110
M. Rahim c sub (Raina) b Khan 25 30 2 0 83
R. Hasan not out 28 28 0 1 100
Mahmudullah b Patel 6 6 0 0 100
N. Islam lbw b Patel 2 8 0 0 25
A. Razzak lbw b Khan 1 5 0 0 20
Shafiul Islam run out 0 1 0 0 0
R. Hossain not out 1 6 0 0 16 Extras: (lb 10, w 13, nb 1) 24
Total (for nine wickets in 50 overs) 283
FoW: 1-56, 2-129, 3-188, 4-234, 5-248, 6-261, 7-275, 8-279,
9-280.
Bowling: Sreesanth 5-0-53-0, Zaheer 10-0-40-2, Patel 10-0-48-4, Harbhajan 10-0-41-1, Pathan 8-0-49-1, Yuvraj 7-0-42-0.
Points: India 2; Bangladesh 0.