Viru, Gambhir star for India
Only inertia and butter-fingers ensured a partial contest. India looked rusty on the field but Bangladesh did them a favour by batting without imagination to hand set an easy target. The famed top-order came a cropper but Gautam Gambhir, with skipper M.S. Dhoni for company held the innings together as India opened their Asia Cup campaign with a six-wicket win and a bonus point here on Wednesday.
The challenge was miniscule. The key to upstage the chase was quick wickets and Bangladesh had the conditions in their favour. With the first innings terminated in 34.5 overs, India had to bat 10 overs before the dinner break. Virender Sehwag and Gambhir saw off the first six overs before Mashrafe Mortaza induced an airy drive from the former.
It was a period of consolidation from there with Gambhir and Virat Kohli treating the bowling strictly on merit though a rusty Gambhir was not entirely sure of his methods. Umpires suspended play at the end of 9.4 overs as two light towers failed to function.
When the game looked all wrapped up, Kohli was beaten in flight by Shakib-Al-Hasan to be smartly stumped and Rohit Sharma was trapped off the next ball to trigger alarm bells.
Tamim Iqbal dropped a sitter at third man when Gambhir cut Shafiul Islam. India required a further 75 and with that miss sank the remote chance that Bangladesh had.
Earlier Bangladesh kept with the tradition of faltering after a brisk start. Sehwag picked up four wickets for six runs as Bangladesh slid from 155/4 to be all out for 167. There were no terrors in the wicket that suggested this slump but the batsmen did themselves in with some average shot selection.
Bangladesh lacked the heart for a battle. That the batting power play was not taken showed the planning in poor light.
Openers Tamim and Imrul Kayes made a rousing start with a flurry of boundaries. The first two overs were bludgeoned for 29 runs as Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar looked helpless. Ashish Nehra, playing his 100th ODI looked in discomfort both in the outfield and with his approach to the crease. Iqbal, against the run of play tried to clear the cover cordon only to find an athletic Suresh Raina.
Mohammed Ashraful and Kayees made steady progress for the second wicket adding 46 runs in 10.3 overs. The fall of Ashraful, caught by Praveen of Nehra triggered a mini-collapse. Harbhajan Singh got one through the defence of Shakib as India took stranglehold.
Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah strung together 55 runs for the fifth wicket but that was the last act of consolidation from Bangladesh.
The introduction of Sehwag saw the innings culminate rather quickly, the off-spinner finishing with his best figures in ODIs. A target of 168 was not going to be enough to test the Indian top-order and Bangladesh wasted the opportunity of batting first on a track that played true. India left R. Ashwin, P. Ojha, Ashok Dinda and S. Tiwary out of the squad.
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