Sunday, March 18, 2007

Clippings: Bangladesh stab India

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (Agencies)
Bangladesh produced one of the biggest shocks in the World Cup with a five-wicket victory over India in a Group B game on Saturday.
The unfancied team bowled out India's formidable line-up for 191 on a good batting pitch -- their lowest one-day total against Bangladesh -- before romping to victory with nine balls to spare.
Mushfiqur Rahim ran with arms raised in delight after he hit paceman Munaf Patel past cover to fetch the winning run in their total of 192-5.
"It is very hard to keep our feet on the ground right now," said Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar. "The boys can't stop jumping.
"This is the World Cup and today people came expecting us to do well. Beating India is not an easy thing. This means a lot to Bangladesh. Now we can hope to go to the next round."
Bangladesh emulated their famous victory over Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup, underlining their progress after failing to win a single game in South Africa four years ago where India were finalists.
The defeat plunged Indian qualifying hopes into disarray from the toughest group which 1996 champions Sri Lanka are favoured to top.
Bangladesh now lie second in the group behind Sri Lanka while India were left languishing third, with debutants Bermuda rooted to the bottom.
"We have the quality in the batting and we should have played a lot better," said Indian skipper Rahul Dravid.
"We've got our backs to the wall and it's pretty clear for us now that we have to win two games (to advance) and fight really hard."
Bangladesh paceman Mashrafe Mortaza did most of the damage in the morning by claiming four for 38 with excellent support from left-arm spinners Mohammad Rafique and Abdur Razzak, who took three wickets apiece after leaving the batsmen parched for runs.
When it was the underdogs' turn to bat, teenager Tamim Iqbal showed no stage fright and dashed Indian hopes of pulling things back.
Three days short of his 18th birthday, the left-handed opener smashed 51 for his maiden half-century.
He stepped out to smash both new ball bowlers Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan, whom he hit for 15 runs in one over.
He also hit two sixes off Patel over point and Zaheer over long on until he edged Patel to wicketkeeper Mahendra Dhoni.
Patel also removed Aftab Ahmed (8) but Saqibul Hasan took over and hit 53 and put on 84 runs with Rahim (56 not out) for the fourth wicket.
Rahim, dropped by Dhoni on eight off Patel, steadied the innings with Saqibul before leading Bangladesh to only their second win over India in 15 meetings.
India floundered against pace and spin in the morning.
Mortaza, 23, forced struggling opener Virender Sehwag (2) to chop an in-coming ball on to the stumps and Robin Uthappa (9) to mistime a drive to be caught at point to give Bangladesh the upperhand straightaway.
Spinner Razzak replaced Mortaza and claimed the prized scalp of Sachin Tendulkar (7) after the premier batsman, playing in his fifth World Cup, edged a drive on to his pads to wicketkeeper Rahim.
Opener Sourav Ganguly prevented total humiliation in a batting order where three of the top five batsmen each had the experience of over 10,000 one-day runs behind them.
Ganguly made a painstaking 66 and dug in till the 44th over, adding 85 runs with Yuvraj Singh (47) for the fifth wicket.
Bangladesh bowlers then snapped up five wickets for two runs to reduce the innings to 159 for nine before the last wicket pair of Zaheer and Patel put on 32 runs.

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