Tigers go down meekly
Al Musabbir Sadi from Colombo
Experiments changed little for Bangladesh when they crashed to India by eight wickets in the opening Super League match of the 8th Asia Cup at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground here yesterday.Bangladesh made three changes and tried to be innovative on the field to surprise the Indians, but Sourav Ganguly's men did not have to sweat at all to race to a moderate 178-run target with more than 12 overs to spare. Sachin Tendulkar scored an unbeaten 82 and Ganguly made 62 after Tareq Aziz had made an early breakthrough for Bangladesh. Playing his first match in the meet, Tareq had Virender Sehwag in an eventful first over but not before the master-blaster smashed three boundaries to reach 16. Left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak shared the new ball with Tareq. The idea could have been interesting if the bowlers were backed up by more runs. Razzak bowled commendably under the circumstances and was treated with caution by Tendulkar and Ganguly, who are acknowledged masters against spin. The 21-year-old conceded just 17 runs in his 6 overs with the new ball. The two Indians added 154-run for the second wicket before the captain departed with his side needing another five runs for victory. Ganguly's 55th fifty featured three fours and as many sixes, including two against left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique. A wily Rafique however had the last laugh by having Ganguly caught at deep mid-wicket for his 50th one-day victim. Man-of-the-match Tendulkar, whose previous best against the Tigers was 54, struck ten boundaries and a six in his 127-ball knock. It was his 67th one-day half-century. Earlier, sent into bat, Bangladesh tumbled against some fine swing bowling from left-arm paceman Irfan Pathan, who struck twice off successive deliveries to dismiss Habibul Bashar and Rajin Saleh. Bashar was bowled for two while playing at a delivery that nipped back sharply. Rajin was trapped lbw off a similar delivery, leaving Bangladesh at 10-2. The highlight of the innings was Mohammad Ashraful's brilliant knock that ended prematurely on 35 after a lot of promise. The fluent stroke-maker pulled Pathan once and drove Laxmipathy Balaji twice for boundaries to salvage the side to 92 for three after Kapali wasted a good start. Ashraful and Faisal Hossain (17 off 34 balls), who whacked Harbhajan Singh for a six, were going smoothly but the fragile middle-order gave in to the Indian slow bowlers. Ashraful was run out while chasing a single. The lower order put some meat to the total with Khaled Mahmud (22) and Razzak (21) producing 36 runs for the ninth wicket. Pathan returned to end the partnership to finish with 3-32. Tendulkar also took three wickets for 35 for a virtuoso all-round performance. Bangladesh will play their next match against hosts Sri Lanka on Friday.
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