da casino： The Indian coach, Roger Binny, was satisfied on Wednesday night aftera thoroughly professional and disciplined all-round performance by hisyoung Indian side
Charlie Austin12-Jan-2000The Indian coach, Roger Binny, was satisfied on Wednesday night aftera thoroughly professional and disciplined all-round performance by hisyoung Indian side. The team took control of the match right from thestart with an opening partnership of 131 and never relinquishedcontrol, eventually dismissing the disappointing Bangladesh side for113 off 34.5 overs, to win the match by 122 runs.When Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bowl first in damp andovercast conditions, the omens were not good for the Indians.Fortunately for them the Bangaladesh bowlers didn’t bowl particularlywell and found it difficult to control the swing in the early overs.When they did create two chances, the fielders failed to take thecatches. Both catches, the first in the covers and the second by thewicket keeper, were relatively easy and should have been taken.With the new ball wasted and the pitch quickly drying, the Indianopeners worked hard to capitalise on their good fortune and build asolid foundation. Responding to their coach’s call for some hard graftand application the batsmen patiently accumulated runs all round thewicket. Boundaries were few and far between, as both openers preferredto push the ball into the gaps for singles and twos.To the credit of this Bangladesh side they didn’t panic after theirpoor start and gradually pulled themselves back into the match. Theoff-spinners, R. Alam and M. Kabir, in particular bowled well anddidn’t let the Indian batsmen accelerate. The pressure created waseventually rewarded when B. R. Das brilliantly caught Manish Sharma(55) on the deep mid-wicket boundary off the bowling of R. Alam.Ravneet Ricky (61) was soon to follow his partner as he popped up theball to mid-wicket.Despite a run a ball 30 from the skipper Mohammad Kaif, India began tolose their momentum. The clean hitting Yuvaraj Singh, top edged asweep off the persevering Alam and was caught at midwicket and R.Sodhiwas runout after being sent back by his partner.The arrival at the crease of the elegant and wristy N. Patel, returnedthe initiative to India as he ended the innings with a little cameothat included one large six over wide long on. In the end they scoreda very competitive 235-5 off their allotted 50 overs.Bangladesh were immediately in trouble after the resumption of play asSallab Srivastava clean bowled Hannan Sarker first ball, with a fastinswinging yorker. Spurred on by the wicket, the lithe and rhythmicalfast bowler attacked the crease and bowled with considerable pace andnot inconsiderable movement, ending the day with 2-32 off his 7 overs.He is clearly a player for the future.His coach, Roger Binny, agrees. “He is on the right track and I thinkthat in the next 2 or 3 years he will get into the senior team.”Despite the quality of the bowling the Bangladesh batsmen remainedpositive and the running between the wickets aggressive. Unfortunatelythey kept losing wickets. Nahidul Haque and Rajin Salah Alam were bothadjudged to be LBW when the score was 27 and 48 respectively. WhenMohammad Salim was caught behind off the talented Dave, Bangladesh’shope evaporated and the result became inevitable.After the match Roger Binny appeared satisfied with the performance ingeneral but nevertheless disappointed with the middle order, which hadfailed to take advantage of the large opening partnership.”It was a good start for us. Considering that the wicket was not thebest for one day cricket, initially we did well and the batsmen workedhard, it’s just a shame that we lost it a bit in the middle of theinnings.”When CRICINFO spoke to the Bangladesh coach afterwards he was verydisappointed with the batting. “When we went into bat we didn’t batwell at all and didn’t apply ourselves. We were playing in a way thatwould have been ok in our grounds but not where conditions demand morepatience.”India will take great heart from a performance in which the top threebatted well, the quick bowlers were penetrative and the spin bowlersvery accurate. Their next match is against Holland on Thursday andthen against New Zealand on Saturday. Bangladesh face an uphillstruggle to qualify but are capable of beating a young New Zealandside.