|
(Adds quotes) By N.Ananthanarayanan PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, March 17 - 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 are not
stopping the 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 out 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. STAGE FRIGHT 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 Saurav Ganguly prevented total batting 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. The tournament ends with the final in Barbados on April 28.
|
