With India facing Bangladesh in the second quarter finals at Melbourne on Thursday, we look back at the World Cup encounter between the two sides back in 2007 at Port of Spain, which Bangladesh famously won by five wickets.
March 17, 2007: India vs Bangladesh at Port of Spain
Toss: India called correctly, and decided to bat first.
Teams (India): Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid (c), Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan
Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Shariar Nafees, Mushfiqur Rahim, Aftab Ahmed, Habibul Bashar(c), Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Abdur Razzak, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Rafique and Syed Rasel
The match: This was India's first match of the tournament, and they just did not look in any sort of shape to compete. Virender Sehwag was clean bowled by Mortaza for 2 and, in a way, it set the tone of the match for India. Uthappa also fell in single figures, but the most shocking innings came from Tendulkar, who struggled to 7 from 26 before falling to Razzak. Skipper Dravid also failed in his rescue act, and perished to Rafique. At the moment of his dismissal, India had snailed their way to 72 for 4.
The only partnership for note for India in the innings came when Ganguly was joined by Yuvraj. The latter, in fact, was the most fluent of all Indian batsmen. He made a pleasing 47 in quick time, but when India needed him to carry on, he was dismissed by Razzak. At the other end, Ganguly had stonewalled his way to 66. It was a knock during which he looked totally out of sorts, but hung around. He faced 129 balls during his stay, and managed only 4 fours before Rafique ended his misery.
Following Ganguly's dismissal, the lower order collapsed as Dhoni, Harbhajan and Agarkar all fell without scoring. Munfal Patel hit a run-a-ball 15, but 191 was all India managed. Bangladesh's bowling was top class with Mortaza claiming four wickets, and Razzak and Rafique claiming three each.
When Bangladesh batted, Zaheer had Nafees lbw for 2, half-centuries from Iqbal and Rahim put the team on course for victory. Tamim was particularly aggressive blasting 51 from 53 balls with seven fours and two sixes before falling to Munaf Patel. The latter also got Aftab cheaply, but Shakib came in with another half-century to seal the match in his team's favour. He made 53 from 86 before being stumped by Sehwag while Rahim remained unbeaten on 56 from 107 as Bangladesh won by five wickets, and created history.
--By A Cricket Analyst
