Team India start their Asia Cup campaign with a win

Team India started their challenge in the Asia Cup against Bangladesh yesterday and defeated them convincingly by 6 wickets and with 19.2 overs to spare. They also took home an added advantage of a bonus point to place them on top of the table (with five points).

It is still very early in the tournament to predict the winners but if this is the way team India plan to play, they are definitely in for a chance.

Bangladesh won the toss yesterday and elected to bat first, and started on a positive note. For them everything was undercontrol, at 81-1 Bangladesh looked like they were going to post a huge target for team India. But, as they say you can’t predict anything in cricket till the last bowl. After a point suddenly, it seemed that the Bangladesh team started to gift their wickets away to the Indian bowlers. Poor shot selection and inexperience brought the Bangladesh team from a score of 81-1 to a total of 167 all out in just 34.5 overs .

Imrul Kayes was the top scorer with 37, while Mushfiqur Rahim made 30.Tamim Iqbal and Mohammad Ashraful contributed with 22 and 20 runs respectively. Mahmudullah scored 23. In the Indian bowling department it was the spinners who did the job for their Captain and the country. Part time spinner Virender Sehwag took 4 wickets for just 6 runs, the last three of Bangladesh’s wickets falling in a single over of his, while Ashish Nehra took 2 wickets.

Chasing a victory target of 168, India lost Sehwag (24), Kohli (11) and Rohit Sharma (11) cheaply. But, Gambhir and Dhoni batted very well. Gambhir was out for 82, while Dhoni remained unbeaten on 38. It was good to see Gambhir finally getting back to some kind of form. He was also declared the Man Of The Match.

With a lot more matches and unexpected pitches waiting to cause some upsets in the Asia Cup here’s hoping that the best two teams reach the finals and we get to see a cracker of a match. Hoping that the Indian team is one of them.