Virender Sehwag

The World Cup has begun, and what a better entry than Virender Sehwag’s as well as Munaf Patel’s who ultimately lead India to victory.

Also Read: Sachin And His Suicidal Wicket

You could literally smell the excitement in the air, and when Sehwag opened the World Cup with a boundary everyone realized, Viru was serious about his “revenge”.

In the 2007 World Cup, India met Bangladesh in the knock out stages and lost by 5 wickets, Virender Sehwag at that time couldn’t play the match due to an injury. So Bangladesh kicked India out of the World Cup and it left millions of hearts in India shattered in pieces.

This time around both India and Bangladesh tread carefully; India did not repeat past mistakes and take Bangladesh’s players and their capability lightly.

Bangladesh won the toss on this glorious day and elected to field first, Mirpur being their home conditions it was deduced that with the help of the dew the runs would be scored easier and faster at the latter part of the day. They were right but ended up horribly wrong.

India was more than happy batting first as we all know India’s weakness has always been chasing more than anything else. Openers Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar were menacing from the start itself.

Strike rotating was effortless and shot selection amazing, but then just when everything looked too pretty, Sachin Tendulkar was run out by Shakib Al Hasan when he had made 28 runs of 29 balls.

Viru on the other side was disastrous for the Bangladesh’s, he hit them all over the park with 14 fours and 5 sixes, his wagon wheel will probably give the Bangladeshi players nightmares, as Viru’s form improved, the Bangladeshi bowling deteriorated, they ended up giving 20 extra’s. What was truly fascinatating was that at one point of time in the match it actually looked like Viru was going to make a double century or at the very least break coach Gary Kirsten’s World Cup record of 188*, unfortunately for Sehwag he experienced a minor set back in the form of a knee injury which was clearly obvious with him limping and then finally getting Gautam Gambhir as a runner, he might not have reached Gary’s record by equalled Kapil Dev’s. With all these factors Virender Sehwag ended up making 175 runs of 140 balls and his wicket was claimed by Shakib Al Hasan.

Gautam Gambhir also helped Sehwag after the depressing run out of Sachin Tendulkar, he helped further steady the innings but only made 39 runs of 39 balls before he was dismissed on a brilliant ball delivered by Mahmudullah.

After Gambhir’s dismissal, Virat Kohli entered the crease and quite literally cemented his place in the team, in debut World Cup match couldn’t have gone better and he played with as much maturity and elegance as any top ranking batsman.

His shots were sensible and very well timed, finding gaps quite easily, he and Sehwag both looked like they would reach the 400 run total at one time.

Kohli made 100 runs of 83 balls and remained not out at the end of the innings, he and Sehwag looked like they were actually enjoying themselves on the field, smiling and chatting.

After the first innings Kohli divulged that Sehwag was daring or challenging him to hit 6’s along side him he said “What can you say about a player like Virender Sehwag?”

After Sehwag’s dismissal Yusuf Pathan was sent in who played 10 balls making 8 runs and was dismissed by Shafiul Islam on the last ball of the Indian batting innings.

India made a gigantic 370 runs that Bangladesh would chase in 7.40 runs per over.

Bangladesh openers looked penetrating for a while, but it was to be observed that after a while they’re game had become more defensive when it should have been aggressive considering the enormous ask that was required by them. It was going to have to be Tamim Iqbal who would have to play a heroic innings like a Sehwag or Kohli who would end up making all the difference, sadly for Bangladesh that was not to be.

Tamim Iqbal made 70 runs of 86 balls before he was dismissed by Munaf Patel who got a 4 wicket haul in this match. He got second opener Imrul Kayes who made 34 runs of 29 balls, Mahmudullah who made 6 runs of 6 balls and Naeem Islam who made 2 runs of 8 balls.

The spin attack helped India considerably Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh helped India slow down the Bangladesh innings. Bhajji got Junaid Siddiqui who made 37 runs of 52 balls and Yusuf got Shakib Al Hasan who made 55 runs of 50 balls, Zaheer Khan took two wickets and Sreesanth was the worst bowler of the day.

The Man of the match award went to Virender Sehwag who bluntly said “Sreesanth played the worst but any bowler can have an off day”.

There are enough days for the next match but everyone will be praying that his knee heals well.

Tags: Bangladesh, Cricket, India, Mirpur, Munaf Patel, Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, Viru, World Cup