India ease to eight-wicket win

On a good batting wicket at the Sinhalese Sports Club, India's batsmen turned up the heat to beat Bangladesh by 8 wickets. This was a useful outing for them, with Sachin Tendulkar (82 not out) and Sourav Ganguly (60) finding form, and the bowlers using the opportunity to prepare themselves for bigger games to come. After Bangladesh were limited to 177, India eased past their target with 11.3 overs to spare.

Ganguly and Tendulkar began hesitantly after Virender Sehwag had spanked 16 runs in eight balls. Abdur Razzaq, bowling line and length, gave them no room to cut loose, and after an expensive start, neither did Tariq Aziz. His first over cost 23 runs, but his next six, only 26, as the batsmen aimed to get their bearings. Both had struggled to score runs in earlier matches, but gradually their timing returned and the rustiness disappeared.

Tendulkar clobbered a six, Ganguly hit three, and the fielders were chasing balls to the boundary. To their credit, Bangladesh's production line of part-time spinners kept the runs down and made the batsmen work hard.

Initially, Tendulkar wasn't fluent, but he didn't struggle either. Shots that at one time would have been clipped off his legs and sent to the boundary now deflected off his pads and trickled to leg. The mind was willing, but the bat wasn't there. But every now and then, he unveiled the weapons that he's chosen to hide since he began accumulating.

There were cover-drives, pulls, a powerful cut, and a sweep behind the wicketkeeper. And to top them all, a slog-sweep six over midwicket off Mohammad Rafique, who, till then, had bowled rather economically. He and Khalid Mahmud kept a rein on proceedings, and gave the batsmen little leeway.

That soon changed. Ganguly stepped it up a notch, stepped out, and hoisted three balls over midwicket in a short span of time. He struggled while running - his right knee seemed sore - and walked between wickets when he wasn't hitting out. After scoring 60, he struck out for one last six to end the game in a hurry but found the fielder (173 for 2).

But the batsmen's form or fitness mattered little, for Bangladesh just did not have the firepower to restrict them. Earlier in the day, their own batsmen had perished to controlled, accurate bowling. Irfan Pathan grabbed two in two, as Habibul Bashar and Rajin Saleh couldn't lay a bat on searing inswingers (10 for 2).

Mohammad Ashraful and Alok Kapali then put on 46 runs and handled the bowlers well, before Kapali (10) unwisely chased a wide delivery from Ashish Nehra (56 for 3). Meanwhile, Ashraful produced strokes of absolute beauty: one crashed through covers, and another ended at long-off in the blink of an eye. He kept things steady for his team with his electric running, and ability to pinch runs. Then, he was run-out attempting an uncalled for single.

At that point, at 95 for 5, it seemed as if Bangladesh were done for. Harbhajan Singh made batting a little more difficult, getting the ball to bounce, turn, loop, and happily for India, it suggested that the six-month layoff had been beneficial to his game.

India would have to wait a while before they came out to bat, though, because the lower order rolled up their sleeves and came out fighting. Manjarul Islam Rana, Khaled Mahmud and Abdur Razzaq all scored 20s, and somewhere in between, Tendulkar prised out three wickets with balls better batsmen would have kept out.

For the Indians, this was, more or less, a game to experiment with their line-up. Nehra and Harbhajan bowled well, as did Tendulkar and Pathan. Tendulkar and Ganguly then regained their touch with the bat. But how good is this form? How reliable is their fluency? They'll know when they play Pakistan on Sunday