Habibul Bashar and Khaled Mashud hit solid half-centuries but failed to stop India from posting an 11-run victory over a fighting Bangladesh in the first one-dayer on yesterday.
India, who fielded an experimental side, rode on Mohammad Kaif's impressive 80 to post 245-8 before restricting Bangladesh to 234-8 to go ahead in the three-match series.
PHOTO: AFP
Bashar (65), who became the second Bangladeshi batsman to complete 1,000 runs in one-dayers, gave India a scare or two during his ninth half-century.
The Bangladeshi captain put on 64 for the fourth wicket with Aftab Ahmed (30) but received little support from the other end after that stand.
The required run-rate kept climbing and Bangladesh needed 92 to win with five wickets in hand in the last 10 overs. It eventually proved beyond their reach despite a brisk 39-ball 50-not-out from Mashud.
Bangladesh's bowlers had done a good job restricting India but their top-order batsmen let them down. They lost three wickets for just 44 before Bashar and Mashud saw them to a respectable total.
Mohammad Rafique, a lower-order batsman promoted to open the innings, was first to go when Yuvraj Singh held a spectacular overhead catch at point.
Mohammad Ashraful and Nafis Iqbal also fell cheaply.
India's left-arm spinner Srid-haran Sriram, who played his last one-dayer four years ago, made an impressive comeback to finish with 3-43.
India, who named an under-strength team after winning the Test series against the hosts, were indebted to man-of-the-match Kaif for setting a challenging target after being put in to bat on a slow wicket.
They were struggling at 45-3 against a tight Bangladeshi pace attack before Kaif and Rahul Dravid (53) repaired the damage with a 128-run stand for the fourth wicket.
Skipper Sourav Ganguly was bowled by Tapash Baisya off an inside-edge for nought in the opening over, while Sachin Tendulkar was caught behind for 19 off Nazmul Hossain and Yuvraj was trapped leg-before for 21.
Kaif and Dravid then steadied the innings but the run-rate improved only in the closing 10 overs, which produced 72 runs. Ajit Agarkar hit a 24-ball 25 and Irfan Pathan an 11-ball 21 not out.
Kaif struck seven fours in his 10th half-century and Dravid five in his 55th.
Four of the six cricketers who joined the Indian squad for the one-day series figured in the eleven, with wicketkeeper Mahendra Dhoni and fast bowler Joginder Sharma making their debuts.
The Indian batting line-up also wore a different look as regular opener Virender Sehwag was rested and Ganguly opened the innings with Tendulkar. India promoted middle-order batsman Yuvraj to No. 3 position.
SA vs England: preview
South Africa called up opening batsman Herschelle Gibbs on Wednesday for the second and third Tests against England after losing the opening match of the series.
Gibbs is almost certain to return to the starting line-up alongside captain Graeme Smith following a hand injury.
Experienced left-arm spinner Nicky Boje is also back in the squad after thyroid surgery while uncapped fast bowler Charl Langeveldt, who had match figures of seven for 73 in South Africa A's victory over England, is included in a 14-man squad.
Convenor of selectors Haroon Lorgat said: "Herschelle Gibbs' return brings experience to the top-order, he is a world-class player and he and Graeme Smith have proved themselves to be one of the best opening pairs in the game," he said.
The Durban Test starts on Sunday with the Cape Town encounter scheduled for Jan. 2 to Jan. 6. England won the first Test in the five-match series by seven wickets.
Gibbs averages 48.42 in his 60 Tests. His last game was against Sri Lanka in August before he opted out of the tour to India.
He and Smith have shared opening stands of more than 300 three times, including a partnership of 338 against England last year at Edgbaston. They average 76.32 runs per Test innings as a pair, the second-highest figure in history.
South Africa have also been boosted by the news that all-rounder Jacques Kallis is likely to bowl in Durban after playing as a batsman in Port Elizabeth.
"All the indications are that Jacques Kallis will be fit to bowl in Durban," Lorgat said.
Langeveldt has toured Aus-tralia, England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka with the senior team and played nine one-day internationals.
"Charl's ability to swing the ball was crucial in the SA A team's victory over England in Potchefstroom two weeks ago and his performance there was ample evidence that he is ready for the step up to test level," Lorgat added.
"We believe that conditions in Durban will suit him well," he said.
The squad also includes two wicketkeepers, Thami Tsolekile and Abraham de Villiers, while all-rounder Zander de Bruyn was dropped. De Villiers made his debut in the first test as a batsman.
Australia vs Pakistan: preview
Pakistan have plenty of redeeming to do in the Boxing Day cricket Test against remorseless Australia, otherwise the home fires will keep burning.
Pakistan cricket plummeted to its lowest ebb last weekend in Perth when Ricky Ponting's Australians inflicted Pakistan's heaviest Test defeat in more than 50 years and the fourth-biggest in Test cricket history.
Australia's cruising 491-run defeat before lunch on the fourth day after they were 78 for 5 touched off calamitous scenes back home with cricket fans burning effigies of skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq and the team's English coach Bob Woolmer.
The country's cricket legend Imran Khan slammed Pakistan's humiliating loss as deplorable, while batting great Javed Miandad called for Woolmer's head.
Woolmer has been trying to instil some confidence in his bruised troops in the lead-up to Christmas, calling on his men to show more resilience after they meekly surrendered for 72 in their second innings off 31.2 overs to hand Australia a monumental win.
"I put the Australian team in the category of being a juggernaut, very difficult to stop," Woolmer said yesterday.
"I don't particularly subscribe to the fact that they are so far ahead on the field, [Pakistan] players have equal talent to the Australians, but the structure throughout Australia is so impressive and so daunting," he said.
Woolmer talked of bringing in a sports psychologist in the wake of the WACA slaughter, but the team want to resolve their dilemma themselves.
"Inzamam specifically was adamant that it's not outside help we need, we need to help ourselves and that was the most important thing I think that came out of our team meeting," Woolmer said.
Woolmer said while the players were shocked by the scale of the Perth disaster, he and the rest of the team still had plenty of confidence going into the grandest day on the Australian cricket calendar -- a Boxing Day Test at the 80,000-capacity MCG.
The odds are that Pakistan will again go down in a big way to the Australians and lose the three-Test series, such is the gulf between them.
Team coach John Buchanan, the mastermind behind Australia's modern-day cricket dynasty, said it was up to the other Test nations to catch up with the all-conquering Australians rather than Ricky Ponting's team marking time.
There is concern that Australia are proving just too good for the other Test cricket-playing nations after annihilating New Zealand and Pakistan in recent Test matches.
For Pakistan to have some measure of parity with the Australians, then their batsmen must occupy the crease and score runs in partnerships.
Their bowling, led by the "Rawalpindi Express" Shoaib Akh-tar and Mohammad Sami, weren't the problem in Perth, but Inzamam, Yousuf Youhana and Abdul Razzaq must take more responsibility to lead the batting.
Australia have lost just three away series in the past seven years -- to India (in 1997 and 2001) and Sri Lanka (1999) -- and have not lost a home series since the West Indies won 2-1 in 1992 to 1993.
NZ vs Sri Lanka: preview
Sri Lanka have turned to world rankings for motivation as they enter their one-day cricket series against New Zealand with limited preparation, without proven match winner Muttiah Muralitharan and facing a stark climate change.
At stake in the series is the world No. 2 one-day ranking behind world champions Australia, and Sri Lanka's build-up has been wrecked by rain.
Their tour opener against Central Districts was abandoned on Tuesday early in the second innings, and the second scheduled match against Northern Districts was cancelled without a ball being bowled yesterday.
The visitors will play five one-day internationals and two Tests in New Zealand.
The home team are full of confidence after their most successful period in 32 years of one-day internationals. They have 18 wins from 22 games this year, including a tied series with world champions Australia earlier this month.
Until their arrival in New Zealand it had also been a positive year for Sri Lanka, winning 20 of 27 one-dayers and currently ranked second in the world.
But their hopes of an easy adjustment to New Zealand conditions have been washed away by rain, leaving skipper Marvan Atapattu to cite the rankings as a source of inspiration.
"They do matter for us," he said. "Everybody is trying to get to the top. That is one way of measuring how you are doing."
New Zealand is experiencing an unseasonably wet and cold summer and an unsettled forecast for much of the country may have an impact on the opening one-day international in Auckland on Sunday.
With temperatures hovering around 20?C, Sri Lankan coach and former Australian opener John Dyson pointed to climatic change as the biggest factor his young side had to contend with.
To add to Sri Lanka's discomfort, opening bowler Nuwan Zoysa dislocated a finger and needed stitches during the opening tour match.
Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene are among the top 15 run scorers in Test cricket this year.
Jayasuriya needs only a further 147 to reach 10,000 runs from 332 one-day internationals -- a feat achieved by just two other players, Sachin Tendulkar who has scored 13,431 runs in 340 matches, and Inzamam-ul-Haq with 10,267 from 328 matches.
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