Sehwag slays Bangladesh as India amass 370 in opener

NEW DELHI: Virender Sehwag pulverised the Bangladesh attack on Saturday to get India’s World Cup bid off to a flying start in the first match of the six-week cricket marathon.

The 10th World Cup, jointly hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, is tipped to be the most open for years but India hammered out an ominous warning in their first innings of the showpiece, scoring a mammoth 370-4.

Big-hitting Sehwag led the way with a stunning 175 despite struggling with injury, with Virat Kohli scoring 100 not out after Sachin Tendulkar was earlier run out for 28 after a mix-up with Sehwag.

Bangladesh came to a virtual standstill as thousands of fans enjoyed a carnival atmosphere inside and outside the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Dhaka.

Huge crowds, wearing national team shirts of green and red, had jammed the streets leading to the 25,000-seat stadium since Friday night, hoping for a repeat of their team’s famous five-wicket win over India in the 2007 edition.

India, highly fancied to lift their second trophy, went into the day-night match against their co-hosts as strong favourites amid a tight security lockdown in the Bangladeshi capital.

The 1983 World Cup winners have an impressive 20-2 winning record against their South Asian neighbours but suffered a humiliating loss in the 2007 tournament that contributed to their first round exit.

Security is tight for the 14-team tournament with authorities desperate to avoid any repeat of the deadly 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan team that still haunts the sport.

Around 20,000 members of Bangladesh’s elite paramilitary force the Rapid Action Battalion and regular officers have been deployed in Dhaka for the first match, police spokesman M. Sohail told AFP.

“All cricket venues, airports, the nine official hotels and transport for all the teams and officials fall under our security blanket,” Sohail said.

Memories are still fresh of the attack in March 2009 when gunmen ambushed the team bus carrying Sri Lanka’s Test squad in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

Eight people were killed and seven Sri Lankan players and their assistant coach injured in the attack, which led to Pakistan’s removal by the International Cricket Council as a co-host of the World Cup.

Cricket fever has gripped Bangladesh, which is co-hosting the World Cup for the first time.

All businesses, private offices and schools have been either partly shut or completely closed since Thursday when the opening ceremony was held.

The tournament is the biggest sporting event the impoverished country of 146 million has hosted since it won independence four decades back.

Local television channels have stopped regular programming and switched to virtual round-the-clock discussions on cricket.

On Friday, at least 100,000 people – some with young children – visited Dhaka’s western suburb of Mirpur just to soak up the atmosphere around the stadium.

“People have gone crazy. They were dancing late into the night, shouting Bangladesh and the names of the players,” local police chief Kazi Wajidul Alam told AFP.

“It’s a big national celebration. Young boys blew car horns and vuvuzelas, some took family photographs in front of the illuminations around the stadium.”

Hamida Hossain, 45, who came from Old Dhaka to join the carnival, said: “I have never seen such a festive atmosphere before. People are singing and dancing as if we had achieved something special.”

On the field, top-ranked Australia are seeking their fourth consecutive World Cup but have lost many of their stellar names and face a stiff challenge from the likes of India, Sri Lanka, South Africa and England.

Teams

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Raqibul Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Naeem Islam, Mohammad Mahmudullah, Abdur Razzak, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam.

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.

Umpires: Steve Davis (AUS) and Kumar Dharmasena (SRI)

TV umpire: Billy Doctrove (WIS)

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)

Pitch conditions: A hard wicket that is expected to help the slow bowlers in the later stages of the game. The team bowling second could find the ball difficult to grip if late evening dew arrives as predicted.