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InDepth headlines national business sports cricket regional entertainment technology world travel autos health | in-depth coverage > Indian Cricket Team's Bangladesh Tour > India keen to maintain winning streak 23.00 IST 25th Dec 2004 By IndiaExpress Bureau 
Having survived a scare in the previous match, India will guard against complacency as they seek to clinch the three-match series against Bangladesh in the second one-dayer to be played under lights on Sunday.Although the Indians were not really tested at Chittagong en route the 11-run win, they now know that the hosts are capable of a fight back in the shorter version of the game. However, such is the gulf between the two sides, that the Indians appeared completely un-rattled on the eve of the back-to-back matches at the Bangabandhu Stadium. In fact, the visitors seemed more worried about connecting flights on their return journey than the prospect of taking on a side that did manage to give them a scare in the previous one-dayer. Bangladesh made a valiant effort to pull off an upset win but the experimental Indian side still proved to be too good for them at Chittagong on Thursday. Coach Dave Whatmore conceded that lights or no lights, experiment or no experiment, the Indians were way ahead of Bangladesh. "They are a vastly superior side," he said. But he took heart from his team's performance in Chittagong and said there were a couple of positives to take from the match for his players. "We gave away too many runs in the final overs. But in the past, we conceded too many wickets in the first 10 overs, where as the boys did well to keep the wickets intact," the former Sri Lankan coach said. Although they lost by 11 runs, the narrow margin and the fighting spirit they displayed should inspire at least remote hopes in the home fans. In fact, Whatmore's prediction that his team would be able to pose a better challenge to the visitors in the shorter version of the game did turn out to be right to some extent. The Indians, however, have lost no sleep over the match. Captain Sourav Ganguly kept his promise and gave the youngsters in the side a chance as the team prepares for the Pakistan series at home in February-March next year. The newcomers proved a bit of a success. Sridharan Sriram made a good comeback to pick 3/43 but he might have liked to get a few runs with the bat. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who replaced Dinesh Karthik as wicketkeeper batsman, had an ordinary debut as he was run out after facing just one ball. Joginder Sharma of Haryana did reasonably well to pick 1/28. The team management would try out other combinations for Sunday's match as well which would mean left-arm spinner Murali Kartik should get a chance to roll his arm for the first time on the tour. Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan could be brought back in the team after being rested for the first match, while the other senior players would have to take their turn to sit out. Skipper Habibul Bashar was cautious and played down the hype after the team's good show in the first match. "I don't want to say that I am optimistic about future matches as we have a record of playing very bad cricket after a good performance," he said. "I must admit I am happy about the performance we have shown in the first one-dayer and I want our players to keep it going." Teams (from): India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh Mongia, Sridharan Sriram, MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Murali Kartik, Joginder Sharma. Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (captain), Khaled Mashud, Rajin Saleh, Khaled Mahmud, Mohammad Rafique, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahman, Tapash Baisya, Mashrafe Mortaza, Nafis Iqbal, Manjural Islam, Aftab Ahmed and Nazmul Hossain. in-depth coverage > Indian Cricket Team's Bangladesh Tour > |
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