Minnows’ day out

It was literally minnows’ day out with lowly placed Bangladesh and Ireland upsetting more fancied teams and the Asian giants India and Pakistan respectively yesterday during the early stages of the ongoing World Cup in the West Indies.

After their stupendous performances, the babies of the world cricket made Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting and former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding eat their words as they were against these very teams’ participation in a mega event like World Cup even before the event kicked-off on March 13.

Even though Indian captain Rahul Dravid was very supportive of the minnows participation in International Cricket Council’s (ICC) events, he looked a dejected man while staring at the wrong end of the barrel, while 17 and 18-year-old Bangladeshi batsmen were milking his bowlers like a true professionals while carving out a five-wicket victory at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain in Trinidad in a Group-B match.

Almost at the same time Ireland were clinically disseminating another former World Cup champions Pakistan at the Sabina Park, Kingston in Jamaica in a Group-D encounter.

For a team, which lacked the killer-instinct and was taken very lightly, the Bangladeshis showed their true mettle and proved that they can match anyone in the higher league.

Probably they were given a confidence boosting shot in their arm when Dravid won the toss and elected to bat on a wicket, which had some juice for the seamers in the early part of the match.

The way M Mortaza (four for 38), who was adjudged Man-of-the-Match later on, M Rafique (three for 35) and A Razzak (three for 38) tied down the Indian batsmen, with accomplished stroke makers like Tendulkar, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Dhoni and the captain himself struggling to come to terms with ground realities, would have made their skipper Habibul Bashar’s job that much more easier.

And the end result was that the 1983 World Cup winners were shot out for 191 despite a fighting half century by former skipper Sourav Ganguly and a cameo 47 by Yuvraj Singh.

To defend 191 is a hurricane task in any form of cricket and more so when an average fielding side like India is concerned. Even though Zaheer and Munaf bowled their heart out it was not good enough as India’s trump card Harbhajan Singh went wicket-less once again despite the Bangladesh’s front-line spinners claiming six wickets between them.

With half centuries from Tamim Iqbal, Sakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim, Bangladesh were home and dry leaving the shell-shocked Indians an uphill task of making it to the Super Eight stage.

Ireland on the other hand found a hero in Niall O’Brien, who won the

Man-of-the-Match award for his polished 72 off 107 balls chasing a modest 130 odd runs despite Pakistan’s most experienced bowler Mohammad Sami and Iftikhar threatening to run through Ireland’s batting.

Earlier, Ireland bowlers Boyd Rankin (three for 32), Andre Botha (two for five) and Kyle McCallan (two for 12) restricted Pakistan, who have been shown the exit door, as they had lost the Cup opener to hosts West Indies on March 13.