Bangladesh seeks series-levelling today

DHAKA: Bangladesh know they can hold their own, they also know they can beat India; now it’s a matter of believing they can win again. They began leaning on hope once the first match started slipping, despite having outplayed India for 80 overs of the contest. How well they recover will determine how close the second one-dayer will be.

India are bound to feel relieved after Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik masterminded a rescue act. Realising that the weather here will take a lot out of them, they chose to not practise today, conserving their energy instead.

They may also ease Dhoni’s workload tomorrow, as India’s manager Ravi Shastri had mentioned after the first game, by having Karthik share the wicketkeeping duties with him. They will also hope to win the toss tomorrow, bat first, and post a big total.

Rahul Dravid has expressed his dislike for fielding first here — it’s not easy to bat on a sluggish pitch after fielding in the sweltering heat.

Dravid and Shastri had said that a few other teams would have failed in Thursday’s chase, given the climatic and match conditions. They will also need to tell themselves that those few other teams would have been much more alert in the field, giving themselves 25 to 30 runs less to chase.

For Bangladesh, batting in the slog overs remains a worry, as does any form of bowling that isn’t left-arm spin. They would have ideally looked at 20 more runs in the last 10 overs but their batsmen, slight of build, couldn’t generate enough power against India’s slower bowlers; nor did they get enough pace to execute the cute little paddle shots they played so effectively against South Africa in the World Cup clash at Guyana.

Bangladesh missed Mashrafe Mortaza on Thirsday and will need him back, as India may again try to go after their opening bowlers. As of now, the word on Mortaza is “so far so good”. Habibul Bashar, the captain, said that the physio had given him a test, was satisfied, and will give him another tomorrow. “He is 70% fit and the physio is confident.”

Bashar’s batting form has been another cause for concern. In the 10 games he’s played since the start of the World Cup, he has scored 105 runs at 11.66 and is under fire. He’s perhaps playing only because this is a very young team and no one else seems to be in a state to captain. His job, he knows, is quite simple.

Bashar is likely to announce his retirement at the end of the series; regaining his touch in a must-win game wouldn’t be a bad idea.

The conditions are not expected to change, except there’s a chance of a washout. Thunderstorms are expected and the forecasts predict a 90% chance of rain. They will play on a different pitch, but it is not expected to be too different in character.

Teams (likely) — Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Javed Omar, Habibul Bashar (captain), Saqibul Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mohammad Rafique, Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel.

India: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, MS Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid (captain), Dinesh Mongia, Dinesh Karthik, Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.