ICC WC 2011 - II (India vs Bangladesh)

Well we are off finally .. The World Cup began officially with the inauguration a couple of days ago. Given that it is a tournament about cricket, I couldn't quite see what all the so-called cultural programmes were about, not that I watched too much of it. I also couldn't understand the point of cricket being played vertically on a building .. and it was funny hearing the commentators and poor old Alan Wilkins trying to fit superlatives for the amazing cultural displays ;-)

Match 1 - India vs Bangladesh - February 19, 2011

The first match produced a flood of runs which is likely to be symptomatic of the rest of the tournament. Tendulkar and Sehwag got India off to a flier, more because of the waywardness of the Bangladesh bowlers rather than any over-aggressive intent. It didn't seem like Bangladesh had their minds focused on the match at all and it took a tragic mix-up for Tendulkar to be run out, completely against the run of play. The rest of the Indian innings built on the opening stand and Kohli continued to impress one and all, and was duly rewarded by reaching his century with a ball to spare in the innings. Sehwag ensured that he cashed in on Bangladesh's lacklustre display and ended up with 175 and the man of the match award.

The Bangladesh innings got off to a very streaky start. Unfortunately Sreesanth suffered on a couple of occasions and ended up losing his focus and ended up conceding far too many runs. If Nehra is fit for the next matches, then Sreesanth is likely to have played his last match in this World Cup, which is a shame. Munaf Patel showed that being steady is a virtue and I have a feeling that this is going to be Harbhajan Singh's best one day tournament to date.

India's bowling and fielding display was average, with the huge total providing a cushion to smooth over lapses in the field. If a couple of Bangladesh batsmen had stuck around then the spinners could have come under pressure, but Bangladesh proved to be gracious hosts and duly lost comprehensively.

One positive aspect was that I was *very* pleasantly surprised by the TV coverage. No intrusive pop-up ads and the number of advertisements between overs was restricted to just two. We also did not have abrupt cuts to ads and could see the beginning and end of each over. The commentary though remained true to form and was very ordinary. I hope the TV coverage continues like this through the tournament and if it does then ESPN-Star Sports is indeed to be commended. Well done, ESPN-Star Sports, if you have a page on Facebook, I will go there and "like" it now !