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Home  » Cricket » India won't take Bangladesh lightly

India won't take Bangladesh lightly

Source: PTI
June 11, 2008 19:13 IST
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Going by current form, Bangladesh will need nigh a miracle to pull the rug from under India's feet in Thursday's tri-series match. But Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his teammates sound cautious enough not to step on the banana skin.

India certainly look every inch the tournament favourites after thumping Pakistan by 140 runs and snapping their 12-match winning spree on Tuesday night.

Indicating that the team will not lower its guard even against the minnows, Dhoni said he wants to maintain a clean slate.

"We got to win every match. In fact, it is not about winning and losing. It is all about going out there and playing to your potential and strength," he said.

"Everybody wants to win. It was a good game of cricket against Pakistan yesterday. Hopefully, rain will not interfere tomorrow," he added, almost indicating that only divine intervention can help the hosts, practically on the way out after Pakistan spanked them by 70 runs in the tri-series opener.

Dhoni though refused to underestimate Bangladesh, saying they are no pushovers.

"They have enough depth in both batting and bowling and they should not be rated by one innings, when they lost to Pakistan.

"We always look to the present. We will look to win over Bangladesh and then go in to the final, where we want to play to our potential. Then think about Asia Cup, our next tournament, and set a plan in place for a positive result," he said.

There, however, remains one worry in the Indian camp -- difficulty in sighting the soiled ball after 20 overs.

"They have used black soil on the track. The ball gets ruffed up after 20 overs. It was really difficult to sight the ball," he said.

Bangladesh's batting order has an obvious brittle look to it even though their bowlers did their best against Pakistan and shot out Shoaib Malik's team inside 40 overs.

In contrast, India appear invulnerable. The star-studded batting line-up looks rock solid and it needed half centuries from just three batsmen to post a mammoth total of 330 for eight against Pakistan.

If the Delhi duo of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir can put together yet another strong start, it will allow their batting colleagues play their strokes with unbridled aggression.

Among the bowlers, Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla ran through the Pakistani line-up and, in all likelihood, Bangladesh should prove easy meat for both.

Teams (from):

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, R P Singh, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha and M S Gony.

Bangladesh: Mohammad Ashraful (c), Mashrafe Mortaza, Mahmudullah, Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Abdur Razzak, Farhad Reza, Shahriar Nafees, Nazimuddin, Raqibul Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mehrab Hossain (Jr), Dolar Mahmud.

Start of Play: 1430 IST.

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