England not afraid of India

England coach Andy Flower was honest while admitting his side's performance in the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup was reflective of their current rankings but said they are not afraid of India in their crucial Super Eights match on Sunday.

Flower said his wards will have to play with "controlled aggression" in their must-win game at Lord's here if they are to stay afloat in the tournament.

"I am not sure where we are ranked in Twenty20 International cricket, but in 50 overs we are sixth in the world and at the moment that is the level we are performing at in 20 overs as well. I think it is a reflection of where we are as a team," Flower said.

"India are a very good side and we respect them tremendously but we aren't fearful of them. We'll play an attacking brand of Twenty20 cricket when we face them. We're definitely not going to win this tournament by playing conservative cricket," he said.

Explaining further, the England coach said he was for controlled aggression instead of unbridled slam-bang.

"There's a blend of attack and good decision-making that you've got to find. It's not just crash, bang, wallop all the time, there is a lot of thought that goes into that crash, bang, wallop and there is a skill to playing the right shot at the right time."

Flower also accepted that lack of top-level experience in this format of the game could count against his side when they take on India's star-studded line-up.

"In terms of international experience - and when I say that I include world tournaments such as the IPL where you've the best players in the world playing - we're lacking some of the experience that other top sides have so we're learning about this game as the tournament progresses," Flower said.

"These tournaments are important to the team's development. Development is something that will happen in time but ultimately it is about performance. This is a World Cup and we want to win it in our home country and performance has to be our first priority." Read more

Yuvraj, Ojha star in India's win touching Bangladesh

After skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to bat, India reached 180 for five with Gautam Gambhir cracking 50 while Yuvraj Singh hit a blistering 41 off 18 balls, including four sixes and three fours. Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha then claimed four wickets, giving away just 21 runs, to wreck the Bangladesh batting order and stop them at 155 for eight.Bangladesh began their chase in right earnest through Tamim Iqbal (15) and Junaid Siddique (41).

Off-spinner Yusuf Pathan struck in his first over as Tamim came down the wicket for a big hit, only to miss the line and be stumped by Dhoni.Siddique attacked Indian bowlers, hitting three sixes and two fours off just 22 deliveries.But he did not get any support from the other end. Ishant Sharma removed skipper Mohammad Ashraful before Pragyan Ojha bowled a superb spell to cripple Bangladesh.

Ojha dismissed Shakib Al Hasan and dangerous Siddique in the ninth over and Bangladesh could never recover from the double blow. Ojha claimed his third wicket with Yuvraj Singh taking a sensational diving catch to remove Mahmudullah.Yuvraj then dropped a simple chance of Raqibul Hasan in the 14th over.Ojha got his fourth victim in Mashraf Mortaza, who after hitting the bowler for a six went for slog sweep but the ball spun from the middle stump to rattle his off-stump.Ojha then pouched Hasan at mid-on off Zaheer Khan.

Naeem Islam struck 28 off 17 balls with three sixes, but it came too late in the day.Earlier, Gambhir and Rohit Sharma (36), who opened the batting in absence of injured Virender Sehwag, scored 59 runs for ths first wicket.Rohit, who smashed three boundaries and two sixes, was bowled by Shakib after surviving a stumping chance off the previous delivery.Dhoni (26) and Gambhir added 53 runs for the second wicket, but when the former he was bowled by Naeem (2-32), India had only 112 runs to show in the 15th over.It was Yuvraj's breathtaking knock that helped India smash 59 runs in the last four overs.Irfan Pathan (11) hit a four and a six off the last three deliveries he faced.
Source: www.cricket.yahoo.com Read more

India vs Bangladesh Highlights - T20 Highlights

Dhoni won the toss and took the bat first. In Opening Gautma Gambhir and Suresh Raina Stat well. and Made 180 runs from 20 Over.

Watch Video here

India Batting





Teams :


Bangladesh : Mohammad Ashraful (capt), Mashrafe Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Siddique, Raqibul Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Naeem Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Mohammad Mahmudullah, Rubel Hossain.

India : Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan. Read more

India vs Bangladesh Online Live Score | highlight

This is the opening match for both India and Bangladesh in twenty20 world cup. This is a rematch of group A and in this group, the other country is Ireland. Bangladesh vs India will start at 17:00 GMT (Local Time 18:00) and Trent Bridge, Nottingham is the venue. I know that the supporters of India are expecting a big win by a huge margin but they should not be complacent about playing against Bangladesh. You should remember that In 2007 World Cup cricket, Bangladesh depicted India and then way India got out from the first round. Therefore, if Bangladesh again wins then it will not be the first time.

For India, Bangladesh may look easy meat on paper but Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men will guard against complacency when they begin their title defense against the minnows in the Twenty20 World Cup here tomorrow.

Considering the ease with which India bulldozed Pakistan in their last warm-up match, Bangladesh would require an extraordinary effort even to stretch them but upsets do happen and that would keep Dhoni's men on their toes in the Group A encounter.

The Bangladeshi supporters have another reason to feel confident. In the practice matches, Bangladesh won against Netherlands and Scotland. Not only that, they put up a very strong fight against Australia and Sri Lanka. In fact, in the match against the Lanka, they could put their opponent in constant pressure until the last moment. Of course, you have to remember that these are practice matches but tomorrow, it is a real match of T20 World cup 2009. India is the current champion of this event and they’re one of the hot favorites even this time.

Bangladesh stunned India in the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean to plot an early exit of their neighbors from the quadrennial extravaganza and Ashraful said a repeat on Saturday could give them a Super Eights berth in the Twenty20 World Cup.

"Our first goal is the Super Eights but if we have a good start against India, it will give us the confidence of going far in the tournament," Ashraful said.

Indian team has one advantage and that is they have some excellent batsman who can demolish any bowling lineup. Well, the only problem that I can understand about teaming India is that the English condition can be quite tricky. It is more difficult for the batsman to score runs in England than Other countries like India. We saw that in the match against New Zealand the Indian batsmen suffered. However, they were in top form against Pakistan and the supporters want that the Indian batsman can continue their good form in the match against Bangladesh.

Bangladesh and India are expecting that they will advance to the second round from this group. The other countries are land and many people think that Bangladesh and India will easily go to the second round. So, in a sense, tomorrow’s match is like the decider for the top spot of the group. Of course, in English condition, many things can happen as England is a famous country before frequent and unexpected rains out of no where.

India is now the most important market for cricket revenue and naturally, many web sites will provide live score and updates of the match between India and Bangladesh today. I’m giving the name of some of the web sites:
Cricinfo
Cricketnext
Cricket.sulekha
Stickcricket
Source:www.sports37.com

Who do you think will win the match today?
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