For Virender Sehwag, the 87-run victory over Bangladesh in the World Cup opener today was a revenge that he waited to take for the past four years. After his magnificent knock of 175 off only 140 balls, Sehwag admitted that he was waiting for this day for the past four years having lost to same opponents in the Cup opener four years back.
"It was a good start for the team. I have said this is a revenge game and we have really played well," the man of the match said at the post match presentation ceremony.
Someone who never minces words, Sehwag said that Bangaldesh are a good outfit when it came to limited overs cricket.
"When I came here, the press asked me about Bangladesh team. I have said before Bangladesh are not good in Tests, but they can compete in ODIs, but today they could not," was his curt assessment about the opposition.
Sehwag who had expressed his intentions of batting long before the start of the tournament said that strategy was to get 100 within 30 overs.
"I was looking to bat long, maybe get a 100 in 30 overs and then go on. Special thanks to my physio Nitin (Patel) and trainer Ramji (Srinivasan) for helping me. I was carrying a couple of injuries and they got me ready for this game."
Sehwag was all praise for young Virat Kohli who also scored a century. "He batted superbly. He deserved that century."
The Nawab of Najafgarh as he is popularly known also praised the team effort. "Everyone has done well except Sreesanth. But one bowler can have an off-day but the others did well."
For skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, fielding is an area where there is lot of room for improvement.
"In the fielding department, we will need to contribute more. While fielding, we would like to save around ten runs. There are others in the tournament who are good fielding sides."
He showered accolades on Sehwag and Kohli for adding a whopping 203 runs in only 24.1 overs.
"When you have lost a couple of wickets, you need to stabilise, and it was nice to see Sehwag and Kohli do that. The pitch was on the slower side during the afternoon session and it would have been difficult for a new batsman to get going right from the start. So once the batsmen get going they should look to stay till the end," the captain said.
He also praised the bowlers for putting up a controlled performance.
"The bowlers did a good job on this kind of a track. Especially, the spinners had to fight it out."
Although a comfortable victory provides an ideal momentum but Dhoni believes that "everything starts from scratch once next match comes up."
The World Cup schedule has been dubbed as long by many but Dhoni feels that a week's time gives the players a chance to work on their niggles and turn 100 percent match fit before the next game against England in Bangalore from February 27.
Dhoni's counterpart Shakib Al Hasan admitted that they bowled badly.
"We gave away too many boundary balls. Also Sehwag took the game away from us. Actually our fast bowlers didn't execute their plans properly. They were a bit rusty and hopefully they will be back to form in next match," Shakib said.
Bangladesh dropped former captain and experienced batsman Mohammad Ashraful for the opening match against India but the skipper said the decision would have made hardly any impact on the outcome of the match.
"I think it was the best possible combination. For our openers the plan was simple, they had to bat properly and keep going. Tamim (Iqbal) and Junaed (Siddique) tried to do that. They didn't play too many bad shots and there wasn't many slogs. We almost got to 300," Shakib said.
Asked whether Bangladesh missed pacer Mushrafe Mortaza, who was not selected in the World Cup squad due to injury, Shakib said: "He is not in the squad but it wouldn't have been different if he was.
"The fast bowlers did well in the last 12 months and I am sure they'll come back strongly. Shafiul (Islam) was maybe slightly nervous and so he couldn't execute the plans. He bowled too many boundary balls.
Asked whether whether his decision to put India into bat backfired, the Bnagladesh captain said, "I still think my decision was right."
© PTI
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