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May 18, 2007 (Link to Scorecard)

India are sitting pretty at 295 for 3 on the opening day of the first test at Chittagong. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly are still going strong after getting past their half centuries and the pair will be starting fresh tomorrow to get their respective centuries. The homeside Bangladesh wasn't good enough with the ball on a rain interrupted first day at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium.

It was a good batting strip presented for this Test Match, the only help for the bowlers was going to be the overcast conditions. Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat first with the motive being to bat Bangladesh to bat out of the match with a huge first innings total. The visiting side made the tough decision of leaving out both VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh to play the five bowlers. It was Test Match Debut for Ramesh Powar while Saqibul Hasan got his Test Cap from the Bangladeshi side. Munaf Patel missed out owing to back spasms, it was later revealed that he would be returning back home like Sreesanth. Delhi's young pacer Ishanth Sharma will be flown in as the replacement. India's three pace bowlers included two left armers in Zaheer and RP Singh with Vikram Singh. Speculation of India playing the three spinners was put to rest and Rajesh Pawar, the left arm spinner was left out.

The start from India sent a few shockwaves with Wasim Jaffer cleaned up with an incoming delivery which happened to be the first one of the match. A serious error in judgment from Jaffer and whole of Bangladesh was behind Mashrafe Mortaza. But the bowling seemed to have lacked the discipline. Makeshift opener Dinesh Karthik and Rahl Dravid were constantly fed with loose deliveries from Mortaza and Shahadat Hossain. The initiative that Bangladesh had for the first five minutes of the test match was lost in no time as India raced away to its 50 in as many balls. Mortaza's dream start turned out to be five overs for 39 runs and the Captain Habibul Bashar had to replace him with Mohammad Rafique in the 11th over.

India comfortably dominated the first session moving onto 113 for 1 in the 25 overs bowled. Both Karthik and Dravid compiled their half centuries. However, both batsmen fell at almost the same time during the post lunch session which was delayed by over 50 minutes because of rain. Karthik was the first to go, playing an ambitious pull shot from outside off to be caught at mid off. Mortaza was the wicket taker with Karthik ending up with 56 from 102 with 8 fours. The second wicket partnership was 124 runs worth. Rahul Dravid followed him in another couple of overs, playing a rash square cut to be caught behind off Shahadat Hossain. Dravid made 61 from 99 with 11 fours.

The pressure was slightly on India with two new batsmen in the middle and the score reading 132 for 3. But the experience of Tendulkar and Ganguly exploited the inexperienced bowling of Bangladesh to take charge of the situation. Both these batsmen took India to 181 for 3 in 46 overs at Tea. The last session belonged completely to this pair. There were plenty of short deliveries bowled by the spinners, even Rafique couldn't hold onto a consistent length. He was rattled by a couple of sixes straight down the ground by Ganguly. India played out 31 overs in the last session, collecting 114 runs for no loss. Tendulkar is onto 80 from 137 balls with 7 fours while Ganguly is on 82 from 132 with 10 fours and two sixes. India would be aiming to get a minimum of 400 in their first innings and will be looking to bat just once in this test match. As far as Bangladesh is concerned, their bowling needs to improve a long way, especially the spin department. All the spinners seem to be bowling too flat and too quick and not giving the ball the opportunity to turn!
 

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