Nottingham, June 7 (Inditop) Yuvraj Singh’s four sixes and Pragyan Ojha’s four wickets saw defending champions India to a comfortable 25-run victory against Bangladesh in their opening Group A match in the World Twenty20 championship at Trent Bridge here Saturday.
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.
rounak