WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2015 India relaxed before B’desh quarter-final MELBOURNE: If India, the most watched “I know that every time India meet and heavily scrutinised team in world crick- Bangladesh in the World Cup, everyone et, are under any pressure ahead of goes back to 2007 and what happened in Thursday’s World Cup quarter-final against Port of Spain. This Indian side bears no Bangladesh, they are doing well to hide it. resemblance to that team whose morale With the weight of expectation of the was so low right from the start of the com- world’s second most populated country on petition,” he wrote in a column that their shoulders, India’s players could hardly appeared in Tuesday’s Hindustan Times be any more relaxed. newspaper. Yesterday, less than 48 hours before the “Even though Bangladesh are playing start of the match, the players ventured to their best cricket, this is a happy Indian side the Melbourne Cricket Ground. that has mastered the art of winning Rather than hitting the nets to practise crunch games.” their batting and bowling, the players took For India, the weight of expectation can it easy, with a light-hearted game of soccer sometimes be overbearing. They have been on the stadium’s sprawling outfield. feted like rockstars at every match they Despite being followed by a massive have played during the tournament and a Indian media contingent, the team did not crowd of 80,000 is expected to flock to the make themselves available for media inter- MCG for tomorrow’s sudden-death action, maintaining a cloak of silence until encounter. Wednesday’s mandatory pre-game news Complacency may have loomed as the conference. biggest danger but India captain Mahendra As the defending World Cup champions Singh has said the pressure to succeed was and one of two unbeaten teams in the enough to ensure they never let their tournament-the other is New Zealand-India guard down. “Irrespective of which team will go into Thursday’s match as over- we play or which tournament we play, we whelming favourites to win but still wary are under pressure,” he said after his team’s about their opponents. final pool game win. “The good thing, the Bangladesh famously beat India at the boys are quite used to it. Once a few times 2007 World Cup but have beaten their there have been instances where we are great rivals just once since then and retired down, but from that position, also, we have India bowler Javagal Srinath said history come back strongly and we have done would not repeat itself this week. well.” —Reuters AUSTRALIA: Sri Lankan cricketers warm up during a training session at the Sydney Cricket Ground ahead of the 2015 Cricket World Cup quarter- final match against South Africa. —AFP Bangladesh look to past glories SouthA frica out to MELBOURNE: Bangladesh know the odds ‘FEARLESS CRICKET’ are stacked against them beating India in India avenged their loss to Bangladesh shed unwanted tag tomorrow’s World Cup quarter-final at the at the 2011 World Cup, which they went on Melbourne Cricket Ground. If history and to win, and have been punishing them ever current form are any guide, India should since. Since 2007, Bangladesh have beaten Q-final Sri Lanka showdown win in a canter. India just once, in 2012. Shakib, currently ranked the world’s top all-rounder, said Bangladesh have done well just to make SYDNEY: South Africa have a chance to finally hit form at the right time and flourish in the Muttiah Muralitharan’s simple advice to his Bangladesh were adopting the same the quarter-finals, beating England, shed their reputation as one of the most mental- pressure of the knockout stage. compatriots was “win the toss and do not get approach they had in 2007 in the hope of Scotland and Afghanistan along the way, ly fragile teams in international sport when they South Africa, by contrast, have lived with the too hung up thinking about AB de Villiers”. producing another major upset. “I think we but few expect them to go any further. take on Sri Lanka in what should be a tight “chokers” tag for many years now and defeat at Unless there is cloud cover over the SCG, and played fearless cricket and we all want to And that suits Bangladesh just fine. The World Cup quarter-final today. the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday will the weather forecast indicates there will not be, play that brand of cricket (again) and, so far Tigers are used to living in India’s cricketing The Proteas boast the number one ranked trigger another bout of soul-searching back both sides are likely to follow the spin-bowling in this World Cup, I think we’re doing it,” he shadow and are happy to play the role of batsman in world cricket in skipper AB de Villiers, home. great’s advice and bat first. said. “India have a very good team. They are underdogs against their subcontinent while elegant Sri Lanka lefthander Kumar It was at the SCG that the South Africans South Africa lost to both India and Pakistan in the defending world champions, they’ve neighbors. Sangakkara’s four successive centuries make him bowed out of their first World Cup in 1992 after the pool stage batting second, as did Sri Lanka got some world class players, but we’re And while they have only managed the form batsman of the tournament. the victory target revision in the wake of rain dis- against New Zealand and Australia, and they doing well in this World Cup, our confi- three wins over India in 28 One Day Neither side has had the bowling perform- ruption condemned them to defeat against have concerns over the form of opener Quinton dence is high enough and we’re up for the Internationals it is enough to give the ances they had hoped for so far but both are England. de Kock. match.” Bangladesh were once regarded as Tigers hope. Their most famous win came expecting key interventions from their top pace- Their exits since have been a mixture of mis- With Hashim Amla at the top of the order the whipping boys of world cricket but men in the knockout stages, Dale Steyn for takes-Herschelle Gibbs “dropping the World Cup” and Faf du Plessis fit again after a back prob- at the 2007 World Cup when Bangladesh Shakib said India, perhaps more than most South Africa and Lasith Malinga for Sri Lanka. in 1999 — high farce-Shaun Pollock miscalculat- lem, though, South Africa have enough batting beat India by five wickets at Queen’s Park countries, had unwittingly helped them Both showed good form in the pool stage but ing the victory target in 2003 — and simply to carry one out-of-form player even before Oval at Port of Spain. It was only a pool become a force to be reckoned with. Many lost two of their six games, while their record being outplayed-against Australia in 2007. you consider the carnage de Villiers can wreak match but the result meant India failed to Bangladesh players, including Shakib, play against each other in one-day internationals is On paper, the 2015 side is the equal of any of on his day. Sri Lanka’s top order, which also fea- make it past the first round. in the Indian Premier League (IPL) along- well balanced with Sri Lanka just ahead on 29 their predecessors and, it appears, the biggest tures Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne For the Bangladeshi players, 2007 side India’s top players and being exposed wins to 28 for South Africa. threat to them winning a first knockout match at Dilshan, have carried them through to the last remains a constant source of inspiration, to massive crowds in big matches. Where Sri Lanka have a clear edge, however, a World Cup is themselves. eight and they have managed well enough even if it removed the veil of surprise. “This is the first time we’re playing in a is in the World Cup record books. Champions in Sri Lanka know that and will take any oppor- without frontline spinner Rangana Herath, who “Obviously it will be in our memory,” World Cup quarter-final but at the same 1996 and finalists in the 2007 and 2011 tourna- tunity they have to ramp up the pressure, espe- remains an injury doubt, for their last two Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan time we need to understand it’s another ments, the islanders have shown the ability to cially if skipper Angelo Mathews wins the toss. matches. —Reuters told a news conference on Tuesday. game of cricket,” said Shakib. “Obviously, on “But it’s a new game and we all know it. pen and paper, India is a better team than India are a very good side, they have some Bangladesh, no one has any doubt about it. world class players. “Obviously it’s going to But on the day it’s a one-off game and if we be hard for us. We know that but we’re up have a good day and they have a bad day, Number’s up for superstitions for the challenge.” you never know.” —Reuters ADELAIDE: Cricket is a game of numbers, of number seven,” said Dhoni. “There is no reason why I wear number 10,” said runs and wickets, averages and strike rates, all “It is a very neutral number according to Afridi. “I just like this number.” examined in mind-boggling detail.