The Perfect Start ...

WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Take that Bangladesh! That should give you some perspective!! 2007 was an aberration, people.. wake up n smell the coffee!! or as my friend Dr.Sheldon Cooper would like to say, "neener neener!!"

With that out of the way, lets look back at the day's goings-on. The so-called flat track bullies from India hopped across the much blurred border to B'desh, n proceeded to open up a can of unprecedented whoop-A$$ on a world cup host team. And the astounding part is, they didnt even seem to break a sweat while performing a clinical dissection of an insipid, one-dimensional bowling attack, leaving the field, and the sizeable crowd jaded to say the least. You could have heard a fly sneeze while Sehwag and Kohli were crafting one of the most damaging partnerships in WorldCup Cricket. Flashes of Taunton, 1999... you bet!!!

Virender Sehwag was a picture of determination today, and might just have done enough to absolve himself of the blasphemy of running out the Demi-God. Tendulkar's departure just seemed to have strengthened his resolve to make his presence count, boy did he make it count! Dr.Baltar heard of his century coming up in the 31st over and instantly predicted a double-ton. but after all, as much as he might want to pretend otherwise, the good Dr. is still human. Sehwag looked agonizingly close [and in considerable agony] to going past the magic mark, only to hole out on 175. But he had already done more than enough to bludgeon B'desh out of the game. The secret of his success was the low-risk approach in the first 100, and the amazingly straight batted hitting in the next 75. there was a point when a physically restricted Sehwag was lobbing every ball and it was still falling between feilders for 2!

Virat Kohli's ton was just as brilliant, if not more. Bear in mind, this is a 22 year old batsman, in his second real seson of international cricket at the senior level [he's been in n out since 2008, bt dhaka 2009-10 was when he really announced himself], striding out in his first ever world cup game, and did he live up to his ICC #2 ranking or what! A cautious start with a steady acceleration to 50 was punctuated with regular boundary pings, some delightfully straight hitting and uncannily piercing pull-shots. towards the end, each time he pulled, it seemed to beat the two hapless fielders at mid wicket. The flawless century today just adds on to this reputation as the rising star of Indian Cricket. His steady performances make the top-4 of the Indian batting line up a quartet to be dreaded by the opposition.

One must give Bangladesh credit for coming out swinging the way they did. Poor old Sreesanth faced the brunt of a charged opening onslaught for the n-th time, proceeding to get himself hit out of the attack in his 3rd over. Now, Dr. Baltar might have got his prediction about Sehwag's 200 wrong, but captain cool seemed to have known beforehand that Sreesanth will need replacing pretty damn soon. The Dr. can't seem to think of a better explanation of playing 3 seamers n 1 spinner on a slow-ish track. Imrul Kayes started in a mad frenzy, to be followed by Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Sidique. They had at one stage propelled Bangladesh to 70/1 in the first 11, but once spin was introduced, the brakes came firmly on, and the momentum just never recovered. 370 is a huge score, and it would have been all too easy to go hell for leather n get bundled for 150, but Bangladesh showed some nous today by toughing it out with a decent run rate. The Dr. predicts that this total would have a major impact when the time arrives to stake a claim on a quarter-final slot.

Another positive for India was Munaf Patel's restrictive bowling and 4-wicket haul. He might need to be a bit cleverer with his lines, lengths and variations against the big guns of SA and ENG though. Harbhajan Singh seems to enjoy his role of the momentum breaker, and Zaheer Khan just showed why he's been trusted with the responsibility of speraheading the Indian bowling. [Dr.Baltar invites everyone to pray with him that Zak doesnt repeat the 2003 final, when he plays at the Wankhede on April 2nd, 2011! ]

All said and done, India couldn't have asked for a more explosive opening to their Campaign. Sehwag in destructive form, Kohli in sublime touch and the sheer presence of the Demi-God should be enough to see them through this round. The challenge for MSD is to get the other batters, including that enigmatic Southpaw Yuvraj Singh in striking form and ready to stand up and be counted when the crunch times come calling. The enormous net run rate helps immensely, too. One step taken towards a 28-year old dream. 7 more to go!

GO INDIA!!!!!!!!