India Begin Title Defense in Fashion Style

Yuvraj Singh's brutal 18-ball 41 played a key role in taking India to a match-winning total at Trent Bridge.

Trent Bridge: Yuvraj Singh dazzled with the bat before Pragyan Ojha spun a web around Bangladesh as India thumped the minnows by 25 runs to begin their title defence with a bang in the Twenty20 World Cup on Saturday.

Ojha's four-wicket haul in his maiden Twenty20 International broke Bangladesh's back as the minnows finished at 155 for eight, a total they owe to Junaid Siddique (41) and Naeem Islam (28).

Earlier, Gautam Gambhir (50) and Rohit Sharma (36) gave India a rollicking start but it was Yuvraj's violent 18-ball 41 that propelled them to 180 for five in the Group A opener.

Chasing 181, Bangladesh began on a positive note with Tamim Iqbal (15) hitting Zaheer Khan for two successive fours and Junaid (41 off 22 balls) pulling Irfan Pathan for a six.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni introduced Yusuf Pathan and it paid off as the duo collaborated to get Tamim stumped in the third over.

Junaid looked unperturbed as he scored at a brisk rate, hitting sixes off the Pathan brothers Yusuf and Irfan and Harbhajan Singh.

Unfortunately, wickets kept tumbling at the other end. Mohammad Ashraful (11) fell to Ishant Sharma and then Pragyan Ojha struck twice in his first over to unhinge Bangladesh.

Shakib Al Hasan (8) top edged Ojha's first delivery to Dhoni and then Junaid holed out in the deep as Bangladesh slumped to 77 for four.

Yuvraj took a stunner to remove Mahmudullah (8) and by then, the writing was clear on the wall for Bangladesh and their defeat was just a matter of time.

Pragyan Ojha is the Man of the Match. He says that he has had experience of playing in English conditions at club level. So he didn't really mind the cold conditions much. It was pretty cold out there and gripping the ball and tweaking it was not very easy. He treasures this debut and look forward to carrying on. 

Dhoni says that it was good to have got the runs even after he and Gauti got stuck in the middle overs. The ball was not coming onto the bat and he was confident of defending 180 as he had 2 spinners in the side. 

Ashraful thinks that they did not really bat well. Their bowlers could not finish the innings well either. He seems confident of beating Ireland and making it to the Super 8s though. 

Brief Score: India 180 for 5 (Gambhir 50, Yuvraj 41) beat Bangladesh 155 for 8 (Siddique 41, Ojha 4-21) by 25 runs.