Humanist
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The start
Travelling teams often say the best way to play in the subcontinent is to first silence their crowds. Virender Sehwag applied the principle to India's neighbours. It had been a long and frenzied build-up to the event, and Bangladesh was a potential banana-peel game for India, especially if the crowds got on top of them. The first ball of the match gave Sehwag the slightest amount of width, and he crashed it past cover for four. World Cups don't get off to more explosive starts.
The cheers
The loudest, sustained cheers from a sell-out crowd were sadistic ones. The first was when Sehwag was hit by a short ball somewhere between his pad and thigh pad; they went mad as he went down. Virat Kohli later misread the bounce of another short one, and inside-edged onto the area between his thigh pad and the box. He bent over in pain, and the roof of the stadium came off again. To rub salt into his wound, the giant screen showed three replays of the hit before the next delivery. Each was greeted by a loud cheer.
Those replays were conspicuous in their absence later in the innings when Mushfiqur Rahim was hit in the face by a ball that bounced in front of him. It was in fact the longest period of silence at the Shere Bangla Stadium, as Mushfiqur received treatment.
Travelling teams often say the best way to play in the subcontinent is to first silence their crowds. Virender Sehwag applied the principle to India's neighbours. It had been a long and frenzied build-up to the event, and Bangladesh was a potential banana-peel game for India, especially if the crowds got on top of them. The first ball of the match gave Sehwag the slightest amount of width, and he crashed it past cover for four. World Cups don't get off to more explosive starts.
The cheers
The loudest, sustained cheers from a sell-out crowd were sadistic ones. The first was when Sehwag was hit by a short ball somewhere between his pad and thigh pad; they went mad as he went down. Virat Kohli later misread the bounce of another short one, and inside-edged onto the area between his thigh pad and the box. He bent over in pain, and the roof of the stadium came off again. To rub salt into his wound, the giant screen showed three replays of the hit before the next delivery. Each was greeted by a loud cheer.
Those replays were conspicuous in their absence later in the innings when Mushfiqur Rahim was hit in the face by a ball that bounced in front of him. It was in fact the longest period of silence at the Shere Bangla Stadium, as Mushfiqur received treatment.
