Doing it in singles

The protagonists of India's win walk off after a job well done © AFP

Before this match, the highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper in an ODI against Bangladesh was 27 not out, by Parthiv Patel at Dhaka in 2003. That was partly due to the fact that the top order was often enough to do the job for India, but against this much-improved Bangladesh outfit, there was plenty left to do with India's specialists all back in the hutch. It was left to two specialist wicketkeepers - one of whom was playing solely as a batsman - to salvage the situation, and they did it with remarkable poise.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was battling a hamstring problem, while Dinesh Karthik had plenty to prove after being selected only for his batting skills, but both combined splendidly in their 107-run stand, which came off 108 balls. As the table below shows, neither batsman aimed for the glory of boundaries; instead they worked the ball around for ones and twos to keep the score moving. With Dhoni injured, that meant plenty of work for his runner, Yuvraj Singh, as 52 singles and 12 twos were taken. Dhoni deserved his Man-of-the-Match award, but Karthik's contribution was equally vital - he faced 12 more balls but scored 16 more runs than Dhoni. Equally impressive was his ability to score quickly without finding the boundaries - he scored only four fours in 58, but yet got his runs off just 60 balls. His most effective shot was the sweep, a stroke which fetched him 16 runs and helped throw the Bangladesh left-arm spinners off their rhythm.

The key to this match was the way the Indians handled Bangladesh's three left-arm spinners - they were reasonably economical, conceding 125 runs from 28 overs, but they took just two wickets. In the World Cup clash, they had combined to take 6 for 117 from 30 overs. Their inability to take the wickets cost Bangladesh the game.