Sehwag started by playing and missing repeatedly but the bowlers lacked the accuracy to put any real pressure on him. Time and again, the pressure built up would be relieved by a delivery just asking to be spanked to the rope.

Gautam Gambhir started with a sublime cover-drive off Tariq Aziz, a stroke he repeated with a touch more elegance off Tapash Baisya later in the innings, and was thereafter content to give most of the strike to Sehwag, whose innings gathered momentum at the same time that the wind picked up.

Both Aziz and Tapash didn’t help their cause by spraying the ball both sides of the wicket. Sehwag took full toll with some punishing strokes square of the wicket - including four through the off side in one Aziz over.

But just when the hiding was becoming especially painful, Mohammad Rafique struck. Sehwag, who had made 43 from 44 balls, charged down the track but his attempt to clear the sightscreen only found Aziz in the deep. Bangladesh had another opportunity to make further inroads but Khaled Masud, behind the stumps, could not get his gloves to a sharp chance offered by his opposite number, Parthiv Patel, batting at the unaccustomedly high number three slot.

After Khaled Mahmud had won the toss, Bangladesh started with steam-engine puff, as Mehrab and Mohammad Ashraful took two fours off Avishkar Salvi’s opening over. Thereafter, it went a little quiet, though when Dinesh Mongia put Mehrab down at slip off Ajit Agarkar, the force seemed to be with the hosts. That good fortune didn’t last though, as Agarkar finished the over with a superb indipper that broke the off stump via the inside-edge of Ashraful’s bat (15 for 1).

Mehrab wasn’t about to go easily though, and he smashed Agarkar through the covers for four and flicked both him and Salvi for boundaries when they strayed down the leg side. But when Sanjay Bangar struck with his first delivery of the tournament - a buffet ball that Mehrab inexplicably flicked straight to Agarkar at backward square leg - the spirited start ground to a sudden halt. Mehrab made 30 from just 35 balls, and his dismissal put pressure on a batting order that has been starved of runs for years now. And it duly told as Javed Omar gifted Sarandeep Singh a lobbed return catch off the leading edge (52 for 3).

Sarandeep struggled with an over-stepping problem, but got another wicket with an innocuous delivery. Alok Kapali’s attempt at a dink-sweep over the leg side went straight to Mongia at square leg and this time, there were no butter-fingers. Kapali made just 9 (78 for 4).

Bashar and Akram then provided stout resistance but proceedings were drearily slow in the middle overs. Akram started with a confident cover-drive off Sarandeep. A sweetly-struck straight-drive hinted at an ease against spin that should have alerted Virender Sehwag on his first outing as Indian captain. That said, Akram had been fortunate in the extreme to survive a stumping in a previous Sarandeep over, as Parthiv Patel had made a hash of gathering the ball behind the stumps.

Bashar’s innings ticked over smoothly, the occasional single spliced with powerful cuts off the spinners, until the reintroduction of Agarkar. Having just got to 50, his pathetic attempt at a loft over the infield only found Mohammad Kaif at cover (124 for 5). Khaled Masud, the former captain, had made just 12 when Amit Mishra got one to turn prodigiously past the outside-edge, bamboozling even Billy Bowden, who lifted his finger when the Indians appealed (139 for 6).

Akram combined a deft touch with some powerful hitting over the infield en route to 35, but he had no answers to a quicker one from Sehwag that speared onto his pads (161 for 7). Salvi then came back to castle Mohammad Rafique and when Mahmud’s top-edged pull off Agarkar found Sehwag at midwicket, Bangladesh’s best-laid plans to sprint past 200 appeared to have come to naught. But Tapash Baisya and Tariq Aziz provided a late flourish, albeit one that’s unlikely to trouble even this severely depleted Indian team.

Sarandeep Singh picked up another wicket and, but for a couple of fours that raised the decibel levels a notch or two, proceedings were drearily slow.

Sarandeep, who struggled with an over-stepping problem, got the wicket with an innocuous delivery. Alok Kapali’s attempt at a dink-sweep over the leg side went straight to Dinesh Mongia at square leg and this time, there were no butter-fingers. Kapali made just 9 (78 for 4).

Akram Khan started with a confident cover-drive off Sarandeep and a sweetly-struck straight-drive hinted at an ease against spin that should have alerted Virender Sehwag. That said, Khan had been fortunate in the extreme to survive a stumping in a previous Sarandeep over, as Parthiv Patel made a hash of gathering the ball behind the stumps.

Habibul’s innings ticked over smoothly, the occasional single spliced with powerful cuts off the spinners.

Bangladesh started with real steam-engine puff as Mehrab and Mohammad Ashraful took two fours off Avishkar Salvi’s opening over. Thereafter, it went a little quiet, though when Dinesh Mongia put Mehrab down at slip off Agarkar, the force seemed to be with the hosts. That good fortune didn’t last, though, as Agarkar finished the over with a superb indipper that broke the off stump via the inside-edge of Ashraful’s bat (15 for 1).

Mehrab wasn’t about to go easily, smashing Agarkar through the covers for four and flicking both him and Salvi for boundaries when they strayed down the leg side. But his departure once more exposed the frailties that have so haunted Bangladesh.

The toss was decisive in the first three games, with the teams batting first winning at a canter. But not too much should be made of that. On each occasion, the more accomplished team had won the toss.

India rested Ganguly, struggling with a bad back, and Zaheer Khan, who limped off the field with a strained hamstring against South Africa. Sanjay Bangar, one of three members of the World Cup squad not to get a game, came in for the captain, and Avishkar Salvi, who made an immediate impression on debut against Bangladesh last Friday, replaced Zaheer.

There were two unenforced changes as well, with Sarandeep Singh coming in for Harbhajan Singh, and Abhijit Kale making his debut – at the age of 29, and after a half-decade of heavy run-scoring at domestic level - in place of Yuvraj Singh.

Bangladesh were thumped in their first outing against India but restored some pride with a grittier batting display on Monday, albeit against a South African bowling line-up not half as potent as it once was. Mohammad Ashraful chanced his arm for a half-century; while Khaled Mahmud’s rustic methods of run-gathering were also successful. They made just one change, with one Hossain – Sanwar – making way for another, Mehrab.

History, though, points to another comprehensive India win. Bangladesh have never beaten India, and they went into this game on the back of 34 straight defeats – a sobering record which is rapidly becoming the antithesis of Joe DiMaggio’s legendary 56-game hitting streak.

Almost exactly three years ago, Akram Khan and friends piled up 248 against India during the Asia Cup at the Bangabandhu Stadium, only for Ganguly to bludgeon India to an eight-wicket victory with more than ten overs in hand. That chase under lights illustrated the gulf in class between the two teams and if anything, the yawning chasm has only gotten wider since.

Teams

Bangladesh 1 Mohammad Ashraful, 2 Javed Omar, 3 Habibul Bashar, 4 Akram Khan, 5 Alok Kapali, 6 Khaled Masud (wk), 7 Mehrab Hossain, 8 Khaled Mahmud (capt), 9 Mohammad Rafique, 10 Tapash Baisya, 11 Tariq Aziz.

India 1 Virender Sehwag (capt), 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Dinesh Mongia, 4 Mohammad Kaif, 5 Abhijit Kale, 6 Sanjay Bangar, 7 Parthiv Patel (wk), 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Sarandeep Singh, 10, Avishkar Salvi, 11 Amit Mishra