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Hosts bow out, India in final

SPORTS REPORTER
It was another day of positives for Bangladesh despite Khaled Mahmud's men going down fighting against India by four wickets in the TVS Cup trination tournament at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
Defending a modest total of 207, Bangladesh gave the under-strength India team a real scare before they laboured to 208-6 in 42.5 overs. But at the end of the day the hosts felt another 30-odd runs could have
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made the difference on a slow wicket.
India rested their captain Saurav Ganguly injured left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh. Besides, hard-hitting Yuvraj Singh had to withdraw at the last minute because he was running a high temperature.
The result sealed India's place in the April 20 final with a game in hand against South Africa.
Bangladesh on the other hand were eliminated from the race before going into their final match against the South Africans at the same venue today.
Despite three consecutive defeats, Bangladesh can be satisfied that they achieved some semblance of consistency in their batting. They crossed the 200-run barrier for the second time in a row after the 211 against South Africa on Monday.
Habibul Bashar scored 50 and veteran Akram Khan struck 35 to lay the foundation of a fighting Bangladesh total after Mahmud won his first toss in the tournament.
Opener Mehrab Hossain made up for his first-match duck against the same opponents last Friday with a stroke-filled 30.
But the lone one-day centurion of Bangladesh owed a lot to Dinesh Mongia, who dropped the right-hander twice early on.
Mahmud also continued his good form with a 29-ball 23.
But Bangladesh failed to launch their innings in the way they did against South Africa the other night mainly due to the early dismissal of young sensation Mohammad Ashraful.
The half-centurion Ashraful had the misfortune of dragging an Ajit Agarkar delivery on to his stumps after scoring only seven. Before that he hit a glorious four against Aavisker Salvi in the first over that yielded 11 runs.
Javed Omar was again disappointing. Batting at number four for a change, the right-hander offered a simple return catch off off-spinner Sarandeep Singh after making one.
Alok Kapali, considered as Bangladesh's crisis man, also struggled. After facing 25 balls and scoring just nine, the talented right-hander spooned an easy catch at short fine-leg to Mongia while trying to sweep Sarandeep.
Bashar and Akram shared 46 runs for the fifth wicket. Although it was the
highest partnership of the innings, Bangladesh lost the momentum once Bashar threw his wicket after completing his sixth half- century and with the score on 124 in 35 overs.
When the situation demanded Bashar to make up for the slow scoring that saw Bangladesh adding only 46 runs in the last 14 overs, the elegant right-hander shocked the crowd with an outrageous aerial shot against Agarkar.
Known as big hitter and a good player of spin, Akram was also looking very uncomfortable at the crease. He struck only four boundaries in 61 balls.
Bangladesh's eventual total was mainly due to a plucky knock of 15 by Tapas Baishya, who added 25 valuable runs with fellow tail-ender Tareq Aziz for the last wicket.
Agarkar was the pick of the Indian bowlers with three for 36.
Acting Indian captain Virender Sehwag gave his side a flying start with a run-a-ball 43. He put on 69 runs with Gautam Gambhir for the first wicket.
Gambhir put behind his earlier failures with a man-of-the-match performance. The southpaw scored 71 off 89 balls that included nine boundaries.
Wicketkepper Parthiv Patel, batting at number three, scored 27. Besides, Mohammad Kaif, who hit an unbeaten 95 against the Proteas in the previous match, made 20.
Mohammed Rafique troubled the Indian batsmen with his left-arm spin, but he deserved more than his 2-42.