Dravid Admits To Indian Nightmare

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Dravid - shock loss to Bangladesh.

Indian captain Rahul Dravid admitted that his side's five-wicket loss at the hands of unfancied Bangladesh in their Group B opener was "a bad dream".

Bangladesh stunned Dravid's side with a clinical approach, dismissing them for just 191 and then chasing down their target with nine balls to spare.

Dravid conceded that his team were disappointed with the result but were looking forward to the next two games - against Bermuda and Sri Lanka - with a view to putting things right.

"Obviously everyone is disappointed but there is nothing that we can do about today's game. If we can pull ourselves out of this dark hole, we will say it was a bad dream and move on."

Dravid paid tribute to Bangladesh, stressing that their control with the ball never allowed India to take the initiative.

"We looked at the wicket and felt that the bowlers would get some early help but we backed our batsmen to get through the early stages and come good but this never happened.

"Their bowlers took charge and we found ourselves unable to get partnerships or take charge since we lost wickets regularly."

He also paid tribute to the Bangladesh batsmen, particularly 17-year old Tamim Iqbal who struck a blistering 51 at the top of the order off 53 balls.

"He came in and decided to play big shots and it paid off and that certainly put us under some pressure."

Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar declared the game to be the Tigers' most important victory ever.

"It's very big for us and if we can go one and make it to the Super Eight stage, we would be very pleased," he said.

But the experienced Bashar refused to get carried away by the success and insisted they would apply equal focus to their remaining two group games.

"We don't want to talk before the games," he said. "We are here to put on a good show and let the rest of the world know about our cricket, so we are just hoping to play good cricket."

Bashar and man-of-the-match Mashrafe Mortaza, who took four for 38, dedicated the victory to the late Manjural Islam, a member of the original 30-man Bangladesh squad, who died in a motorcycle accident two days ago.

"We want to remember him," said the captain.