Watson looking forward to challenge of opening

When he wasn't hobbling around with a nagging calf strain, Shane Watson spent much of the 2007 World Cup padded up, waiting, and watching Matthew Hayden crush opponents with help from his opening partner Adam Gilchrist. Hayden dominated that tournament more than any other batsman, with three centuries against top teams, and it's a role Watson wants to play this time around. 

So dominant were Hayden, Gilchrist and the rest of the top order that Watson, who was batting at No. 7 during that period, had to face only 85 balls through the entire seven-week event. Fast forward four years and Watson is an established, in-form opener, and Australia will be desperate for him to have a massive series, with less depth and experience in the middle order than in years gone by. 

"It's a different challenge compared to batting at No. 7 in the team that we had," Watson said. "It's a much bigger responsibility opening the batting and trying to lay a great platform for the team like Matt Hayden and Adam Gilchrist did so beautifully throughout their careers. I know it's a big responsibility and I'm really looking forward to it.

"It's a great challenge over here and I've been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time here over the past two years to get used to the conditions. They're big shoes to fill because [Hayden and Gilchrist] have performed unbelievably well throughout their careers, especially in World Cups." 

Watson enters the 2011 tournament with some formidable figures behind him. He's scored 832 one-day runs in the past year, comfortably Australia's best, and earlier this month he won his second consecutive Allan Border Medal. He didn't just win it, he annihilated all his colleagues by earning 295 votes, a full hundred in front of the second-placed Michael Hussey. 

It's a form-line that will leave opponents scratching their heads as to how to control him. The first team that has to find the solution is Zimbabwe, whose batting coach Grant Flower has been searching for some inside tips from his brother Andy, who as coach of England recently saw Watson plunder 161 at the MCG, after he was one of the few Australians who also had a solid Ashes series. 

"He has been playing brilliantly," Grant Flower said in the lead-up to Monday's game. "I spoke to my brother last night and asked him the same thing, and he didn't have many answers. But there are a lot of class players and there are no obvious weaknesses, otherwise they wouldn't be playing at international level. But our main strength is spin, so hopefully we can get it in the right areas and he might succumb to the same pressures that everyone else is under." 

One thing in Zimbabwe's favour is that it was spin that troubled Australia during their two warm-up losses, against India and South Africa over the past week, although Watson fell to pace both times in making 33 and 0. Australia know they must improve from those two opening encounters, although Watson was confident that the defeats were not an indication of how the rest of their campaign would unfold. 

"We played some good cricket throughout the summer in Australia but we also knew that there was a little bit of improvement to go in just about all aspects of our one-day cricket," Watson said. "The past couple of days have been excellent for getting used to the Indian conditions and getting our game-plans and our roles in the team exactly where they should be." 

Australia enter Monday's match Against Zimbabwe, in Ahmedabad, hoping to keep their unbeaten run in World Cups going - they have not lost a World Cup game since 1999 - but knowing they should not compare themselves to the teams headed by Ricky Ponting at the past two tournaments.

"I don't really see the pressure to defend the World Cup because we are a very different team to what the team was in 2007," Watson said. "In the end there's pressure on every team to win the World Cup, no matter what."

Kenya bat first as Mills sits out

Jimmy Kamande called correctly at the toss and opted to bat first on a pitch expected to help slow bowlers, as Kenya and New Zealand opened their World Cup accounts in Chennai. This pitch has come in for some criticism from both South Africa captain Graeme Smith and his Australian counterpart, Ricky Ponting, who called it "under-prepared". 

Daniel Vettori, the returning New Zealand captain who was rested for New Zealand's warm-up against India, has also indicated that he expects the pitch to deteriorate over the course of the day, and so the contribution of Kenya's spinners - led by Shem Ngoche, with back-up from Kamande and Steve Tikolo - could be vital as they look to spring an upset. 

Vettori, too, could be a handful for Kenya's inexperienced line-up on a pitch that is practically free of grass but one man who won't be troubling the Kenyans is Kyle Mills, who sits out today with Hamish Bennett and Tim Southee the two frontline seamers for New Zealand. 

While both teams will have drawn positives from their warm-up games - the good form of opener Seren Waters being particularly pleasing for the Kenyans - both also have plenty to prove in this tournament. The Kenyans' decline from the heights of 2003, when they reached the semi-finals of this event, has been alarming, and New Zealand have come out second best in their last three bilateral series. 

Kenya 1 Seren Waters, 2 Alex Obanda, 3 Collins Obuya, 4 Steve Tikolo, 5 Maurice Ouma (wk), 6 Rakep Patel, 7 Jimmy Kamande (capt), 8 Thomas Odoyo, 9 Shem Ngoche, 10 Nehemiah Odhiambo, 11 Elijah Otieno

New Zealand 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Brendon McCullum (wk), 3 Jessie Ryder, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 James Franklin, 6 Scott Stryis, 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Hamish Bennett, 11 Tim Southee

Sehwag and Kohli sink Bangladesh in opener

There was no reprise of the 2007 upset at Port of Spain in the opening game of this World Cup. Instead, Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli gave evidence of the havoc this Indian batting line-up can create during centuries that demoralised Bangladesh's bowlers. Shakib Al Hasan's men failed to maintain their composure in the grandest match of their lives and conceded a total beyond the reach of their batting abilities. 

There was wisdom in Bangladesh choosing to chase - the previous 12 day-night matches at the Shere Bangla were won by the team batting second - but their bowlers were wayward on a slow pitch that kept low and had loopy bounce not conducive to shot-making. Shakib wanted to keep India below 260 when he put them in because of the dew factor later in the evening. He watched the target surge past that as Sehwag and Kohli, who justified his captain's decision to leave out Suresh Raina, dismantled the attack in front of a shell-shocked crowd and powered India to 370. 

Bangladesh, however, did not go quietly. Faced with an impossible chase, Imrul Kayes attacked from the outset after which Tamim Iqbal and Shakib took charge. They set off at a sprint, swinging fearlessly, edging luckily, and brought cheer to their supporters. What Bangladesh failed to do, though, was sustain the aggression for as long as Sehwag did, and the asking-rate soared irreversibly out of reach. 

With a withering back-foot drive, Sehwag had slammed the first ball of the tournament to the cover boundary, the opening move of his maiden century against Bangladesh silencing a boisterous Mirpur crowd. Shafiul Islam had given Sehwag too much width, and in his second over he strayed twice on to Sachin Tendulkar's pads with dire consequences. His day would not get better and he conceded 69 off seven. 

India raced to 36 after four overs, forcing Shakib to turn to his premier spinner, Abdur Razzak, in the fifth. Razzak looped the ball into Sehwag from round the wicket, following the batsman and cramping him for room as he tried to hit inside out through the off side. Sehwag had scored 12 off his first six balls and 13 off his next 24. 

Bangladesh were listless, though, as Sehwag regained his touch and never lost it again, but they also had some good fortune. A mix-up, during which both Tendulkar and Sehwag were ball-watching, left both batsmen at one end and the Mirpur crowd found its voice again. 

Sehwag, however, continued piercing gaps and hit the tournament's first six, hoisting Razzak over wide long-on to reach fifty off 45 balls. With Gautam Gambhir, Sehwag added 83 to build on the opening stand of 69. While Sehwag used muscle, Gambhir played with precision - dabbing, pushing and chipping into gaps. His dismissal for a run-a-ball 39, bowled by a straight one from Mahmudullah, was against the run of play.

The exceptional feature of Kohli's innings was his driving. On a surface this slow, he reached the pitch of the ball, gathering momentum with a forward thrust of his body, and drove crisply through the off side with a whip of his wrists. He did it against pace and spin, scoring effortlessly at more than a run a ball. In the 33rd over, Kohli drove Naeem Islam twice to the cover boundary and pulled him behind square, placing the ball just wide of the fielders each time. India took their batting Powerplay after the mandatory ball change and scored 48 for 0 during the fielding restrictions. 

At one stage Sehwag, who had Gambhir running for him because of an injury, had a shot at a double-century. He fell in the 48th over, though, almost making good his pledge to bat through the innings. Kohli continued to motor towards a hundred in his first World Cup match and got there off the penultimate ball of the innings, possibly having secured his spot for the rest of the tournament. 

The pitch quickened in the evening, making shot-making easier, and the dew greased the outfield, making the ball harder to grip. But Bangladesh's bowlers had conceded too much ground for their batsmen to regain. They tried, though, and the initial assault on the Indian bowlers was fierce. 

The highlight of that brief blitz was the attack on Sreesanth. Kayes edged, flicked, pulled and drove him for boundaries, and a wayward wide contributed to Bangladesh taking 24 runs off the fifth over. They were 51 for 0. Kayes then tried to force the slower pace of Munaf Patel, who replaced Sreesanth, through the off side and played on, ending the opening partnership at 56. 

Zaheer Khan's control and the introduction of spin resulted in an increase in dot balls and a reduction in boundaries, and by the half-way stage the asking-rate was already 9.36. Tamim and Shakib completed aggressive half-centuries and the rest of the batsmen also struck the ball fluently during a heartening display. Victory, however, had already escaped them. Bangladesh will hope to reproduce this batting effort in a match in which their bowlers get their act together.