India to face dangerous Bangladesh in World Cup opener

The fact that India are slated to face Bangladesh in the 2011 World Cup opener will cause cricket lovers to turn back the clock to the 2007 edition of the tournament where India were beaten by their lesser fancied neighbours first-up. There's more to fear when one brings up India's record in World Cup openers.

India featured in two openersu00a0in 1975 and 1979 and lost both. In 1975, they were beaten by England by 202 runs while in 1979, eventual champions West Indies clinched a nine-wicket win.

In the 1991-92 edition, India played the second match of the inaugural day against England at Perth and Mohammed Azharuddin's team lost to Graham Gooch's team by nine runs. The Englishmen ended up in the finals against Pakistan who took home the trophy.

Here are more facts about World Cup openers:

'Very rarely has a World Cup opened with a close contest.The most thrilling game of all was the West Indies vs South Africa match in 2003 which West Indies, helped by Brian Lara's hundred, won by three runs.

'Lara's hundred at Cape Town is a famous World Cup-opening ton. The other two celebrated centurions are Martin Crowe, who played a blinder against Australia to kick off the 1991-92 edition (India and England played later in the day) and fellow Kiwi Nathan Astle, whose match-winning hundred against England was scored at Ahmedabad in 1996.

'The opening of the 1996 match ended up being forfieted by Australia. Mark Taylor's Australians refused to go to Sri Lanka due to the security situation and had to sacrifice points. They ended up being runners-up beaten by the Lankans at Lahore.

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