Fan reactions tainting a rivalry

The cliffhanger in Bangalore on Wednesday was more layered than just a one-run defeat for Bangladesh.

The Powerplay overs showed just how intelligently Bangladesh's team management had prepared for India's openers by placing fielders in the deep point region, where both Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan often get their boundaries.

The cheeky field placements for MS Dhoni towards the end -- a mid-off right in the line of Dhoni's straight drive -- displayed just how much homework had been done by Chandika Hathurusingha and Co prior to the game.

What was also brilliant to see was the way the visitors, prior to the last three balls of the game, reacted to the pressure. The M Chinnaswamy Stadium was packed on that day and it was a sort of environment that was completely opposite to the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, with almost all the fans cheering for their opposition.

It's a sort of environment they are not used to, and yet they tackled it almost to perfection. Sabbir Rahman held his nerve to take a skier to dismiss Rohit Sharma. While he was extremely pumped up after completing the catch, he barely showed any emotion afterwards. Soumya Sarkar calmly grinned after taking the best catch of the match -- a one-handed diving interception of a missile from the bat of Hardik Pandya at the boundary.

These are signs of maturity. And irrespective of the result on Wednesday, the match showcased that there is a good chance for the India-Bangladesh contest to blossom in the near future.

While it is too early to ponder a rivalry along the lines of India-Pakistan as Bangladesh do not yet have the numbers in the wins column, Wednesday's game suggests that there will be no shortage of excitement when the two teams meet next.

This of course is a good sign for cricket on the whole. However, the kind of reactions that were witnessed from fans from both sides have heavily tainted a contest that has the potential to become a great rivalry.

Social media has been filled with messages and pictures, related to Indian and Bangladeshi players, spreading hatred in the last few months. While there is no shame in banter, it would not be wrong to say that a line has been crossed.

An example among many is the doctored picture of Dhoni's disembodied head in Taskin Ahmed's hand before the Asia Cup final, which in turn resulted in a bunch of Bangladeshi websites being hacked as part of the Indian retaliation.

It wasn't always as heated as this. A lot of it has to do with the fact that the Bangladeshi fans think of themselves as the victims of injustice -- exacerbated no doubt by the suspensions of Taskin Ahmed and Arafat Sunny for illegal bowling actions -- and that the main villains of the script are the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the International Cricket Council (ICC).

And so attacking Jasprit Bumrah's bowling action by posting pictures on social media, which frankly proves nothing, suddenly seems like the right thing to do.

It is an odd theory considering that the ICC would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Bangladesh's progress. The more that Bangladesh improves, the more competitive cricket becomes on the whole.

The bottom line is that Wednesday's game suggests that the India-Bangladesh face-off has the ability to move on to the next level and one does not require such fan reactions to taint the image.

Bangladesh's cricket has come a long way; maybe it is time for some of its more reactionary fans to catch up. The same can be said for their counterparts across the border.