Sachin Tendulkar celebrates his fifty as team-mate Sourav Ganguly looks onNow this is the type of performance that will make an Indian fan eat his/her hat. In complete contrast to the 1st ODI, the Indian batsmen hammered the ball to all corners of the park. And the finish was in itself a nail-biter. I have, however, yet to see India lose a match after scoring in excess of 320 runs in an ODI, and today they came pretty close changing that.

It really was the Big 3 show today for India. The legends descended on Bristol and were, to their humble devotees, a treat to watch. This is the performance that they are capable of and the defeat in Rose Bowl looks even more humiliating.

Rahul Dravid won the toss yet again, and this time he had no hesitation on batting first on a pitch that had grass and was supposed to be full of pace and bounce. England decided to go for 5 seamers and Monty had to stay out to make way for Chris Tremlett. Did that decision turn out to be a good one or bad? The pitch deceived every person who analysed it, besides Rahul Dravid. He was the only one to read that spin would be the key and decided to bring in Ramesh Powar for a sick Zaheer Khan (down with flu, again). More on this further down.

England started well, and both Anderson and Broad tightened things up. But the slowness of the pitch was evident from the start itself. Tendulkar and Ganguly, with tons of experience behind them, quickly adjusted the game and decided to settle down in the first Power Play. India scored a miserable 39 runs, however more importantly, they did not lose any early wickets.

Sourav Ganguly caresses one through the off sideOnce the two got their eye in, it was all Tendulkar. He was reminiscent of the Sachin we all know and have been dying to see again for a while now. The charge down the track to Chris Tremlett reminded me of that Sharjah match where the little master charged down the track to Tom Moody and hammered him straight down the ground for a six. Yes, Sachin was back and soon England were left clueless on how to stop the little giant.

Paul Collingwood, devoid of options, turned to his trump card - Andrew Flintoff. The big man did not disappoint his skipper as he got one to jump a little too high for Saurav Ganguly who sliced it in the air to backward of point. Collingwood took an excellent running catch. Ganguly departed for 39 but not before the pair added 113 for the first wicket. Collingwood’s lack of experience as a skipper was clear when he decided to take the 3rd and final Power Play just when signs were clear that both the batsmen were well set and looking to go after the bowling. Although Ganguly fell in the 20th over, the last of the Power Plays, the damage had been done. Oh, and he did hit his trademark shot down the ground for the first six of the match. Chris Tremlett was the beneficiary this time.

Yuvraj came in at No 3. Tendulkar was finding the gap consistently and the experience of the Indian was clear as he was looking to place the ball rather than hit it too hard. Being a small ground in Bristol, anything that went into the gap was sure to go for a boundary. However, just before he got to his century, disaster struck. Collingwood brought back his man, Flintoff, and the big dude got rid of Tendulkar, albeit a little fortunate to yet another disgusting decision by the umpire. Looking back at Sachin’s career so far, one thing has always been common besides the hundreds and fifties - the amount of decisions that have gone against him when it was quite clear that he was not out.

Rahul Dravid pulls one during his half-centuryStill, the Indians were now on the warpath. Yuvraj got his feet moving and was joined by his skipper who had to prove a point after failures in the test series. Although he got past 40 in the 1st ODI, it was in a losing cause. Today, though, he knew that the Indians had a big platform to launch and they needed a 300+ total on this wicket. Dravid was in sublime touch, and was quickly into his groove and the runs started to flow from both ends, not that they weren’t flowing already.

Yuvraj, just when he was looking for another 50, sliced one to point where Collingwood took yet another excellent catch. He went for 49, another Indian missing on a milestone. The run flow still wasn’t contained and this is when Collingwood must be ruing the decision of not having Monty Panesar in the team. With 5 seamer and two part-time medium pacers (himself and bopara), the bowling attack had too much of likeness with zilch variety.

Dhoni came to join Dravid and the two quickly started scoring at 10 an over regularly. Where India may have missed the trick was to send Dhoni instead of Yuvraj at number 3. However, Dravid was looking in a world of his own. The six that came of a delivey which was square driven through the off-side was the mark of a true master. One of the most difficult shots to play in cricket, he played it with the utmost ease, and the timing on it was sweet. Dravid quickly reached his fifty before anyone even knew that he was getting near to one. His innings of 92 earned him the man of the match award.

England started their own innings at a fast pace. Alastair Cook and Matt Prior were looking to really attack the bowling. This is the time when I fell asleep and missed all the action. If news reports are to be believed then Indians did not improve from their poor fielding effort in the previous match. Plenty of catches were dropped, yet the Indians held on to win the match by a meagre 9 runs.

For India, Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar made the difference as they ripped through the English middle order. Chawla was the most impressive Indian bowler and he is really taking some huge strides in international cricket. If India handle him properly, then we have a Shane Warne in the making. The googly that got rid of Collingwood was a beauty. Even Pietersen, surviving two dropped catches, was deceived as the ball sailed through his defense to crash into the stumps.

The two spinners justified the captain’s faith by picking up wickets regularly and kept the scoring down. Ramesh Powar was the most economical and he made up for his drop catch of Ian Bell when Bell was only on 1 run. Bell went on to make a rock solid 64, and is very much in line for becoming the top run scorer of the series. This is where everyone thinks that Dravid made a master-stroke by getting two proper spinners playing in the team. And this is exactly what England lacked. Monty would have been more than handy in these conditions and on this slower pitch. The average total batting first in Bristol is 238, India managed 100 runs more than that. Some important lessons for England. Although they were defeated, they did not do too much wrong with the chase.

Problems for India are still with the opening bowling attack as Agarkar looked ordinary yet again. Had it not been for the extra spinner, India may very well have been 2-0 behind in te series. In my previous post I had asked the question as how the Big 3 would respond. Well they sure answered my question in emphatic style. The win has definitely made this one day series even more enthralling. With the Indian batsmen coming to the party, if the bowlers - the pace attack that is - can get their act together, then England will have a really difficult time in the remaining 5 matches.

Match Highlights - Both India and England Innings


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