Cricket Blog

The Indian selectors announced the squad for the first 2 one-dayers against Pakistan:

1. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk,capt)
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Sourav Ganguly
4. Gautam Gambhir
5. Virender Sehwag
6. Robin Uthappa
7. Rohit Sharma
8. Yuvraj Singh
9. Irfan Pathan
10. Praveen Kumar
11. Zaheer Khan
12. RP Singh
13. Sreesanth
14. Harbhajan Singh
15. Murali Kartik

Rahul Dravid’s omission is a big one. Besides that there are not a lot of surprises here, except for Virender Sehwag making a comeback and Praveen Kumar finding a place in the squad. Dinesh Karthik and Ramesh Powar have been left out. So has Piyush Chawla who has been struggling a little after his ankle injury during the T20 World Cup. Mohammad Kaif and Parthiv Patel have failed to reach the 15 yet again.

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Here we are. The most exciting summer of cricket in a long while is almost over, with one last flourish still left. India and England are going to fight out at Lord’s for the final one-dayer in this long and grueling tour. Just a week ago, India were staring at defeat with the series slipping out. They were 1-3 down and had to win all their matches. So far they have done exactly that with one final hurdle left.

This will, for a few Indians, be the last time they ever play in England. The Big 3 - Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid - have done their country proud over the years. They have helped in laying the foundation for the next generation, they have provided role models for aspiring cricketers. They have gained respect in the eyes of the entire cricket fraternity. This will be their final hurrah in England and nothing better than to win the match and the series will do.

The momentum is surely with India at the moment, however, in the past we have seen how India have failed to carry on the momentum. But this time it ought to be different. These three have had a wonderful summer so far. Sachin and Saurav have smashed the bowling to all parts. Dravid has been having a much better time as a skipper, seeing his team perform to its potential. No coach, no problemo. I have to give credit to the way the Indian team has got the job done without a head coach. A lot of people ask if they need a coach. The answer is simple, a big fat Yes. Sure the team is on the verge of winning an ODI series. Sure they have won the test series. But this can’t keep up for too long. It is too much to ask the captain to strategize everything all by himself. The Indians have handled themselves admirably both on and off the field.

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2-1. England in front. India lost by 42 runs. Doesn’t sound too bad? Believe me you, this was even worse than the first ODI drubbing. Yet again Dravid decided to field first. Again he was deceived by the bowling conditions. And India lost again. This was yet another frustrating day for Indian fans. The Indian team is like a see-saw. Up one day, down the next.

England deserved to be winners as they had played superbly. After being asked to bat first, the openers - Cook and Prior - did not allow any wickets to fall in the first 10 overs. And that’s exactly where India’s problems started. They knew that had to take wickets early on as there would not be much assistance for the bowlers later on. Plus their miserable fielding was on show for the entire world to see for a third consecutive time. I have no idea how they can call Dinesh Karthik as India’s best fielder. The man is quick, no doubt about that. But just being quick isn’t enough. You need to keep your eyes on the ball all the time and field cleanly. Half the time he is fumbling the ball or dropping easy catches.

Coming to the bowling, the pace attack was bolstered by the return of Zaheer Khan. The decision for bowl completely back-fired for Dravid as there was absolutely no assistance for his seam bowlers. Only RP Singh managed to get the ball to move and beat the bat regularly. Matt Prior lived dangerously and, after settling in the 30s, threw his wicket away by playing one aggressive shot too many. Ian Bell joined Alastair Cook, and the man was straight away into the game. Ian Bell is the dark horse of this series. Nobody expected him to be batting like this. Century in the first match and fifties in the next two matches. That is unbelievable stuff from a man whose place in the team has been questioned of late.

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Now 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.

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Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the Indian skipper for this match which was going to be a test for India after their convincing win over Scotland. On this count they have failed. Zaheer Khan, coming after a stupendous test series, could not get his line or length correct and was punished to all parts of the park. His 7 overs cost 57 runs and he went wicketless. India’s failure was the pace attack and the English batsmen must be loving what they saw yesterday. In one word, the Indian bowling yesterday was Pathetic.

Munaf Patel and Ajit Agarkar - both in the squad for the ODIs only - did not have a good match either. Both were expensive and failed to utilize the conditions that were perfect for bowling when Dhoni won the toss and decided to field first. There had been overnight rain and the weather was pretty overcast. Zaheer and Agarkar opened the bowling for India and both were very wayward. Agarkar struck early and got Darren Maddy for only 6 runs. The Indians were rejoicing but that was going to be the only little bit of happiness for the day.

Vikram Solanki captained the English Lions and was soon on top of the Indian bowling. Alongwith Luke Wright, they put together a rock solid start for the team. Wright who is also going to be part of the English Twenty20 world cup squad, showed exactly why he had been picked as he smashed 56 runs from only 40 balls. Solanki made a quick 60 from 65 balls.

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