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Posts Tagged ‘second odi’
Pakistan vs India, 2007, 2nd ODI - Report and Highlights
Yet another India-Pakistan match, yet another thrilling finish. This has been a trend that goes for over 50 years. Nothing, I repeat, nothing can compare to an India vs Pakistan match. Chasing 322 for a victory, I would say Pakistan bounced back in spectacular fashion.Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first on a pitch that was going to assist the pace bowlers early on. Ganguly showed his intentions as he square cut Shoaib Akhtar to the boundary off the second ball of the innings. However that was short-lived as Shoaib had the last laugh in this short battle. Ganguly inside-edged to his stumps and India were 6-1. Not the start the wanted but what followed was arguably India’s best partnership of the day. Gautam Gambhir joined Sachin and the two smashed the bowling to pulp in a calculated run of play. Sachin batted like only he can. In fact, Gambhir was the slower of the two.
The run rate picked up from the 9th over when Umar Gul was spanked to all parts of the park. To Gul’s credit he came back strongly in a match defining spell later on. Sachin was at his dominant best. And since the England series, he has really made an effort to play like he has always had, without any extra burden of captaincy, or trying to anchor the innings. He knows that with the likes of Dhoni, Yuvraj and Uthappa in the middle order, he can play his natural game. And play he did. Shoaib tried to make fun of Sachin early on, but the little master let his bat do the talking.
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India vs Australia 2007, Second Match Review
Embarrassing. Humiliating. Just two words to describe India’s massive 84 run loss to Australia. Just when India was looking forward after their Twenty20 World Cup win, they have been brought back to the harsh realities of ODI cricket. In a clinical display, Gilchrist and his men from down under completed India’s humiliation in supreme fashion.
After winning the toss, Dhoni elected to field first, a decision that came back to haunt his side later on in the day. After a wet outfield threatened play to be abandoned, the Australians got off to a disastrous start. Adam Gilchrist edged a delivery from Zaheer Khan to slips where Tendulkar completed an easy catch. The Australian skipper departed for a duck and India had made the perfect start. Sreesanth then had Hodge edging one back to Dhoni and the score read 8-. Dhoni’s decision to bowl first was looking very very good.
And then Hayden happened to India. Haydo loves to smack the Indian bowlers and yesterday was no different. RP Singh was replaced by Harbhajan in the match and so India only had Irfan Pathan to rely on. Agreed that RP had a difficult day in the first match, however that doesn’t mean to drop him in conditions favoring bowlers. Hayden made full use of the power plays and quickly got the Aussies back on track. He had an important 58 run partnership with Michael Clarke who scored 27 before being stumped off Pathan. Australia were 66-3 and India once again had the advantage over the Aussies.
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More injury for Andrew Flintoff
You do feel sorry for the big man. Coming after a long injury layoff, Flintoff got his best ever ODI wickets hall in the 2nd ODI against India. But that came at a heavy price.
While chasing a shot that was headed to the boundary, Freddie dived at the last moment and crashed into the advertising boards. Although the boards are soft, the frame is pretty hard and TV replays showed that he had crashed his left knee straight into the frame.
This is very unfortunate as he was looking to come back into some solid form with his first ever 5 wicket hall. We all know that he was the one of the main reasons why England failed to get India out cheaply in the test series.
Jon Lewis has been called in as replacement for the next two matches. Everyone will be keeping their fingers crossed that it is not a serious injury and that he may yet have a part to play in the ongoing ODI series.
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India vs England, 2nd ODI, Match Review
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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