I am not a cricket analyst but have played professional cricket till the district level – Satara (Maharashtra). So, I have a sound knowledge about the game. The first ODI wasn’t as expected. The English team was termed as the under-dogs for today’s match, went on to win the match and take a lead of 1-0 in the 5 match series.
Consistency is the word team India lacks. The bowling line up was praised to the highest level in the last ODI, was not up to the mark today. They were completely out-of-order. The match didn’t start the way the Indians wanted. With a solid first wicket partnership, England looked solid and just as that they scored a winning 325 in their 50 overs. The last two overs made things worse for India. The bowling leaked way too many runs towards the end that made them reach that score.
After looking at the scored board, I said to my friend, “Yaar, Aaj India haaregi.” to which he replied “Jeet jaayenge”. The innings started as un-expected for me, with Gauti and Rahane starting off with a flier. But the team kept losing wickets at regular intervals. But the Indian batsmen looked in midas-touch today. Gauti, Yuvi,Raina, Dhoni were in sublime form. And after a long time I can say the Indian batting looked just perfect. The tail-enders, Ashwin, Kumar gave a shot and took India closer as tension mounted on the faces of each and every person present in the stadium. But it was in vain, as England won the match and took a lead in the series.
So team India should now focus on bowling but not leave the batting. Else we might see the batting fail in the next game and the bowling do well !
Here’s wishing Dhoni & Co. all the best for their next encounter !
Completely agree with you, but I was more interested in the weak links in the Indian team. England truly deserved to win by just the way they tamed the Indian bowlers.
I think England player really well and deserve lots of credit too.