BV Swagath's Story of the 1st ODI between India and England at Rajkot on November 14, 2008
Yuvraj Singh took out all his frustrations on the English attack at a small Madhavrao Scindia Ground in Rajkot. The left hander belted 16 fours and a half dozen sixes in his ninth ODI hundred which was instrumental in India rocketing to a massive total of 387. It was the second fastest century ever from an Indian and the Englishmen just surrendered to the onslaught from the Prince. England as a result of that crashed to a morale-shattering loss of 158 runs in this first of the 7 ODIs. It was not one man’s brilliance that had done in England; it was infact an all-round dominance from most of the Indian players that set up this dominating victory. Overall, it was a spectacular day for the paying public in the stadium and also millions of viewers as 22 sixes were smacked by both sides!
Toss : Kevin Pietersen had won what was looked upon as a crucial toss as both teams were looking to bowl first on a wicket that would have some juice considering the 9 o’clock start. On paper, India looked like a powerful side in both batting and bowling while the English four-men pace attack was expected to pose problems with the new ball. They had the depth in their batting, but the side has been known to be consistently inconsistent in One Day Cricket over the years.
Indian batsmen create havoc to bat England out of contest
The early half an hour was supposed to be crucial against the new ball. A bit of conservative approach was to be expected from the openers but the pair of Gambhir and Sehwag had other ideas. Gambhir, in particular looked at total ease and batted as if he hasn’t missed any game recently, although he was out of cricket for a week or so. It was the left hander who imposed himself on the English bowlers while Sehwag was happy to take the back seat but yet scoring at a brisk pace. England’s new ball pair of Anderson and Broad didn’t find any movement and often strayed on the pads to give away free runs. Kevin Pietersen had to bring on his two experienced seamers – Harmison and Flintoff, who could bring in some normalcy in play with their extra bounce and movement. But it was just matter of time before Gambhir and Sehwag got the better of them to continue their assault.
No comments:
Post a Comment