Friday, October 21, 2011

No total is big for Dhoni's men

It is now a matter of past that India have won the series after won the third ODI at Mohali yesterday when they were the favorites to not only win the series but also to whitewash the England team that is touring the sub-continent nation. Yesterday, needless to be said, India beat England after chasing a total in excess of 300 for yet another time. It is non countable the number of times India have successfully chased down a 300+ total in one dayers. The only difference between the third ODI and the previous two one dayers was that this time England put up a better performance with the bat.

For a change, Alistair Cook who did the damage to a little extent with the bat was found to crash when he fell with the scoreboard reading just 8 runs with his contribution being 3. However, the incoming batsmen did a fab job by bringing up a total of 298 which may was the maximum the English batsmen could manage at least in this series. But, needless to be said, that total was too less for the likes of Dhoni, Jadeja and co when they had the target with four balls to go and with 5 wickets still in hand.

It is obvious for someone like Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli to inflict a damage on the opposition bowlers. But,for a change, even some Ajinkya Rahane was able to do the same along with a decent support given by Parthiv Patel from the other end. Rahane scored 91 which was his maiden effort that won a match for India and was awarded the man of the match. Earlier in the day, it is not sure whether Dhoni was experimenting with his bowlers when he repeatedly tossed the ball to Umesh Yadav who went in for over 7.00 runs an over.

Luckily, for Dhoni and India, all those bowlers who did not bowl their full quota of 10 overs had a wicket against their name when Kohli, Vinay Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja returned with a wicket each. The England captain was never found taking any sort of risk when he didn't hand the ball to Ravi Bopara despite going for just 4.00 runs an over. Four bowlers from England completed their quota of 10 overs which proved costly for them. Everything apart, if someone like Rahane, Parthiv Patel etc start scoring quick runs, the caliber of the England has to come under scrutiny.

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