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India vs England - 3rd ODI Goa 2006.

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Indian team came to Goa with lots of confidence but a few concerns over their top order batting. England came to Goa with nothing to lose but everything to gain. India have already won the 1st ODI at Delhi and also the 2nd ODI at Faridabad and were leading the series 2 - 0. It has to be said that England, the test team was far better than what they have for the one day series and so far - this one day series in India has been proving why England are placed at the 6th position in the ICC one day team ranking.. anyways, let me tell you more about what exactly happened in this GOA ODI..

India Batting - Dravid won the toss and elected to bat on the newly laid pitch of Goa. India had made a three changes in their side - one of YuvrajAndRainaAtGoa.jpgthat was that they dropped opener Gautam Gambhir and hence, Dravid himself came out with Virendra Sehwag to open Indian Innings. Sehwag has been out of form for whole of the series and Goa proved to be the same. He made 15 runs off 26 balls and looked very uncomfortable on Goa pitch which was keeping low and was tough for stroke playing. Dravid on the other hand, played his usual self for a good 46 off 59 balls and made a good innings building partnership with Irfan Pathan, who came in to bat after Sehwag's stumps were shattered by James Andreson in the 7th over of this Goa One dayer..

Then Dravid and Pathan got out at the score of 130 and 132 respectively, leaving Indian batting no where. The responsibility came heavily on Yuvraj Singh and then on Suresh Raina, who came in to bat after Kaif was dismissed after playing just 3 balls... he didn't troubled the scorers..

So many times people talk about how form of players is important in cricket and these two left handers - Yuvraj and Raina proved exactly that. They took attack back to England bowlers and made a thrilling partnership of 142 runs offYuvrajArGoa.jpg just 121 balls to post a mamoth total of 294 in 50 over for the Englishmen to chase. To tell you frankly, the Goa pitch was assisting the spinners so much and was so confusing while playing seam bowlers as the ball kept low every second time, Indian total of 294 looked way too large than what it should have been. I am sure Indian Dravid would have been happy with a total of even 230 odd on this day, but then, he had no complains with amazing batting from his middle order....!!

England Innings - Before I tell you how English batsmen batted on this Goa Pitch, I should tell you that in 10 overs that Irfan Pathan bowled, he bowled a maximum of 10 full speed balls - REST WERE SLOWER ONES... And he ended up with 4 huge wickets. This Goa one dayer was having a pitch that was laid just one months back on a football ground and surely was underprepared. Indians read the pitch better and when they came out to bowl, all the three seam bowlers concentrated on bowling slower balls and produced the results that England bowlers failed to produce.

The score card of this India vs England ODI match may show that England made 245 runs and lost the match by just 49 runs but the actual case was lot different. After losing 6 wickets for just 100 runs and asking run rate over 7 and half, England were never in the chase. Paul collingwood and Geraint Jones did play some good shots but that never thretend the Indian total. Result - India leads the one day series 3 - 0.

Important notes from the match..
DhoniDrivingYuvrajAtGoa.jpg
1) In this third one dayer in this England tour of India in 2006, the power plays seems to be a good experimenting asset for both the captain - First two ODI's saw Dravid not opting for third power play when Kevin Pietersen was on the full flow, and in this one, Andrew Flintoff opted to delay his third power play when Pathan and Dravid were scoreing freely.

2) Read what Dravid has to say - I'LL LOVE TO BAT LIKE DHONI..!!

3) England bowled 16 wides in their innings. They had already bowled 15 and 16 wides in the previous two one dayers.. India - only 1 and 2. And in this match, they bowled 3 wides!!




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