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3rd ODI : So close yet so far for England, 3-0 lead for IndiaFiled under
Eng in Ind 2009
England will certainly have their excuses but it was once again a comfortable victory for the home side in the end. The fate of the game was decided by D\L method but had the game gone the distance ~ result would hardly been different. There are quite a few things for the ICC to look for, as here was every chance for a full game, when you are having lights in the stadium you have to use it ,I don't see any sense in wasting 30-35 minutes at the start when you have the resources to avoid these circumstances, the lights sported a deserted look as the players left the ground much to the dislike of the capacity crowd.It was a sold out here at kanpur, 30,000 people waited patiently to watch the first ball being bowled. It was quite hazy to begin with the proceedings at Kanpur, as we had a delayed start by 45 minutes. Toss went England's way and Pieterson was quick to say "we are gonna bat first".Dhoni once again proved that, what a smart cricketing brain he carries on his shoulder, at toss he said that" D\L method will come into play here", then at that time not many people would have taken his statement too seriously including his English counterpart but at the end of the day when he came out for the presentation ceremony he told that" i knew D\L method will take effect and and that's how i had planned the run chase, even if I would've won the toss.. when I came out to bat I had that sheet with me, and that is why I played too many dot balls without worrying about them. I knew we were always ahead on charts so the key was to keep the wickets intact". England sniffed victory as well, but they were a 40-50 run short. This was, undoubtedly the best cricket English team has played on the tour and they made Indians work hard for the win. Ravi Bopara got a promotion up the order as he came out with Ian bell to open the innings, it was a pretty good decision as the duo put on 79 for the first wicket. Bopara went on to reach his best in ODI score and looked solid before Yuvraj got him stumped with a beauty. Pieterson came at number 3.. till now, things looked quite settled for England then came Harbhajan the turbanator and he quickly removed Pieterson and Paul Collingwood to leave England in a deep hole. Andrew Flintoff tried to steady the ship for England but not to be as Yusuf Pathan trapped him infront his stumps with score at 167-5. Owasis Shah and Samit Patel provided English total some respectability ,but another early exit for Matt prior proved the wicketkeeper has been demoted down the order. Harbhajan picked up Shah as his 200th scalp in ODI, he had a good day in the field and also he bagged on the Man of the match for figures of 10-2-31-3.. Harbhajan, looking confident as ever, bowled slow through the air, allowed the ball to grip and hold on to the turf, tossed the ball up and bowled fractionally outside off-stump, ideal for an off spinner.. In short - Harbhajan Singh was perfect today. England played too many dot deliveries that is an area they need to improve on, also they scored only 21 (4 overs) of the batting powerplay which really hurt them in the context of the game. One also felt that the powerplay was just delayed for an over too many, b'coz they were not having any big guns at the crease to go hard at the ball. At the start of the innings Indian bowlers bowled a number of boundary balls but recovered well to pull things back. Ishant was struggling with his rhythm today but that will improve as he plays one or two more game, it is always difficult to force a comeback and start hitting the right areas from the word go. Zaheer was impressive as always the left arm pacemen seems to get better every game he plays. Munaf was predictable in his line and length but immaculately accurate. Really impresse was the way India feilded today. Suresh Raina was exceptional and certainly saved 15-20 odd runs. India looked a formidable bowling attack and once again bowled out England. In reply, Gambhir had one of the rare off days at the office but Sehwag held the Indian innings together. Raina too followed Gambhir shortly, leaving India at 34-2 in 9.1 overs.Rohit Sharma and Sehwag added 74 runs for the fourth wicket and set the tone for another Indian win.Sharma perished to Swann and Sehwag had to leave as Collingwood caught one out of the blues of Flintoff's bowling .Yuvraj and Dhoni gelled together for a 50 run stand to avoid any panic. Dhoni was spot on with his decison to call the powerplay ,India scored 36 of the powerplay to almost seal the win.Dhoni's innings was full of composure as he hardly took any risk and saw India home.Swann was impressive as he hardly pitched anything on middle and leg stump and he was difficult to get away. Flintoff was the best of the lot ,he was aggressive as he ran into the batsemen on his follow through and gave them a good stare along with some of his expert comments.He succeded in his tactics as Yuvraj was not able to control his emotion and went for a pull shot which was not on and was caught on the fence by Broad.The southpaw for one more time in series was timing the ball to perfection and looked in good touch. For me Peterson did a few things right and a few wrong, his decison to bat himself at NO.3 was a good one, b'coz you have to give your best batsman that spot and Peterson on this tour is certainly the best by far.Ravi Bopara was awarded for his consistency down the order and rightly so,Swann was impressive and should play all four matches now on. I felt Pieterson got his team composition wrong ,two spinners against India is not a good option given the Indians are very good at playing spin bowling, they score heavily against spinners and we saw it even today as Patel was on the receiving end third time on a row. To drop Harmison was a bit difficult to digest ,with his height and pace he was expected to draw something extra out of the track,well Peterson will have a lot of thinking to do going into the 4th match, it would take something exceptional from the English side to stop India to clinch the series at Banglore. 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