It has been just three months since England completely outplayed the touring South Africans, demolished them 4-0 and seemed to turn the corner as far as their one-day cricket was concerned. It was also around the same time that Kevin Pietersen was heralded as the messiah of English cricket.
Unfortunately, a lot seems to have gone wrong for the Englishmen and their flamboyant captain ever since. And now, on the back of what has transpired in the first three ODIs in India, the much-hyped Stanford debacle seems to have been merely a bad appetiser for them. England have failed to pose any sort of serious challenge against the marauding Indians, and everything, including the nature of the pitches, the size of the grounds and the form of the Indian batsmen seems to have gone against the visitors as they head to Bangalore, trailing 3-0 in the series.
In contrast, everything that India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has tried has come off. Every move, including bringing on Yuvraj Singh during the third power-play of England’s innings in Indore, when Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff were going all guns blazing, has brought a positive result.
The Indian captain has been well served by openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, with at least one of them scoring a half-century in each match, and doing it in double-quick time. Yuvraj’s sublime form has been the major talking point of the series, while youngsters Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Yusuf Pathan have had their moments.
And it doesn’t seem to get any better for the visitors, as the Indian team welcome back Sachin Tendulkar, who opted out of the opening three games and will be raring to go against an already battered English bowling. All-rounder Irfan Pathan also makes a comeback at the expense of left-arm pacer RP Singh, and will give Dhoni more options, as India look to clinch the series on Sunday.
... contd.
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