ICFans official 2nd day report : India win the ODI series

[King]

The rain gods followed India in the 2nd ODI too and this time only one over docked for each team. The humidity was about 96% and the players? fitness yet again was going to be put to stern test. Rahul Dravid called the toss right and opted to bat on a pitch that yet again looked good for batting. Sehwag started cautiously leaving the first ball alone. It isn?t often Sehwag leaves first few balls but he looked a little determined to let go few balls before he could settle to his usual aggressive style of cricket. Mushrafe bowled few good ones to Sehwag beating Sehwag?s bat but couldn?t cope with the left right combination very well. Gambhir clipped Mushrafe with ease over square leg more than once for fours in the early overs. Rasel kept both Sehwag and Gambhir quiet with his slow medium bowling. Rahim standing up to him behind wickets ensured the Indian batters could not stand a foot outside the crease to counter the swing. It was a good ploy by Bangladesh and looked to be well thought out plan. Rasel swung the ball well early on but without much luck. Gambhir and Sehwag were running very well between wickets and at times put Bangladesh fielding under lot of pressure. Bangladesh fielders struggled to cope with the pressure and in a crucial series decider their fielding wilted under pressure while Gambhir and Sehwag ran the singles hard and converted the ones to twos. Sehwag after having shown fair bit of patience early on whacked Rasel straight over long off for a six to break the shackles. Unfortunately a single six wasn?t going to suffice for Sehwag, he slogged the next ball that was bowled short of good length but had a reprieve as the ball ballooned up in the air over mid on beating the fielder. If anyone thought Sehwag was working towards winning a place in the test side they will have been fooled by Sehwag as he attempted another big hit against a back of a length holing out to mid off. Javed Omar took an excellent catch to send Sehwag back to the pavilion. Despite the brain fart by Sehwag India had started well enough putting together 43 runs for the first wicket. It was a good enough start and came in good enough time. Dhoni joined Gambhir and showed no issues with this fitness from the last match. Dhoni took his time to get going and Mushrafe was all over Dhoni early on hitting the back of the length just outside off stump beating Dhoni few times. Twice Dhoni edged Mushrafe to the slips but both fell short by a yard. The spinners Razzaq and Shakib were then brought on to bowl. Both Gambhir and Dhoni looked at ease against the spinners what with the captain opting for no slips. Dhoni edged a couple through the slips off the spinners but the lack of catching option ensured there was no further wicket loss for a while. Dhoni pushed anything bowled full for singles and dropped back to the back foot and cut hard anything that was bowled even slightly short. A tough chance was offered to the bowler by Dhoni but Razzaq could not hang on to the hard hit pull shot by Dhoni that ended up going straight to the bowler. The ball was turning fair bit and couple of balls kept a little low. Still the ball was coming on to the bat quite nicely making shot making easy. Gambhir used his feet very well and unsettled the spinners. For once you could see an Indian youngster not perturbed at all by the spinners. If you thought Indians now had lost the knack of playing the spinners with ease, you need to watch Gambhir?s batting against the spinners. Gambhir used his feet nicely and put away anything that was bowled wide outside the off stump. Anything on the stumps was easily pushed in the gaps through the leg side for a single. Gambhir made the bowlers look harmless and brought up his 3rd ODI fifty off 66 balls in the 23rd over. India was cruising at this stage although Dhoni was a bit too subdued. Gambhir manipulated Razzaq quite nicely by hitting over the mid wicket for a four and when the bowler altered the line by bowling outside the off stump the next ball, Gambhir walked down the pitch and hit it over extra covers for four. That was some smart manipulative batting by Gambhir displaying full range of strokes. Dhoni departed in the 26th over to a dismissal similar to the world cup one against Bangladesh. Trying to cut a not so short ball from Rafique, Dhoni edged the ball back hard to Rahim. Rahim took a delightful catch to bring Dhoni?s inning to end. Yuvraj Singh joined Gambhir and struggled to put bat on ball early on. Sensing that was the right time to put brakes on the run rate, Bashar introduced the 3rd power play in the 26th over. That move boomeranged Bangladesh as Yuvi suddenly decided to put an end to his struggling timing by going over the top twice for two sweetly timed sixes. Now Bangladesh were on back foot what with Gambhir stroking away nicely and Yuvraj scoring runs in sixes and fours. 40 runs were realised in the 3rd power play thanks to some power hitting by Yuvraj. Unfortunately for India Yuvraj departed playing a tame little push back to the bowler, Rafique. Rahul Dravid joined Gambhir and both set about playing singles and Gambhir continued in aggressive fashion looking to score fours of any bad balls. Gambhir this time was down with the cramps while he was in his 80s and in the 35th over. Gambhir opted for a runner in Sehwag. Sensing the tiredness, Gambhir hit couple of fours over the top to reach 90s quickly. Gambhir then brought up his splendid hundred with a push to mid wicket. Gambhir?s hundred came off 111 balls and showed he had the grit and patience to play a long inning. Gambhir played pace and spin with ease and his foot work was assured. Anything full or short didn?t go unpunished by Gambhir and showed a lot of skills by using his feet really well against the spinners. Gambhir departed soon after his hundred trying to hit Rasel over the top and missed the ball completely. Mongia joined Rahul and both set about picking up singles constantly but lacked the power to clear the boundary often. The fours were far and few and suddenly India looked like it lost momentum. Mongia?s running was terrible and every turn he took for the second run reminded of the ?Titanic? ship or a huge ?Truck? making a turn. Such abysmal running is rare in international cricket and even the likes of Ranatunga ran their first run hard. Unless Mongia works on his running between the wickets he can?t be taken seriously as an ODI player. Rahul tried his best to run himself out couple of times but was quite unsuccessful as Bangladesh fielders put up a show worse than the Indian batters. Mongia departed soon after hassling the Indian supporters by struggling to get bat on ball. Nothing to take away from Mushrafe and Rasel that bowled in the death but the Indian batters seemed to have forgotten they should at least keep picking singles when the fours weren?t coming. Mushrafe bowled plenty of slower ones making the Indian lower middle order look novices with the bat. Rahul Dravid failed to up the tempo when needed and ended up with 41 runs off 47 balls against his name with just one four to show. But for Zaheer?s exploits in the end India will have ended well short of 280 runs on a good batting pitch. For sure Zaheer is a better striker of the ball and there was no logical reason why Chawla and Powar were sent ahead of Zaheer. India showed its weakness of losing the plot after having started well yet again. Mushrafe despite what his figures may suggest bowled pretty well. Rasel was the pick of the bowlers for Bangladesh as he not only gave away less runs but struck couple of crucial blows by removing Sehwag and Gambhir at the right juncture. The Bangladesh spinners did nothing great to write home about and struggled to bowl to a mix of right and left handed batsmen from India. The spinners in Bangladesh have good change of pace and trajectory but they lack a doosra or the arm ball. Surely every spinner around the world has a good doosra these days but Bangladesh spinners lack one. They have to have this one under their repertoire to take wickets consistently. When the pitch doesn?t really help they need to bowl good wrong uns to be able to keep the batsman guessing. Bangladesh fielding was terrible too, they struggled to get the throws in quickly and overall they must be disappointed with their fielding. The catching was high class but they leaked about 20 runs in the field due to bad fielding. This is one area they were good at but in the last couple of games their fielding has deserted them. India looked a rejuvenated team after their inning. The fielding was top notch as Uthappa, Karthik, Yuvraj and Chawla contributed in stopping some hard hit shots heading towards the boundary. Zaheer and Munaf got into good rhythm and bowled at good pace. While Zaheer consistently bowled at 140 k, Munaf chipped in too by bowling in the mid 130s. Munaf was content bowling back of a length while Zaheer swing the ball a little early on. Both beat the bat quite frequently but as ever were not able to find the edge early on. Tamim hit couple of crispy shots but didn?t look his normal self when the ball was directed at his body. This must have been noticed by the Indian bowlers from the previous games and they kept attacking him round about middle and leg. Javed Omar struggled to pick the gaps and the pressure of scoring over 6 RPO was on his partner right away. Tamim hit a full toss pretty hard straight to mid off and took off. Javed Omar didn?t respond to the call but a good run in, pick up and throw by Chawla ended Tamim?s short stay at the crease. Dhoni did well enough to run up to the stump, collect the ball on one bounce from Chawla and run in straight to the stumps to run Tamim out by couple of yards. Quite clearly this run out should be attributed to the youth policy India has adopted recently. Tamim showed his ire on Javed Omar in front of the full stadium by glaring at Javed Omar and mouthing few angry words directed at Javed Omar. He will learn in due course it is better to leave the introspection to the dressing room rather than have a go at the not out batsman. Javed Omar appeared a little fazed after that and no doubt he would have lost his thought process a little after that incidence. Surprisingly Indian fielding was over par and you could even see the perfect relay throws coming from the outfield on top of the stumps. Aftab played some fantastic shots against Munaf and Zaheer but Javed Omar ensured the run rate was going nowhere with some grim batting. Munaf although bowled really well and beat the bat number of time he lacked the wicket taking ball. He was predominantly preoccupied with bowling short of good length balls but Aftab after having few looks clobbered Munaf by walking down the track. Munaf used the bouncers pretty well but he has to develop the slower ones and an in dipper to be useful or to take wickets. Rahul Dravid meanwhile dropped a tough catch after having stationed himself at short covers but took an evasive action when the ball was hit hard at him. Karthik took a fantastic goal keeper style catch off Zaheer to put Javed Omar out of misery. Javed Omar scored 11 runs off 33 balls and surely Indian players would not have rejoiced much seeing Javed Omar that was ensuring Bangladesh run rate was well below the required rate was out. Zaheer in his 7th over struck again by removing Saqib for 5 with a fantastic delivery that moved away quite sharply. Both Zaheer and Munaf bowled 7 overs in their first spell and not only did they keep the runs down but the fall of 3 wickets ensured the going was tough for Bangladesh. It was good to see both Zaheer and Munaf sustain decent pace in testing conditions for 7 overs in a row. Chawla was introduced in the 15th over during the 2nd power play and the first ball of his one day international was dispatched for four by Ashraful. Chawla started from around the stumps and bowled an indifferent first over. Rahul Dravid did not opt for the 3rd power play sensing Aftab and Ashraful were looking forward to going over the top. That proved to be a good move as both Powar and Chawla tied the Bangladeshi batters down. Chawla is a refreshing young leggie that spins his googlies more than his leggies without a dodgy action. He has good loop and seems to vary his speed very well. Given that he bowls both his leggies and the wrong uns by pitching about 6-12 inches outside off stump, the batters found it hard to figure out which way the ball was turning. The leggie turns a bit and beats the outside of the bat while the wrong uns turn quite a bit and still beats the inside of the bat by much. Ashraful was undone by one such beauty when he failed to pick the wrong un and was bowled. That was quite an embarrassing dismissal for a capable batsman such as Ashraful. Chawla also is a very busy spinner, runs in quick and gives the ball a good tweak not with standing if he was hit over the top the previous ball. Certainly he looks a decent prospect for India. Rahul Dravid showed good confidence in the young spinner by bringing him on for the first change in bowling. Rahul also made sure he was used from both ends in two different spells. Bashar joined Aftab and looked to just get some runs under his belt than go for the target. This ensured Aftab had to go after the bowling. Powar bowled a perfect straighter one that beat the dancing down the pitch Aftab and crashed on to the off stump. That ended any effort Bangladesh were putting together to chase the target. Rahim joined Bashar and both went about putting together a decent partnership. They hit some big sixes but failed to pick singles and played a lot of dot balls. Although the big shots came it gave Bangladesh no chance of getting anywhere near India?s total. Chawla picked couple more wickets after he was reintroduced for his second spell. Dhoni missed an easy stumping off Chawla but Chawla provided another opportunity in the same over to send Bashar back to pavilion. Dhoni also missed a tough catch off the bowling off Powar. Meanwhile Powar finished his spell of 10 overs by just giving away 32 runs and claiming a wicket. Chawla bowled brilliantly in his first ODI and returned a figures of 10-0-37-3 The winning was only a formality for India from then on but Rahul Dravid instead of finishing off the inning in style seem to be in generous mood and rewarded Bangladesh with some easy runs. Both Yuvraj and Mongia were used after Bangladesh were 8 down. There were some less than impressive balls bowled by Yuvraj and Mongia. Mushrafe went on a six hitting spree and hit 4 sixes in a row off Dinesh Mongia. Mushrafe showed he is not only good with the ball but also at times can be counted upto as a batter. With his recent batting exploits to go by, it may not be surprising if he ends up being a decent all rounder for Bangladesh in future. India continued to give runs away in style and ended winning the 2nd ODI eventually by 40 runs. Although 40 runs suggests the game may have been close, it sure wasn?t. Bangladesh were never in the hunt of the target and not once did they look like winning after India had batted. India on the other had played clinically through out and kept Bangladesh out of the hunt. It was still quite right to say India still is not your perfect ODI team what with their struggle to up the tempo in the final few overs of batting and lacking the desire to finish off the opponent in style when they were down. There were only one positive for Bangladesh from this game, the way they bowled in the death overs. India looked well set for a score over 300 runs but thanks to some smart bowling by Bangladesh India could barely manage to get to 284. India batting rating : 7 Bangladesh batting rating : 3 India bowling rating : 8 Bangladesh bowling rating : 6 India fielding rating : 9 Bangladesh fielding rating : 4 India catching rating : 7 Bangladesh catching rating : 6 India captaincy rating : 7 Bangladesh captaincy rating : 3 India Wicket keeper?s rating : 5 Bangladesh Wicket keeper?s rating : 7

[Cricketics]

Re: ICFans official 2nd day report : India win the ODI series Didn't read the whole thing, but read few points.. good job with it... quite a big report.. btw, Amazing first wicket for chawla it was.. perfect googly..

[The Outsider]

Re: ICFans official 2nd day report : India win the ODI series Top report, Ravi. Filled in a lot of gaps for me as I just watched the highlights. :wtg:

[Predator_05]

Re: ICFans official 2nd day report : India win the ODI series Superb bulletin. I read every word and got a good idea of how each team played. Nice one Ravi. I wish Gambhir could play like this more often. He has all the shots, is an innately aggressive player and can be destructive when he gets going. He just needs to learn the skill of managing an innings, and he will only develop that if he is given enough chances. Of all the three openers India have at their disposal, i'd rate him the highest. Chawla sounds like a terrific prospect. Mongia looks out of his depth at international level. As a batsman, i think he is well past his peak and is no longer of any use to India. They should have included Rohit Sharma instead of him.

[gator]

Re: ICFans official 2nd day report : India win the ODI series excellent writing, Ravi... very detailed and at the same time, not mundane.... u should do this for every match...

[yoda]

Re: ICFans official 2nd day report : India win the ODI series Great work as usual Ravi. :wtg:

[King]

Re: ICFans official 2nd day report : India win the ODI series Thanks guys, I will hope to continue with similar reports in future. I remember the late 90s when Indian cricket was not being shown on TV here I used to read Prem Pannicker's match reports on Rediff. They were long and detailed but very informative.