England in India – Series Review – Part One
England had a terrific home series against India, winning all the Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 matches comfortably. However, the latter gained revenge once the Poms toured India.
The World Champions hosted a five match ODI series against England, but this time things were totally different, as conditions favoured the home team. They overcame the opposition by 5-0, giving a lot of joy to their fans worldwide.
England had last played India in Subcontinent during the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 World Cup 2011 and both teams provided spectacular entertainment to the spectators. The high scoring match of the Mega event ended in a tie and considering that result, everyone was expecting a
thrilling series.
However, things were different during the World Cup, as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AN-Cook-c1026 had.
Cook was confident of a promising series though, as he claimed to have the upper hand over http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 after crushing them on home soil.
However, the reality turned out to be far from this once the British side came to India. The first match of the series was played at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hyderabad-c792 and the hosts won the match convincingly by 126 runs.
India’s skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 won the toss and elected to bat first in the series opener. His side did not disappoint him, scoring 300 runs in the match.
Dhoni led from the front in the match, scoring an unbeaten 87 runs. He got terrific support from middle-order batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SK-Raina-c2539, who collected 61 runs in an impressive outing.
Earlier, the innings was started by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ajinkya-Rahane-c970, but the pair were unable to make an impression. The former was the first man to be dismissed in the innings after adding nine runs to the total.
Rahane was next to go after a struggling knock. He limped to 15 runs off 41 balls and failed to strike even a single boundary before being dismissed.
Stylish left-handed batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/G-Gambhir-c1447 looked impressive, but was unable to make most of the start to his innings. He scored 32 runs off 33 balls with the help of four boundaries.
Similarly, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/V-Kohli-c2737 also failed to carry onto the start to his innings and was sent back to the pavilion after contributing 37 runs to the total.
However, the innings was stabilised by Dhoni and Raina, who put on 72 runs for the fifth wicket partnership. The latter was dismissed after scoring 61 runs off 55 balls with the help of five fours and a couple of sixes.
Next batsman to be dismissed was http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RA-Jadeja-c2238, who contributed 27 runs to the total. However, Dhoni remained unbeaten on 87 runs with the help of 10 fours and one massive six.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/GP-Swann-c1501 was the most successful English bowler in the match, picking up 1 wicket for 35 runs.
England needed 301 runs for victory, but the team was bundled up for 174. Skipper Cook was the top scorer of the innings, collecting 60 runs at the top of the order.
Apart from that, there was no other significant contribution in the innings, as the second highest score was 26 from middle-order batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/IJL-Trott-c1576.
England’s innings was wrapped up in 36.1 overs, as the home team’s spinners http://www.senore.com/Cricket/R-Ashwin-c2228 and Jadeja picked up three wickets each.
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