- A Preview to the 2nd ODI at Oval by Venkat

Outplayed, Outclassed and Outwitted - those words describe what the "underdogs" England did to the fancied Indians at Trent Bridge in the First ODI of the Natwest Challenge. It was an extension of a series of bad performance, and for the English, they just cant stop winning. All eyes will be on the Indians who will have to do all they can to stay alive and take the series to the decider. Cricketfundas.com gives you an exclusive preview to the 2nd ODI at The Oval.

 

Pitch:

 

The Oval pitch is usually heavily stacked against the bowlers. But, as usual in England, the early hours of the game will surely belong to the bowlers and that is the best time to make merry if you are a bowler. The weather should be fine, but with the English weather as unpredictable as India's cricket at the moment, the ball boys may well have to rehearse their pitch-covering drills.

 

India:

 

The match comes across for the Men-in-Blue as a virtual do-or-die - and one can feel that the confidence must have taken a beating after the defeat in the previous ODI. But, yet again this match could prove how good or how bad a side India are when it comes to bouncing back from a setback. Yet, again the tag of "chokers" could well come into play. The batting is looking hapless to say the least and the Indians as we have seen this season have been repeating the same mistakes they made, and to curb on those silly errors will be on the priority list of the skipper and the coach. One could look at this from a sense of optimism that the batters are due for a good decent score. Mohammad Kaif's resilient half-century might perhaps be the only positive vis-à-vis batting that India can take from Nottingham to The Oval. There have been suggestions pouring by ex-cricketers and pundits to give an opportunity to Dinesh Karthik, India's wicket keeping passenger so far, but graver the things seem for the Indians, the lesser could be his opportunity to make his India debut. The bowling unit has been patchy, with Balaji carrying over his renewed form and confidence to England from Holland. He has been the pick with 8 wickets in the last 3 matches and looks good to get many more in the days ahead. Irfan Pathan, currently is having his share of not-so-good-days, but we can expect the youngster to do well as he gets along the English conditions. Anil Kumble might just past the spinner's baton to Harbhajan Singh tomorrow and Ajit Agarkar could well replace Nehra (Harmison's Hat-Trick Hero), who just couldn't get things right on Wednesday. India will have to pose a much much better challenge for the English on Friday and if all goes well, we could probably see a better Indian performance at the Oval and the English winning bandwagon could just take a jerk.

 

England:

 

If anything they did wrong on Wednesday, it was just that they lost 3 cheap wickets while on their path to victory. Their dream run in this summer could well continue with a win over India on Friday, but for that to happen complacency is something they have to be beware and cautious of ! Vikram Solanki, making a comeback into the English team, showed how NRIs always stab Indians with his Sehwagesque match-winning knock. The batting just seems to get things its way when some players are going good, and this is exactly happening to England at the moment. Michael Vaughan might have something to worry regarding his personal and awful one day record, but his batters shouldn't worry much about theirs. The bowling attack has indeed been a revelation and a stellar debut performance by Alex Wharf would do his position in the team no harm. Harmison's tricking spell must have just been the confidence the English bowlers might have been looking for going into the second ODI at The Oval. Well, the ball is in the English court and it is upto the Englishmen to make hay while the sun shine, in other words win the Natwest Challenge, while India still mourns its loss in the first ODI.

 

One should be hoping for a better and much improved performance from the Indians. But, as we are seeing them hit the lows after a good season last year, one performance of full conviction could just do them a lot of good. And if there is any better time to produce the convincing performance we are demanding of them, its NOW - Or its Never !

 

Cricketfundas.com Starting XIs (Subject to final changes)

 

India:   Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Rohan Gavaskar/Dinesh Karthik, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Laxmipathy Balaji and Ajit Agarkar

 

England:  Vikram Solanki, Marcus Trescothick, Micheal Vaughan, Andrew Strauss, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones, Paul Collingwood, Alex Wharf, Darren Gough, Steve Harmison and Ashley Giles