Review of 3rd and 4th ODI

Hello friends,

So India cannot win or tie the ODI series as well. With one match to go, England have won the series after the tie in the 4th game. The only consolation for us Indian fans is that the ODI series will not be a complete whitewash, like the tests and T20 were, thanks to the tied game. It will give us a little more joy if India can win the last ODI. Lets hope for the best.

Frankly, I dont know what to write these days in my blog. The Indians are looking miserable with the bat, ball and in the field on this tour. At the Oval, on a good batting track, they did not have the patience and skill to see out the first 10 overs and were 25 for 4 before Anderson's first spell ended and had to fight themselves out of a hole yet again. It is to their credit as an ODI team that they were able to get even 234 in the end. It was nice to see Jadeja perform well in the 2 games he played. He was able to provide the vital 5th bowler option and he also seems to have worked on his batting, especially the pacing of his innings. When he used to be part of the Indian team earlier, he would bat very slowly in such situations and cause frustration to everyone. But now, probably thanks to the surplus of T20s, he does not get bogged down at the crease and looks to score constantly. On the evidence of what I have seen from him in this series, I think he is a good candidate to keep in the rotation and can be useful in the future.

It is sad to see Virat Kohli struggle in England as he did in the WI tests. I hope he comes good in the final ODI as I see him as one of the people who will form the nucleus of our batting in the future at least in ODIs, if not in all formats. This is where I regret that cricketers these days have very little down time and are playing constantly through the year. It is obvious looking at Kohli that some time in the nets under the guidance of an able coach will help him, but look at his schedule for the rest of this year. After playing the last ODI on Sept 16th, he dashes back to India to play the first game of the Champions League T20 on 23rd. After the CLT20, he will play in the ODI series against England in October. It is only after this series, that he can go back to the nets at NCA or wherever and correct the faults that have crept into his technique.

Cricket calendars are only going to get more crowded going forward, so it is very important that the boards recognize this and balance player workload in order to see more even contests. Lets hope the BCCI develop a pool of about 20 cricketers and follow the rotation policy that teams like Australia adopted successfully when they were at the top.

I am now waiting for this series to end, and looking forward to watching some tension-free cricket in the CLT20. The last 2 months have been painful from an Indian cricket fan perspective, so I would welcome the CLT20 where I can watch cricket without getting too caught up in the results and performances of particular teams.

I see that you guys are also bored with the England series and have probably already moved on to other things, considering that there was no comment on my previous post :)

I will keep this blog alive with regular posts during the CLT20, so stay tuned and keep adding your comments.

Cheers.