In my opinion the turning point of the match was the first over by Irfan Pathan. When a team is defending a low total it needs to pick up a couple of early wicket and today that work was done to perfection by Pathan.
The first over reminded me of the 1983 world cup final when we had just 183 on the board. Balvinder Singh Sandhu bowled a beautiful inswinger to get rid of Gordon Greenidge and we went on to win the most famous match in Indian cricket history.
In that match, too, Vivian Richards was making life difficfult for us and in this match it was the pair of Pietersen and Flintoff. At one point if time it looked that England would have an easy win.
But Pietersen was very unlucky to get out to a full toss from Yuvraj Singh. And after that the day belonged to the Indian bowlers.
Harbhajan finally got among the wickets and though he had not been picking up the wickets in the last couple of matches, he was getting into a good rhythm.
However Yuvraj was the surprise package of the day as he filled the slot of the fifth bowler brilliantly and got two important wickets.
The other remarkable thing was the brilliant fielding by the Indians. In the recent past the fielding standard of our team had fallen considerably but today the records were set straight.
Catches were lapped up and ground fielding was impregnable.
This match also proved that England batting revolves too much around Flintoff and Pietersen.
Coming to the Indian batting, I was very disapponted by Virender Sehwag. The England bowlers have sorted him out and I am very surprised that he has not come up with a counter strategy.
A senior and experienced player like him cannot fail for too long and that too at the top of the order.
By now he should have sorted out the flaws by practicisng against a wet tennis ball. The opening spot is a worry as even Gambhir is not coming up with big scores.
The fall of an early wicket puts pressure on the middle order. Today one thing that baffeled me the most was that Dhoni was sent in at No. 8.
He has been enjoying a very good run with the bat in the One-Dayers and a player who has scored 183 runs in an ODI and won matches singlehandedly for India needs to come up the order.
But all in all this win has been a moral booster for the team that had been facing a lot of criticism after their Test loss.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.krishcricket.com)
About the AuthorKrishnamachari Srikkanth Krishnamachari Srikkanth was one of the most destructive batsmen who could decimate the strongest and most fearsome attacks in the world by his vast r...Read Morefirst published:March 28, 2006, 19:18 ISTlast updated:March 28, 2006, 19:18 IST
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The match has been a great thriller even though not many runs were scored. To win a match after scoring just 203 runs and that too in the subcontinent is a great achievemnt and the Indian bowling and fielding deserves all the kudos for a wonderful performance.
In my opinion the turning point of the match was the first over by Irfan Pathan. When a team is defending a low total it needs to pick up a couple of early wicket and today that work was done to perfection by Pathan.
The first over reminded me of the 1983 world cup final when we had just 183 on the board. Balvinder Singh Sandhu bowled a beautiful inswinger to get rid of Gordon Greenidge and we went on to win the most famous match in Indian cricket history.
In that match, too, Vivian Richards was making life difficfult for us and in this match it was the pair of Pietersen and Flintoff. At one point if time it looked that England would have an easy win.
But Pietersen was very unlucky to get out to a full toss from Yuvraj Singh. And after that the day belonged to the Indian bowlers.
Harbhajan finally got among the wickets and though he had not been picking up the wickets in the last couple of matches, he was getting into a good rhythm.
However Yuvraj was the surprise package of the day as he filled the slot of the fifth bowler brilliantly and got two important wickets.
The other remarkable thing was the brilliant fielding by the Indians. In the recent past the fielding standard of our team had fallen considerably but today the records were set straight.
Catches were lapped up and ground fielding was impregnable.
This match also proved that England batting revolves too much around Flintoff and Pietersen.
Coming to the Indian batting, I was very disapponted by Virender Sehwag. The England bowlers have sorted him out and I am very surprised that he has not come up with a counter strategy.
A senior and experienced player like him cannot fail for too long and that too at the top of the order.
By now he should have sorted out the flaws by practicisng against a wet tennis ball. The opening spot is a worry as even Gambhir is not coming up with big scores.
The fall of an early wicket puts pressure on the middle order. Today one thing that baffeled me the most was that Dhoni was sent in at No. 8.
He has been enjoying a very good run with the bat in the One-Dayers and a player who has scored 183 runs in an ODI and won matches singlehandedly for India needs to come up the order.
But all in all this win has been a moral booster for the team that had been facing a lot of criticism after their Test loss.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.krishcricket.com)
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