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Seven match one-day series between India and England will be played on 21st August, 2007 at Southampton. One day series is going to be an interesting one after the fairy even contest between both sides in Test Series.

It will be a comeback series for England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff after his injury, his presence will definitely give motivation and options to England. Ryan Sidebottom has been ruled out of first ODI due to side strain, but England still have options available in fast bowling department in Chris Tremlett, James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Flintoff who can be handy in English condition. Besides them Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara can bowl few useful overs.

England batting also looks good, they have some good one day specialist in Paul Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen, Ravi Bopara, Ian Bell, Andrew Flintoff & Matt Prior.

On the other side Indians have some problem with their fast bowling department, they have Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Ajit Agarkar & Munaf Patel, out of these Munaf Patel is still struggling with his injury, while RP Singh hasn’t played much of ODI recently and Ajit Agarkar is always unpredictable, we never know how well or bad he is going to performo, only Zaheer Khan left with the only bowler in fast bowling department, Sourav Ganguly can bowl few overs but that can go either way.

Batting is going to be trump-card for Team India, most of their batsmen are in good touch, Gambhir, Uthappa & Yuvraj played fine innings in first practice game, while Dravid, Tendulkar & Sourav have experience with them, besides them Karthik and Dhoni are also in good touch.

First ODI between England & India is going to be an interesting affair. You can always get live score update here on my blog :), I will try to come up with coverage of 2nd ODI between India and England, that is going to be played at Bristol.

The only ODI between India & Scotland started on time amidst cloudy weather and overnight rain. Indian captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bowl first, I think his decision to bowl first should be influence by weather and the dampness in the wicket.

India decided to rest Sachin, Sourav & Zaheer Khan for this only ODI with Scotland at Glasgow.

Indian Team:
1 Robin Uthappa, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Rahul Dravid (capt), 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Dinesh Karthik, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 7 Piyush Chawla, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Ramesh Powar, 10 RP Singh, 11 Munaf Patel.

Scotland Team:
1 Fraser Watts, 2 Navdeep Poonia, 3 Ryan Watson (capt), 4 Gavin Hamilton, 5 Colin Smith, 6 Neil McCallum, 7 Craig Wright, 8 Majid Haq, 9 John Blain, 10 Paul Hoffmann, 11 Dewald Nel.

Indian bowler started off well, Ajit Agarkar & RP Singh begun Indian bowling attack, and very first breakthrough for India came in 5th over when Ajit Agarkar nailed Scotland opening batsmen NS Poonia LBW, Scotland lost their first wicket for the score of 9 runs. RP Singh soon struck too, he took wicket of another opener, DF Watts caught behind the wickets by MS Dhoni, Scotland total reduced to 22 runs for the loss of both openers.

At the end of 10th over, Scotland scored 34 runs for loss of two wickets, and that motivated Indian captain to go for Powerplay. Indian speed star Munaf Patel introduced in 12th over of the match, and he got success in his very second over, he got rid off Scotland captain RR Watson, he was going along well he scored 24 runs with the help of 3 boundaries. RP Singh got wicket of RM Haq in very next over, and that put Scotland on back foot mode, as their score was 49 runs for 4 wickets, it was a good start of Indian bowlers, who bowled lot of wide balls today.

Scotland batsmen NFI McCallum and GM Hamilton joined the crease, and they started to build up Scotland innings, they added vital partnership of 82 runs before NFI McCallum got out in the bowling of Piyush Chawla at the score of 41 runs, he batted well to stabilized Scotland inning. Few overs later Chawla struck again with the wicket of CJO Smith, he scored only four runs before caught in front of wickets. CM Wright joined Hamilton at the crease, both added useful partnership of 32 runs before GM Hamilton clean bowled by Agarkar in 43rd over, he played superb knock of 44 runs and also involved in two useful partnerships. On the other hand CM Wright started to play some aggressive shots in slog overs; he got run out at the score of 37 in 34 balls after a fine cameo, which include 2 boundaries and one huge six which went off down the road, and finally they had to replace the ball.

Scotland scored 204 runs in 46 overs, two rain intervals during the Scotland innings brought in strange Duckworth-Lewis method to take account of the lost overs. India was given the revised target of 209 runs in 46 overs.

Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir started Indian innings they went off to a good start for India, both batsmen started with caution in cloudy condition and scored only 38 runs in first 10 overs, which is not bad by considering total runs required to win the match. Scotland choose Powerplay at the end of 10th over and both opening batsmen shifted their gears then. India completed their 50 runs in 12th over without losing any wicket.

Uthappa was dropped at the score of 44 by Wright in his own bowling, it was tough chance though, Uthappa finished his fifty in 59 balls, but he soon became victim of Wright, he was clean bowled at the score of 55 runs in 62 balls, he smashed 8 boundaries and one huge six. India were 104 runs for lose of one wicket.

Dinesh Karthik replaced Robin Uthappa at the crease and India required 106 runs in 25.4 overs, both the batsmen kept the momentum on, Gautam Gambhir finished his fine half century in 76 balls.

India scored 132 for one wicket at the end of 27th over and required 77 runs in 19 overs with the Run Rate of 4.05.

You can also enjoy live score of this match here on this blog :). I will come up with preview and review of First ODI between India and England.

India is really dominating this Test Match as of now. In fact it is very good come back by India in this Test series, Indian looked shaky during first Test match at Lords, but weather God came over to help them, and then after, India bounced back hard and won second Test match.

First Session
Let’s talk about Third day of this Test match at Oval, India had upper hand on both days of the Test match, yesterday England lost one wicket for the score of 24 runs, their not out batsmen, Cook and James Anderson, who came as a nightwatchman yesterday after the wicket of Strauss. Cook was lucky when he was dropped by Dinesh Karthik at leg slip in forth over of the day, it was sitter!!!

Both batsmen started well to see off the initial overs of the day and frustrated Indian bowlers; but finally, nightwatchman James Anderson trapped LBW in the bowling of RP Singh, he frustrated Indians by adding crucial 66 runs partnership with Cook.

After the wicket of James Anderson, England captain Vaughan joined Cook at the crease, Cook soon finished his first half century of the series with boundary in 77 balls. Both added 41 runs partnership before Cook became victim of Anil Kumble (Hero of Day Two), Cook scored 61 runs in 98 balls with the help of eleven boundaries. England’s score was 119 for three wickets.

Few overs later Anil Kumble struck again with crucial wicket of England captain Vaughan, he misread googly by Kumble and gave away simple catch back to Anil Kumble. This was very important wicket for Indians because their fast bowlers bowled below par today morning and that allowed England batsmen to play freely. At the time of Lunch England were 124 for four wickets.

Second Session
Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood stabilized the England innings after fall of three quick wickets. Pietersen, who plays aggressive game, started his inning with patience today. England completed their 200 runs in 60th over of their inning.

Rahul Dravid brought Sachin Tendulkar in attack before Tea, and man with Golden Arm struck with his very first ball to get Kevin Pietersen out, he bowled excellent leg spin to get this wicket, Indian captain equally took good catch at first slip. At the time of Tea England were at 210 for five wickets, and England needed 454 more runs to make India bat again.

Third Session
Collingwood and Bell resumed England inning after Tea to rebuild England inning, Collingwood played some aggressive shots after the tea and finished his half century in ninety balls, on the other side Bell also played some nice shots and brought up his fifty in 77 balls with help of nine boundaries.

Indian Captain opted for new balls when 17 overs of the day were left, and his decision proved on target when Sreesanth took wicket of well set Paul Collingwood in first over after new ball was taken, he trapped in front of the stumps, he played determined inning of 62 runs but it was not enough for England.

Matt Prior joined Ian Bell, now this was last pair of specialist batsmen on the crease, but India bowler charged in well after taking new ball, few overs later Zaheer Khan smacked with wicket of Ian Bell, who gave an easy edge to wicket-keeper MS Dhoni, Bell scored 63 runs.

Zaheer Khan struck few balls later in same over with the wicket of tail-ender Sidebottom. Few overs later Sreesanth bowled well directed out swinger to trap Prior, who gave easy catch to Sachin Tendulkar at first slip. England were at 305 for loss of nine wickets. Remaining six overs of the day were safely seen off by last pair, Tremlett and Panesar.

At the close of Day three England made 326 runs for nine wickets and they are still trail by 338, it was another fine day for India, they are definitely in driver’s seat at this moment, England really need to work hard tomorrow to save this Test match. Indian fast bowlers didn’t do well until the new ball was taken, but Kumble provided some crucial breakthrough to keep pressure on England.

Hope you guys are enjoying my analysis of this test match, I have also placed live score card on this blog to give you live update of the match. I will come up with Day 4 review tomorrow. Please feel free to comment on this blog.