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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.

Well to begin with, lets us make a few clarifications in our mind about the finest players in the Indian cricket team. To begin with, the India South Africa series has proved to be a boon to Sachin Tendulkar and we still can believe that he can score the best runs and he still has a long way to go with his batting career with the Indian team. This series has also shown some importance to Rahul Dravid and he seems to be back in the limelight with his scientific batting performance of the new fangled era. To focus more on the new comers, the opening batsman Gautam Gambhir has not shown much of a progress and his reputation is more like a single tracked bully. There are huge concerns when it comes to Yuvraj Singh about his long lost form and he needs to speed up. He needs to prove himself yet again and yeah; it has to happen real soon otherwise it would be uncertain to see him playing next! The team planners still need to understand that Mahendra Singh Dhoni has to be used as a mix in the team so that we can end up scoring some more runs and especially in the final overs. Lastly, talking about some of the bowlers, then only Zahir Khan and Romesh Powar seem to understand the technicalities of the game. The rest usually behave like beginners and the rest is pretty evident with the score sheets.

However, this series is a one time opportunity for the new comers to come out in the field and prove their selectors like Dilip Vangsarkar on the wrong side. Usually the selectors of the greatest team India do not have a sane mind and they end up saying whatever they want, whenever they want! Before the start of the series there were innumerable debates about the decisions to send newer faces like Rohit Sharma and Piyush Chawla on the series. It was best in the interest of the team that they win and lo behold! We Won!

Whenever a newcomer is playing, we as Indians are bound to make mistakes in his placement and this what exactly happened with the poor Rohit Sharma. He was diligently sent in to bat at the number six spot. This spot is so sensitive that it becomes a blessing when the other five batsmen on the top have scored well and becomes a nightmare when all the above five have failed. Rohit Sharma wasn’t taken there to slog at the will of the team decision makers. Hope someone is listening!!!

This series saw a very heartening performance by the much talked about Indian skipper named Rahul Dravid! It was extremely amazing to see our Indian skipper’s confidence in the new comer Piyush Chawla. Nevetheless, South African players are really low when it comes to playing against the spin bowling forgetting about its quality. To conclude with, India, after a long time has tried playing consistently and the efforts of our team has paid of with the victory by the Men in Blue!