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Update:
India won 2nd ODI and series is level now with five more matches to go, India struggled to keep England under pressure through out the match.

Second ODI between India and England will be played on 24th August, at Bristol, it is going to be a day night one day international. England won first ODI at Rose Bowl by 104 runs, and already gained 1-0 series lead in 7 match one day series. England dominated first one day in all departments of game, while India were pathetic, especially in their fielding and batting. Once again their most experienced batting line up failed miserably against England’s comparatively inexperienced bowling attack (except Flintoff), Indian batsmen failed to take advantage of their inexperience bowling attack.

India will have lot to think about before the 2nd one day match, they will definitely have to improve their fielding, which was below par during first ODI. Munaf Patel’s fitness will also going to be crucial for Indians since he has been the most economic bowler in one day format for India lately. In my opinion India should play Romesh Powar instead of Piyush Chawla.

In batting department India have lot to think about, Gautam Gambhir is not best option as a no.3 batsmen, he is good as an opener. He should open with Sachin or Sourav and an experience batsmen should come at no.3, who can rotate the strike and stabilize the inning at no.3. Most of the countries send their top batsmen at this position, Australia send Pointing, Sri Lanka opt with Sangakara and South Aftrica send Kallis at this position.

In my opinion India should go with only 6 specialist batsmen, so that they can have luxury of playing 5 bowlers. Option of five bowlers is better than having 2-3 non regular bowlers to bowl fifth bowler’s quota.

As far as England is concern, they will keep the same XI for second ODI, they only have to continue from where they have left. They played excellent cricket in last match. Bad news for England is that their prime bowler Sidebottom has been ruled out for two more ODIs, but the way England bowlers are troubling Indian batsmen, they won’t feel his absence.

Being an Indian cricket team fan, I hope that India will bounce back in second one day match at Bristol. As far as Indian team for second ODI is concerned, in my opinion, they should drop Gambhir and give Robin Uthappa a chance since he is very aggressive batsmen and in bowling department Romesh Powar should replace Piyush Chawala and Munaf instead of RP Singh. I will still back Ajit Agarkar who is playing only one day for last 2 years or so, he can bounce back any time.

Size of ground for second odi is comparatively small, thick edge can fly over to third man for six, pitch here at Bristol is usually a high scoring one, if it plays true, then we will have run feast tomorrow. Bristol is happy hunting ground for Sachin Tendulkar, who score two centuries in two matches he played here, interesting thing is that on both occasion he came at no.4 for India.

Latest worry for India is that, Tendulkar, Yuvraj, Zaheer Khan, Agarkar and RP Sing missed practice a day before match due to flu and body ache, and good news is that Munaf Patel looked fit during practice session.

India must bounce back in this match at Bristol to level the series. Second ODI is also going to be a day night match.

As always you can enjoy live score here . Feel free to post a comment or two on what you think about India’s chances in second ODI.

I will also keep you posted about 4th ODI between India & England going to be played at Old Trafford, Manchester

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.