Sunday, March 8, 2009

A Hard Fought Victory

The second ODI in Christchurch, New Zealand between India and NZ turned out to be a treat for the spectators....700 plus runs and 14 wickets, what more can a cricket frenzy person expect from an ODI game...but this match definitely turned the alarms on in the indian dressing room. After a comprehensive batting display by the top order batsmen, the innings was expected to be a cakewalk for the indian bowlers. but much to the astonishment of indian selectors, their bowlers proved them wrong. Adding to their misery was some poor fielding which was indeed initiated by the captain himself, who dropped ryder in the early stage of his innings.

 Its high time for the contingent to hunt for the bowlers who not only has the caliber to take 10 wickets in a game, but also mitigate the scoring rate of any team on any track. Though munaf patel is not the only bowler who suffered death beat at the hands of the kiwi batsmen, he surely holds the key to have made the  game turn in new zealand's favour on many occasions. After being hit for over 70 runs in just  7 overs and also being suspended from bowling for 2 over head no balls i 1 over, a place in the starting 11 for the remaining 2 ODIs  is out of  reach for him as of now. 

With ishant sharma coming back in the next game, the team's only consistent bowling performer Zaheer will have some much needed company to rock the kiwi top order. Though harbhajan was good enough to  restrict the hard hitting kiwi batsmen in the middle overs, he too got blasted away in the batsmen friendly christchurch pitch. The spin dept seems to be pretty okay at the moment. So all that india needs to keep the momentum going is 2 good fast bowlers to help Zaheer.