England beat India by 104 runs in the first match of the 7 match Natwest series at Southampton. It was the perfect home match for England. The visiting Captain won the toss under a heavy cloud cover. Consider the factors. In the test series, the red ball has swung prodigiously for the same Indian bowlers under similar conditions. The white ball swings more than the red ball. Consider also the predicted effect of the dew in the evening, which might make bowling difficult and negate any possibility of swing as the ball would get wet every time it was hit along the ground. All things considered, it probably made more sense to chase, and that is what Dravid chose to do.
For the very beginning, it was apparent that the bowlers had not turned up for the contest. There was no hint of wicket taking menace the English batsmen made merry. Alistair Cook and Ian Bell helped themselves to hundreds and Kevin Pietersen had his fun in slog. There after, it was England’s pace bowling edge (which Ian Chappell so presciently referred to) which came to the fore. Sourav Ganguly managed to run himself out and from that disastrous beginning India never recovered. With runs on the board and a freshened wicket, England’s pacemen ran in with a vengeance, as if to put behind them the demons of the Oval Test where they had been rendered so tellingly ineffective. Once Tendulkar and Yuvraj had fell in the same over from James Anderson (who seems to like the blue of India), there was no way back.
Anderson also seems to have a special affinity with bowling under lights. His career record now reads 103 wickets at 27.03, in contrast, his record bowling under lights reads 29 wickets at 20.72.
The sluggish Indian fielding side was also shown up on the larger than usual ground at Southampton. There is little that Robin Singh or anybody can do about this in the space of 2-3 weeks. What it will require is rigorous off season work directed by someone like Robin Singh. Even that will bring only minor improvements.
All in all, an off day for India. Dravid’s proud record of never having lost an ODI to England as captain was broken today. A look back at the first West Indies v England ODI earlier this season reveals that England won with similar ease batting first, only to lose the next two games when they were chasing.
Will history repeat itself?
For now though England’s pace edge has proved decisive……
