The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : India needs to plug a few weak spots

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Monday, Aug 20, 2007
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India needs to plug a few weak spots

— File Photo

SPINNING A WEB: Ramesh Powar scalped three and Piyush Chawla maintained the pressure as the two Indian spinners warmed up nicely against the England Lions.

Southampton: Despite stand-in skipper M.S. Dhoni’s optimism, India’s bowlers need to get their act right ahead of the seven-match one-day cricket series against England starting here on Tuesday.

The fact that England Lions could post a mammoth score of 296 for eight from 50 overs after tottering at 149 for five tells its own story. The same can be said about the figures of Munaf Patel (9-0-60-1) and Zaheer Khan (7-0-59-0).

Although England Lions skipper Vikram Solanki had some comforting words for his opponents, saying “they’re coming off a great Test series and it takes a different approach to bowl in one-dayers,” the fact remains that Zaheer was struggling to get his rhythm right, while Patel was even worse spraying the ball all over and was taken to the cleaners by the rookie Luke Wright, who impressed everyone with his strokeplay.

The Indian batsmen were later denied a chance to flex their muscles due to inclement weather.

“Naturally, we were disappointed that the batsmen did not get a chance. But we have some good batsmen and that will show in the one-day series,” said Dhoni, who looked excited. “I think it’s going to be a good series because England is a good side, and performing well against them is always going to be a good challenge for us,” he said.

On the positive side, however, Ajit Agarkar has been bowling well all along, while the two Indian spinners Ramesh Powar and Piyush Chawla were pretty impressive too.

Powar’s three wickets stopped England Lions in its strides, while Chawla maintained the pressure from the other end. Besides, the young leg-spinner’s googly that bowled the well-set Solanki continues to be his major weapon. That the two bowled their 20 overs for 104 runs, and accounted for the top four batsmen underlines their effort.

Comeback

To Zaheer’s credit, however, he was coming back after a well-deserved break following an excellent showing in the Test series, where he bagged the man-of-the-series award. And he bowled with a lot of fire in his first spell before Wright went after his bowling.

Zaheer even struck Solanki on his cheek in the fifth over that left his cheek plastered.

“I probably won’t describe the over as interesting. I think there’s enough said if you just look at me,” said Solanki.

It’s still early days to be critical of the Indian bowling, but there can be no denying that they need time to get used to the vagaries of one-day cricket.

“I wouldn’t at all underestimate the Indian attack. If I was in India’s position I’d like to believe they need a couple of good sessions to be ready for the first match,” said Solanki. — PTI

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