Scores Upcoming Results
22-Jan-2013 08:18:00 GMT
India v England, 4th ODI, Mohali

India Look to Clinch ODI Series

Chandigarh: Bolstered by two emphatic back-to-back wins, India will seek to clinch the ODI series against England by taking an unassailable 3-1 lead in the fourth match on Wednesday with the under-fire hosts showing signs of rediscovering their winning touch.

After a series of indifferent performances in the recent past, the team is beginning to prove its worth with two comprehensive victories and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be hoping that his young teammates can maintain the tempo for a third successive win in the five-match series.

India's young and inexperienced bowlers excelled in the last two matches and were largely responsible for setting up the victories while some of the top-order batsmen, who have been woefully out of form, have showed signs of recovery in Ranchi ODI.

Clearly, the pressure will be on the visitors who have to come up with a far more inspired show to prevent the Indians from winning the series in what promises to be a thrilling contest at the PCA Stadium.

Despite the two big wins, there are still some areas of concern for the Indians who have not being able to fix their opening problems.

Though Gautam Gambhir has been getting the starts and going into the 30s, he has not been able to translate them into a big knock. The other opener Ajinkya Rahane has not been in good touch and has got out cheaply. As a result, India have never really got a flying start in the series.

India have the option of trying out Cheteshwar Pujara, who has still not played a single match, in place of Rahane but that looks extremely unlikely as the young opener will be given a longer rope to regain his form.

Virat Kohli's return to form augurs well for the Indians who have been badly let down by the constant failures of the middle order batsmen in recent tournaments.

Yuvraj Singh has looked in fine nick in the brief cameos that he has played but will be looking for a big knock while captain Dhoni, who has been in red hot form right through the series, will hope to carry on.

In the bowling department, paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shami Ahmed have been impressive but Ishant Sharma has proved to be quite inconsistent and expensive. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had a good outing in Ranchi.

England, on the other hand, have plenty to worry about with neither their bowling nor batting departments living upto expectation.

Captain Alastair Cook has not tormented the Indians as he did in the Test series while dangerman Kevin Pietersen has also not fired though he was trifle unlucky as he fell victim to a unlucky decision in Ranchi.

England's batsmen have struggled to counter the Indian spinners. Kumar and Ahmed have managed to make early inroads from which the Englishmen have not been able to recover in the last two matches.

But Cook reckons his team has enough quality to fightback and restore balance in the series.

Teams from:

India:
MS Dhoni (captain & wk), Ajinkya Rahane, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Shami Ahmed, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Amit Mishra and Ashok Dinda.

England: Alastair Cook (captain), Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Samit Patel, Tim Bresnan, James Tredwell, Steven Finn, Jade Dernbach, Chris Woakes, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Stuart Meaker.

Match facts
Wednesday January 23, 2013 (day/night)
Start time 12 noon local (06:30 GMT, 7.30am EST)


Scores Upcoming Results
Related links

Top