Story England in India 2008-***Indians off to a Steady Start***

[Amiya]

Superstar really deserved the win. They were thought as inexperienced and now the result is here. Great work Shantanu. Looking forward if you will be continuing it.

 

[navin-boss]

Wow!!Good preview mate..Story is continuing!!Squads looks cool.And nice to see 2 Tamil Nadu players in Indian squad!!Should be interesting!

 

[JD10]

Wow to carry it on mate

 

[surendar]

I am very excited for the India-England series :happy I am backing up the young Indian squad with Tendulkar playing some dominative role.. Com'on India... :happy

Fantastic mate :hpraise

 

[saladguy]

Nice preview i think that England will win the ODI Series.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Pietersen: Series Gonna be Difficult
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England touched down in Mumbai yesterday after a long flight from Antigua, via London, and their captain, Kevin Pietersen, was under no illusions that their tour of India is going to be a tough assignment. "This series is going to be very difficult. Coming to India is tough. Beating India in India is tough. We drew the Test series last time but we got smashed 5-1 in the ODIs. We are just looking to improve," Pietersen said at a media briefing, at the Cricket Club of India, before the team's first practice session.

Flintoff and Pietersen arrive at the Mumbai airport along with England Team​

Pietersen, the highest-scorer in the one-day series on England's last tour of India in 2006, said to do well against India they needed to break the confidence of the hosts, which has been high since Mahendra Singh Dhoni became captain. "He [Dhoni] is a free customer when he goes out. He doesn't get too emotionally wound up by the look of things," Pietersen said. "At the end of the day the players who play with him just want to do well. In terms of his captaincy he oozes confidence in the dressing room. We just need to try and keep that confidence down."

Yet Pietersen was not willing to call England the underdogs. Behind his own confidence was England's 4-0 one-day win over South Africa last summer, their most convincing limited-overs performance in recent times. "We would have won 5-0 had it not rained in the final ODI in Cardiff. To beat South Africa 4-0, it's something we haven't done before. We are learning how to win."

Though England have hardly had a break since the Stanford Super Series in Antigua less than a week ago, they are far from jaded. According to Peter Moores, their coach, the Stanford games are now history. More importantly, Moores wants his team to perform in a similar fashion to the South Africa series. "The key is to get consistent runs and our batters have to fire. That was one thing that worked very well against South Africa," Moores said. "With the extra pace of Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff and the bounce that they can create from their height it gives us a chance to take wickets in the middle. That could be really important. "Stuart also is in a real good place. He is bowling very well. Even in the Stanford game, with all the pressure on, his second over was a great over. He's had a fantastic season in England and played well for Liecestershire ."

Moores admitted like his captain admitted that Indian skipper Dhoni and the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar are gonna be very important for the host and are their key players. England already have an injury concern to deal with, as Ryan Sidebottom is yet to recover completely from an calf injury he picked up in Antigua. The first of seven ODIs gets underway on November 14 in Rajkot.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Pietersen is quite right in saying that. Beating India in India is incredibly tough, they're the second best team in world cricket. He hasn't however said winning is imposssible which is good because the team needs confidence, especially after the abysmal Stanford T20 performance.

Also Shan, "gonna" is slang .

 

[Karachi Xpress]

This should be a really good series. Beating India at the moment is really difficult since they are doing really well. The young players in the team have been really usefull.

Nice update! KUTGW!

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

Good update, looking forward to this!

 

[Amiya]

Good squad for the both team. Fantastic update mate.

 

[saladguy]

Lol at the poll "England - In Great Form" Really, after their trashing in the Stanford Super Series!!!!!!?????

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Sky Sports Cricket Chat - Pre Match Show​

: Hello and Welcome to The Sky Sports Cricket Chat . We are live from the Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground in Rajkot for the start of the 1st One Day between India and England . Everyone for the start of the first One Day International and now the wait is finally over as we are just few moments away from the start of the match . Sky Sports has bagged the television rights for the Airtel ODI Series and they have changed few things around with their technologies and presentation and the commentary team too. With me in the studio are Sunil Gavaskar, David Llyod, Nasser Hussain and Wasim Akram. Lets hear from our cricketing experts about their views and opinions about today's match.Well Sunil welcome to the show what do you think about this one day series and how competitive it will be?

: Everyone in India is waiting for the start of this One Day Series and I cant wait for it to get started as well. India are playing with their full strength but England are with few new players who are traveling over for the first time. There were few injury scare for the England team but then also they have regrouped and are still fighting as we saw in the Stanford Series and are not giving it up. India on the other side are on the high who defeated the Aussies 2-0 in the Border-Gavaskar Series. Certainly Indians have improved under their new skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and look more aggressive. Indians have lots of positives to take from the last series against the Aussies as Tendulkar and Gambhir are in form and Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan are bowling brilliantly with the new ball. For England its going to be tough coming in India and winning. The conditions are completely different and their fast bowlers wont get much help from Indian flat pitches. They would have to rely on spinners for some wickets. I just cant wait for this series to get started.

: I agree with Sunny that England will be facing tough time in this series. If you take a look at the squads then India are with full strength and with a lot of youth power but England are missing few players due to injury and also some are missing thanks to their poor form. Sidebottom hasn't yet recovered from his back injury which he suffered during a practice session in the Caribbean, while Graeme Swann and Luke Wright are left out of the side due to their poor form with the bat and ball. Pietersen the captain is the main player for England as he can destroy the Indian bowling attack with his aggressive batting and his ability to hit the ball hard and so is Andrew Flintoff. Panesar is recalled to side as the Indian wickets will help him get some spin and he could be really dangerous. I fell this series is evenly poised and can go either if England play well. But always the Indians are favorite to win this series because of their brilliant batting ability and also they would have the home support with them.

: Well England will have to fight hard if they want to win this match. If we take a look at this 1st match then both teams wont experiment too much and will play their best XI as winning the 1st match of the series puts loads of pressure on the opposition and they straight away go on the back foot. India have the advantage as they are the home side and England will face some difficulties here but their team has lots of promising players as well. So this series is going to be competitive.

: Thanks a lot gentlemen for your brilliant views about this series and also the both teams. We will take a short break in Sky Sports Cricket Chat when we return we will be having the pitch report and the toss. So Stay Tuned....

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Yeah England don't have their best team and I think India will trample them. But that's just my opinion. Just watch out on missing out words mate.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Sky Sports Cricket Chat​

: Welcome back to The Sky Sports Cricket Chat Chat . Ian Botham is on the pitch and is ready for the pitch report.

Pitch Report with Ian Botham​

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: Thanks David .Its a warm day and the conditions are perfect for the start of the ODI Series. This is a good pitch for the 1st ODI Match of the Airtel Series. Batsmen will be happy after seeing this pitch but there is some moisture on the pitch which will help the fast bowlers as they will get some swing with the new ball. But after 10-15 overs the ball will come nicely ion the bat and then there will be no problems for the batting team. The bowlers will have to keep the ball in the right areas if they want to get wickets or else the batsmen will get on top of the bowlers. The spinners will also have a big role to play as the ball becomes old as this pitch would offer a lot of turn to the spinners.. The team winning the toss should bat first and post a big 1st Innings score. Back to you David.

: Ian Botham with the pitch report saying that batsmen will be benefited from this pitch and spinners will also be benefited from the pitch. Let's see if its Panesar or Harbhajan.

Planet Cricket Predictor​

This is a new segment in which a member of Planet Cricket member will give his prediction on each match of this Airtel ODI Series 2008 between India and England. So our first special guest today is World Champions.

World Champions: The pitch is good for batting and if England win the toss they should bat first. Key players for England would be Owais Shah as he would be comfortable in these Indian conditions and Andrew Flintoff would be important later in the innings as he can score some quick runs. If England put on a huge score on the board then for India young duo Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma could be really important. But still I feel Flintoff would be able to bowl well and can get the Indians out. At the end visitors will win match and destroy the Indians.

Stay Tuned because as we return we will be having the toss with Ravi Shastri.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Should be a very good batting pitch. The winner of the toss will bat first no doubt and probably win. As the game progresses there should be a bit for the spinners. Nice new PC addition.