First ODI at Pune
Both teams are practising heavily at Pune for the first ODI encounter to begin tomorrow on the 13th of March. The captains have let out their final XI's and here they are according to their batting order!
*************************
India Line Up
Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Lakshmipathy Balaji
Pakistani Line Up:
Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Shoaib Malik, Inzamam U Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Abdur Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Mohammed Sami, Shoaib Akthar, Shabbir Ahmed
*************************
India have decided to give Balaji a go instead of Zaheer Khan and also a specialist wicketkeeper is being drafted into the squad at the expense of VVS Laxman and Kaif is preferred ahead of Laxman on terms of his fielding skills and agility between the wickets. This is being done to relieve Dravid of the burden of wicketkeeping! Not many surprises in the Pakistani line up. Akthar comes back to the team after missing the test series.
The wicket promises to be a belter and a score of 270-300 is certainly expected on this track. The ground is smaller than the other Indian grounds and so finding the boundary wouldnt be tough either. A run feast in on the cards! The team that keeps the pressure up would probably be victorious in the end!
AI PATCH: BOSS'S CGPv2RR patch and the included field settings!) - Hard Mode
ODI Series viewers contest:
Pick the Man of the Series and the team which is going to win this series! The winner gets reputation points from me (the amount of points of course and as usual decided by the administrators)! Answers for both questions should be correct! A wrong answer to either question disqualifies you! Only one attempt per ID! Contest closes at the start of the second innings of the third ODI!
(Can the administrators here suggest some good and new reward for the winner of this contest? I will be having the current reward too). And is the reward that I have announced fine with you guys?