 A three run victory at Rajkot must have boosted the confidence of Indian team and given the momentum to take 2-0 lead when they will take on Sri Lanka in the second ODI at Vidarbha C.A. Ground, Nagpur.
Most of the bowlers suffered badly in the first game but they won't get much relief from another hard track at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur. However by considering the dew factor team fielding first surely have some advantage than the team bowling second in day/night encounter. Indian team needs lots of improvement in bowling as well as there fielding department. So far in two T20 and one ODI they have dropped 13 catches in the last three games. Somehow they were lucky at Rajkot to win the game by three runs because of some good bowling in depth over by Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan otherwise story could have been different for them. By considering another flat track at in this Orange City bowlers have very little margin of error on Nagpur wicket. Indian bowling is also looking very thin and needs to be improved. Apart from Harbhajan Singh all the bowlers got hammered all around the park by Sri Lankan batsman and that resulted in an expensive bowling figure for Zaheer Khan and others. Sri Lanka on the other hand will be without their key spinner M.Muralitharana and Dilhara Fernando in the rest of the series, meaning the visitors have two fresh faces, both potential debutants, which will not help a side aiming to level the series. However they have talented players to back up their main players in the bowling department. Both sides batting unit looks more settled and confidence and both side would love to continue their approach to the game in the same manner as they did at Rajkot. Watch out for Kumar Sangakara: A man in his golden form of life, a quick fire match winning fifty that helped his team to almost chase down an impossible target of 415 runs at Rajkot. He is playing some superb cricket of his career and it will be interesting to see will he able to help his team to get back in the series. Gautam Gambhir: He is in superb form during the test series but didn’t get chance to play long inning in the first ODI at Rajkot, however it will be interesting to see how he approach the game down the order if he again pushed at number five by his captain M.S.Dhoni. Pitch & Condition This will be same pitch which was used for the first twenty20 were Sri Lanka manage to score 216 runs, in the recent ODI’s at Nagpur India manage to get pass over 350 run mark quite easily so another run fest is expected in the orange city. Team winning the toss is likely to field first by considering the dew factor in the night time. Teams Yuvraj Singh has to sit out again from the second ODI now because of viral infection that means India is likely to go into the second ODI with same playing XI as in the 1st ODI. However good news for India is that Virendra Sehwag is fit and will play in the 2nd one day international at Nagpur. Sri Lanka on the other hand has plenty of thinking to do with Murali and Fernando already out of the contention and L.Malinga is yet to recover from injury. Absence of Lasith Malinga means a debut for fast bowler Suranga Lakmal. Ajantha Mendis is also likely to get a game. Likely Playing XI for both Teams (Match is Schedule to begin at 14:30 PM India Time) India Squad: V.Sehwag, S.Tendulkar, G.Gambhir, M.S.Dhoni (Captain & WK), Suresh Raina, V.Kohli, Ravinder Jadeja, H.Singh, P.Kumar, Z.khan, A.Nehra. Sri Lanka Squad: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara (Captain & WK), Mahela Jayawardene, T.Kandamby, Sanath Jayasuriya, Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekara, Ajantha Mendis, Suranga Lakmal, Chanaka Welegedara. Stats & Trivia In the last four games played at Nagpur team batting first has won on all occasions in ODI. |
