 Ireland who is flying high on confidence after beating England while chasing a mammoth total will eye another upset when they take on the host India at same venue where they have tested one of the greatest win of their ODI campaign.
On the other hand India will look forward to register a comfortable win over Irish to get step closer to Quarterfinal stage. However it will be not an easy task for Dhoni and company after seeing the Ireland performance in the last game. Dhoni knows what one or two players from Ireland can do to team India, if they have their day. The main headache for Dhoni is India’s fielding and there bowling, both performed below par so far in the two games India has played so far. Zaheer Khan is the only bowler so far who contain runs and make breakthroughs with any consistency. His new-ball partner Patel has done well, while Harbhajan Singh has yet to reach the expected standards and his partner Piyush Chwala or S.Sreesanth has gone for plenty. India have also given away many runs in the field, putting that much more pressure on the batsmen to score runs. Apart from two or three sharp fielders, India lacks the sharp and alert fielders in the field which is costing India very much. India could have won the last game quite easily if Munaf Patel not showed lethargic running between the wickets or some poor fielding which cost India one point in the last game. India who batted first in both the games so far is likely to change the strategy this time around with the wickets at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore assisting good help to the batsmen batting under lights. So it will be no surprise if Dhoni opts to field first against Ireland. Pitch & Conditions So far in two games played at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore it’s provided run fest for the teams played here. In the first game team able to almost chase down a mammoth target of 338 runs while in 2nd Ireland able to achieve the impossible target of 327 runs against England. By looking at pitch and condition in Bangalore another high scoring game on the card, so team winning the toss would love to chase by knowing the facts that balls comes nicely on to the bat under lights. Likely Playing XI for both teams (Match is schedule to begin at 14:30 PM India Time) Indian team has plenty of thinking to do before selecting the final XI especially in their bowling department. Ashish Nehra who missed the first two games is likely to back into the squad in place of Munaf Patel while R.Ashwin might get a game ahead of Piyush Chawla. On the other hand Ireland have no reason to change the winning combination apart from Andre Botha who missed the last game because of injury. India: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni (Captain & WK), Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, R.Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra. Ireland: William Porterfield (Captain), Paul Stirling, Ed Joyce, Niall O'Brien (WK), Kevin O'Brien, Alex Cusack, Andre Botha, John Mooney, Trent Johnston, George Dockrell, Boyd Rankin |
