Showing posts with label icc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label icc. Show all posts

Monday, 17 October 2011

India v England : 2nd ODI in Delhi


India's 126-run win against England in Hyderabad was a dramatic turnaround after they had been battered by the same opposition all summer, but Virat Kohli said they had been playing good cricket from the one-day series in England. Rather than any drastic change in approach, Kohli said it was the fact that the team had continued to stay positive through the 0-3 loss in the ODIs in England that allowed them to win the game.

"I think we played really well in the ODIs in England," Kohli said. "It was just a matter of crossing the line which we couldn't do there. Unfortunately, a few times we had rain and Duckworth/Lewis coming in at the wrong time, though we can't really blame that. We fought hard through that series and kept our heads high; and that probably made the difference in this first game here."
India were also helped by home conditions in Hyderabad and Kohli said the spinners would be the key through the series. The second ODI, on Monday, is at Kohli's home ground - the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi, where the pitch had been quite inconsistent during the IPL in April-May.

Zimbabwe v New Zealand : 2nd Twenty20 in Harare

New Zealand favourites for series win:

The heady heights of a Test win must be a distant memory for Zimbabwe, even though it was only two months ago that they beat Bangladesh in their comeback Test. They have now lost nine international games on the trot and are coming to terms with what looks like it will be a long, hard slog to prove they are worthy of Test status.
Though they are inexperienced at Twenty20 cricket, this may be the format most likely to provide Zimbabwe rare wins against Test-playing nations. The brevity of the game means there is not much time for a better side to make the difference in quality count, and an individual performance or a single phase of play can often be enough for an underdog to cause an upset.
Zimbabwe's problem in Twenty20 cricket seems to be the inability to get off to quick starts with the bat. They had an opportunity to beat Pakistan after they kept them to 141 in Harare during the recent home series, but the top order floundered and left the middle order too much to do.