ODI preview / Ed Hawkins / 16 November 2008 / Leave a comment

The defeat in the first one day international was one of England's worst ever but Pietersen's men won't flounder in consecutive games and India will struggle to repeat their heroics, says Ed Hawkins.

The criticism and collapse of confidence that characterises a defeat for England at cricket has been in evidence again this week following a 158-run hammering in the first one-day international against India in Rajkot.

It has been particularly heartfelt because Yuvraj Singh's brilliant 138 from only 78 balls was the fastest ODI hundred against England, the final total of 387 was the most they had conceded and India's second highest home or abroad. Finally, the margin of loss was the England's third heaviest.

In short, it was a humbling and it is difficult to remember a contest when so many landmarks were reached in a game involving two who dine at the Top Eight table. In that sentence we have a strategy for betting on Monday's morning's rematch in Indore.

We shouldn't expect more of the same. Firstly, if England win the toss, Kevin Pietersen is unlikely to be foolish enough to stick India in to bat. In this column's preview for that match, it was stated that England must bat first because of the extraordinary heat. Unfortunately, the sun had baked Pietersen's brain before the coin flip.

In truth such a decision justifies England lengthening to [2.98] to win in Indore from [2.72] they were for game one with India [1.49]. After all, we can do all the research into teams, players and conditions we like but if a captain has a common sense failure then there is little to save us.
Some of that research shows that England are rarely as bad two matches in a row and India not as good.

As recently as October last year England suffered a similar humiliation by 119 runs in Dambulla against Sri Lanka but won the next three matches.India's form is littered with inconsistencies. A pertinent example being when they gave England a fearful eight-wicket thrashing in Kanpur in 2002 and then succumbed four days later to the same side in Delhi. Indeed, do not forget that of the last 10 times these sides have met, India have a one-game lead on head-to-heads.

We should also beware that over the course of a seven-match series, it was inevitable that India's stellar batting line-up was going to do serious damage to the England bowling attack. It might just be that England were unfortunate for it to happen in game one. Had it been halfway through, the negative waves may not have broken on then shore with such ferocity.

Yuvraj, rather like Pietersen flipping out at the toss, cannot be regulated for. Save for having a penchant for England's bowling - famously he took six sixes in an over off Stuart Broad - he is wonderfully enigmatic.

It was completely in character for him to suffer a back strain, require a corset and only then start tearing the bowling to shreds. On another day when fully fit he might go cheaply.
He is one of the most fearsome strikers of the ball in the world and is probably one of a handful of players capable of playing the strokes that he did in Rajkot - he chipped Andrew Flintoff for six - and doing so consistently quickly enough over a long innings so to inflict maximum damage.

The first piece of bad news for England is that he is expected to be fit for game two. "His back is improving all the time," said India captain MS Dhoni. The second piece is that in the one and only ODI at the Maharani Usharaje Trust Cricket Ground,Yuvraj made an unbeaten 63. And it was against England. In a seven-wicket stroll.

Yuvraj will be all the rage on the top runscorer market, which has him at [6.2] to repeat the lesser feat of outscoring his team-mates. Interestingly, he averages an impressive 35 runs per match in his very next innings after a half century or century throughout his OPDI career. It is a good enough mark to suggest the price available is value.