New Delhi: The only thing consistent about Team India is their inconsistency. Just a week ago, the famed batting line up of the hosts capitulated for just 100 runs chasing 313 to win the final Test match at Mumbai.
Criticisms flew in thick and fast from all over the country over the pathetic batting display.
Andrew Flintoff's young squad had proved that they could be more than a match for the Indian batsmen.
When the One-Day series began on Tuesday, not many gave a chance to Dravid and Company to stand up to the England pacers on the greentop at Delhi's Ferozshah Kotla and when the Indian innings came to premature end in the 47th over the knives were out again.
However, as England's innings progressed, Indian bowlers came into their own to bowl out the visitors for just 164 runs in the 39th over.
A win by 39 runs in a low scoring match that too on a subcontinent pitch has raised the confidence level of the hosts.
The star in the Delhi ODI was Harbhajan Singh who was not only the highest scorer for India with 37 but also took a career best 31-5, his second five-wicket haul in the One-Dayers.
One aspect of the hosts that showed tremendous improvement was fielding with all the catches being lapped and ground fielding was also up to the mark.
But despite the convincing win, one thing that rankled everybody was the failure of the Indian bastmen against an attack that was not too hostile.
Even skipper Rahul Dravid, inspite of the victory said at the post-match press conference that batting needs to improve drastically.
He also added that India needs to learn to not go into a One-Dayer with a prefixed notion about what total to put on board or chase.
"I think we got a bit carried away, thinking it (the pitch) was worth 280-300 in the last game. If we had set a target of 230-240, it would have been good. Of course we played well to defend 203."
India's problem starts from the top as vice-captain Virender Sehwag is woefully out of form. England bowlers have not given him any room out side the off-stump to free his arms and have firing the short stuff at him.
Sehwag's back is also giving him trouble but with Sachin Tendulkar out of the team due to a shoulder surgery, he needs to fire if India has to win the second ODI too.
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The Nawab of Najafgarh has not scored a century in his last 25 ODI innings and has only 757 runs at an average of 31.54 with three half-centuries.
Going by the last match played at the Nahar Singh Stadium between Australia and New Zealand, Dravid expects 240 would be a good total.
England have their own problems to deal with which is very similar to that of India.
While their bowlers have also proved to be up to task, the batting line up has not been able to stand up against an accurate Indian attack at Kotla.
It was the sweep shot that brought about the visitors downfall in the Delhi ODI but that did not stop England batsmen from practising the sweep shot on Thursday.
Even though England lost four wickets hitting across the line, Flintoff and his men practised the shot rigorously on Thursday.
For the visitors the key men once again would be Kevin Pietersen and Flintoff, who let the hosts run away with the last ODI due to some poor shot selection.
The teams (from):
India: Rahul Dravid (C), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (WK), Irfan Pathan, Venugopala Rao, Ramesh Powar, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Sreesanth and Munaf Patel.
England: Andrew Flintoff (C), Kabir Ali, James Anderson, Gareth Batty, Ian Bell, Ian Blackwell, Paul Collingwood, Matthew Hoggard, Geraint Jones (WK), Sajid Mahmood, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Vikram Solanki and Andrew Strauss.
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