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London, Sept 7: With the cricket series tantalisingly poised at
3-3, a buoyant India will seek to record a rare overseas one-day
series triumph as they take on an equally determined England in
the decider at the Lord's here tomorrow. The Indians have
already made the tour of England memorable by winning the Test
series 1-0 after a gap of 21 years and an ODI series victory
would serve as the icing on the cake. Rahul Dravid and his men
have shown tremendous resilience to bounce back from a 1-3
deficit and the hallowed turf of the Lord's provides the perfect
setting for an engrossing battle between the two teams. The
sensational win in the last game at the Oval on Wednesday will
be a huge morale-booster for India as the batsmen showed
character to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat.
The seven-batsman strategy paid dividends for
the team in the last two matches and it was the scintillating
strokeplay by youngster Robin Uthappa, who came into bat at
number seven, which helped India clinch the cliff-hanger at the
Oval. The visitors will probably retain the same combination for
the summit showdown where the batsmen would again have to play a
big role. Dravid knows that the decider will not be a cakewalk
for his players who have to show a lot of character to win their
third match on the trot.
"We got a bit of the rub of the green, but we
have shown a lot of resilience after a long tour. (But) it
should be a cracker of a game at Lord's," Dravid said. Dravid
said the side never really gave in despite trailing 1-3 in the
ODI series. "We still felt we could win. At 1-3, we knew we'd
lost a couple of close games that could have gone the other
way," he said. The opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav
Ganguly is in great form and India would again bank on the
experience of the veteran duo to get off to a flying start.
Knowing that the seven-batsman formula has clicked for the side,
Dravid would not like to tamper with the combination and prefer
to restrict the home willowers with four bowlers, aided by a few
part-timers.
However, the Indian team management may have
to give a serious thought on whether to persist with an erratic
Ajit Agarkar, who has proved to be quite expensive right through
the series. With Munaf Patel being equally expensive, Dravid
could have a look at R P Singh to share the new ball with pace
spearhead Zaheer Khan. The spin-tango of offie Ramesh Powar and
Piyush Chawla has so far done a decent job for the visitors and
Dravid may not like to alter that combination. Fielding, which
has been pathetic right through the tour, showed marginal
improvement in the last game, but the Indians need to be a lot
more sharper in this area.
Despite the two consecutive defeats, England
captain Paul Collingwood has put up a bold face and fancied his
chance of putting it across the Indians in the crucial game. "We
were put under a lot of pressure, but I was delighted by the way
we fought back. When you see a team fighting like that it's a
great thing for a captain," Collingwood said. "We have to get
our heads held high because we know we've done good things in
the series. We've got to prove we're still playing good cricket,
which we are doing," he said.
The injury-induced absence of star
all-rounder Andrew Flintoff has hit the home team to a great
extent. While England have a strong batting line-up, their
bowling is the weak link since most of their frontline bowlers
are in the injury list.
Teams (from): India: Rahul Dravid
(captain), Gautam Gambhir, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar,
Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Kaarthick, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ramesh
Powar, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, S
Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa, Munaf Patel and Rohit
Sharma.
England: Paul Collingwood (captain),
James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravinder Bopara, Chris Broad, Alastair
Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Dimitry Mascarenhas, Monty Panesar, Kevin
Pietersen, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom and Luke
Wright. (Agencies)
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