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London, Sept 4: Skipper Rahul Dravid has said
improving on its consistency would be the major challenge for
India as they aim to turn the tables on England in the remaining
two cricket one-dayers and win the NatWest Series.
"We have been a bit inconsistent in our
one-day performance. I think the challenge for the team is to
back up one good performance with another one. We have been a
bit up and down in the series," Dravid said on the eve of sixth
one-dayer at The Oval here.
India won the fifth ODI at Leeds to narrow
the series margin and trail England 2-3.
Dravid was hoping that the team could wind up
the tour of UK on a victorious note. "These games are tough,
must-win games. We did that well in South Africa, when we won
back to back games. It will be great if we can get one better
and win three games in a row," the captain said. Dravid,
however, refused to believe in 'momentum' after the win in
Headingley.
"The result of the last game makes very
little difference in a one-day game," he said."It doesn't matter
whom you play or what the rankings are. It's just how you play
on that day that matters." Dravid said it was a good chance for
the players to make amends for the poor show in the early games.
"We are still in with a chance in this series
despite the fact that we still haven't played to our potential,"
he said. "I think, we batted and bowled well in patches but our
fielding definitely hasn't been up to our potential. So we are
still fortunate to be in a position to win the series." He said
catching was one area where there was vast scope for
improvement.
"We can't make our fielders brilliant
overnight. But there are little things that we can improve,"
Dravid said. "We can definitely catch better than we have done
in the last game. We can keep our intensity levels right up to
50 overs. We can improve in small percentages and that
can make a huge difference." Dravid couldn't care whether
England had their star all-rounder Andrew Flintoff fit for the
last two games.
"We are not really concerned whether he plays
or not," he said. "It's pretty obvious what an impact player he
is and the difference to this England side. It will be great for
us to win with Andrew in their ranks. "We would like to playing
against him. It's a challenge to do well with him playing."
Dravid agreed that the top order's performance has been vital to
India's wins.
"It is our strength. But our bowlers have
also done well in this series. We are going to need
contributions from the bat and the ball if we are to do well,"
he said. "England has really been playing good cricket and we
really had to play well to beat them in the two games. We had to
score over 300 to beat them. And we got to do that again!"
(Agencies)
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