INDORE: After overwhelming England by a margin of 158 runs, courtesy Yuvraj Singh’s hurricane knock of 138 not out, in the first One Day International at Rajkot, India take on the Englishmen in the second ODI for the Hero Honda Cup at the lush green Maharani Usha Raje Cricket stadium here today with a high level of confidence but not bordering on complacency.
Complacency often ruins a team after a spectacular performance and this has to be guarded against. Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is well aware of this factor in sports and he was quick to assert this while interacting with newspersons in pre-match Press conference here on Sunday.
He said his team will have to guard against complacency when they take on England. “We are always wary of becoming complacent because, if we lose then we will be criticized for being overconfident. We are always focused on what needs to be done,” he said.
However, India received a setback, as Yuvraj Singh, the architect of Rajkot triumph, is a doubtful starter due to his nagging back pain which still persists.
At Rajkot, Yuvraj had to take the help of a runner to put his best foot forward to thump the English attack to smithereens.
“There’s considerable improvement in Yuvraj’s condition. But we will take a final call on him before the match,” Dhoni informed. However, speedster Ishant Sharma was all but ruled out with an ankle sprain, as he requires more time to recover completely.
Paul Collingwood, deputizing for England captain Kevin Petersen, speaking to reporters at the pre-match briefing said pace bowler Ryan Sidebottom will be available for today’s match. Sidebottom missed Friday’s opening tie due to an Achilles injury he picked up at the start of the Stanford Twenty20 competition in the Caribbean last month.
Coach, Peter Moores has also called for his team to be more aggressive in their bid to square the seven-match series.
“I think we can be more aggressive as a unit and take that into the next game and not wait for the game to take shape,” Moores said on the England and Wales Cricket Board website.
“We have to remind ourselves how we play our brand of cricket and play that brand of cricket in different places.” If the past record at this ground, which in fact is the second international cricket venue of Indore after Nehru stadium, is anything to go by, India stands a fair chance of winning today. Meanwhile, the hard top wicket is full of runs. According to curator Samandar Singh, the wicket is hard and there are slight cracks in it with little of grass growing.
“We are working hard to ensure that the wicket plays the same for both innings. I think a score of 280 will be getable on this strip and there will be very little in it for spinners,” he averred.
However, Dhoni felt the wicket prepared for the tie here would not be like the one on which the Indian batsmen feasted on the hapless England attack.
“The wicket will not be like the one at Rajkot. There would be wear and tear as the match progresses. It’s dry and it would become slow and it will be difficult to score, but all these are only predictions. The toss is important,” he said.
The predominant red soil content in the wickets here offers bounce, which makes stroke-making slightly easier. Add to it short boundaries and a very quick outfield and another run feast looks on the cards.
In the current England squad, as many as four players - Kevin Petersen, Ian Bell, James Anderson and Paul Collingwood will be playing for their country for the second consecutive time here, while 12 players will be representing their side against India here for the first time.
Similarly, in the current Indian squad, there are many players like captain Dhoni, Virendra Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha and Virat Kohli respectively who will be playing for their country here for the first time.
Tickets for today’s match have been sold out like hot cakes for the 35,000- capacity stadium.
Long queues of school and college-going students, who are being offered 50 percent concessions, were witnessed at bank counters selling tickets at various points in the city.
When the tickets were exhausted the unlucky ones expressed their ire by pelting stones and blocking traffic. Police had to resort to mild cane-charge to disperse fans who were mostly students.
Meanwhile, elaborate security arrangements for match. According to Anil Kumar, Inspector General of Police for Indore Range, 1500 security personnel will be deployed in and around the venue. He said that strict vigil will be maintained during the match and spectators will be thoroughly checked before they enter the stadium.
