Dravid back on experience players to deliver on today's crunch match.
England aim to wrap up one-day series while India look to stay alive when they lock horn in the fifth of the seven-match NatWest series at Headingley,Leeds on Sunday.Hosts' confidence is high following Thursday's three-wicket win at Old Trafford that earned them 3-1 lead in the series.
"This is a great bunch of lads - very talented, smart cricketers and we feel we're moving in the right direction," said all-rounder Ravi Bopara.
On the other hand, it has now become tough for the Indians to win the ODI series because they have to now win all of the last three matches. It seems that lack of consistency has become a major problem for India. Throughout the test series and ODI series, hardly any Indian players could show consistency. Indian bowlers seem to be ordinary against English batsmen.For both teams the match will have great importance. If England can win the match they will win the series. However, India will try their best to win the next match to make the series alive. India has no alternative of win in every match of the ODI series against England.
But the Indians have a capacity for overturning deficits, most famously when they beat Australia in a Test series six years ago and most recently when they came from 1-0 down to defeat South Africa in limited-overs cricket earlier this summer.“We have played some of our best cricket when we’ve had our backs to the wall,” said Dravid.“We have spoken about that but it is a case of going out and executing it.“We want to finish what has been a pretty good tour for us strongly.“We know we have our backs to the wall here but the boys are also aware that the games were close.“If a few things went this way or that way the scoreline could be very different. So that is at the back of our mind.”The good news is Sachin Tendulkar is in good touch with three half centuries and remains the most prized wicket for England's bowlers.
His opening partnership with Sourav Ganguly has failed to sparkle so far, managing stands of 17, 35 and 15, but India are likely to stick with old gaurd to open their innings."You want your best players facing the most number of balls and they've been the most successful opening pair for us all these years India likely to give either Robin Uthappa or Rohit Sharma a chance in place of Dinesh Karthik, who had a miserable series with only 49 runs under his belt in four games.Munaf Patel may come in for Zaheer if the latter fails to recover in time.The Yorkshire ground has been a lucky one for India in the past
with three wins in four previous meetings, but it was England who came out on top the last time in 1996 after dismissing the tourists for just 158..Dravid insists his side is determined to put that right in Leeds and prevent England taking an unassailable lead in the best-of-seven contest.It's tough, but I think when we reach Headingley we'll be pretty keen," Dravid said.
"We'll know in the back of our minds that we could have won that game. "It will be disappointing but we know the games have been close and the series could so easily have been different." Part of India's problem has been the failure of their top order to ignite.Dravid believes the vastly-experience duo are still the right men to start the India innings.
The Yorkshire ground has been a lucky one for India in the past with three wins in four previous meetings, but it was England who came out on top the last time in 1996 after dismissing the tourists for just 158.
posted by Pradeep @ 11:05 PM,
