Friday, October 23, 2009

India vs Australia 1st ODI 2009: Preview & Live Score




To get live score of India vs Australia 1st ODI, visit the following link:
India vs Australia 1st ODI Live Updates: 25 October 2009


The first of the seven match ODI series between India and Australia is going to take place on 25 October 2009 at the Reliance Stadium, Vadodara. Cricket fans are eagerly waiting for a highly exciting series between two of today’s best ODI teams. Australia goes into the series full of confident following their recent triumph in ICC Champions Trophy 2009, while India looks short of confidence after some ordinary performances over the last few months. However, India could make a strong come back with the series, given that two key batsmen Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh have returned to the Indian squad after recovering from injuries and India will be looking to capitalize on the home advantage.



Match: India vs Australia, First ODI, Seven-match ODI Series
Date: 25 October 2009
Venue: Reliance Stadium, Vadodara
Kick off: 09:00 Local Time (03:30 GMT)



Starting from the ODI series in UAE against Pakistan, Australia has been in excellent form in the limited over cricket. In fact, the Aussies have won 14 out of their last 16 ODI matches. After losing the Ashes series, Australia took a sweet revenge over England by clinching a thumping 6-1 victory in the ODI series against England. Then Australia made an unbeaten run in the Champions Trophy to retain their title.



Naturally, Australian cricketers are full of confident and are looking forward to continuing the momentum in the upcoming ODI series as well. Australia can also take inspiration from their 4-2 victory in ODI series against India in 2007. However, Australian captain Ricky Ponting has said that Australian players must be at their best if they want to beat Australia in the forthcoming series. He admits that India has a very good ODI squad, but he is confident that Australia has played very well over the last few months and is confident of doing well in India too. The batsman has also added that he bears a huge responsibility as top order batsman.




"We (Australia and India) are the number one and two teams in the world and all points to an entertaining and good contest over the next few weeks," Ponting told reporters Wednesday.
"India is a very good and strong one-day team and we are not underestimating them."
"We have played some excellent one-day cricket over the last few months. We need to keep improving and need to be at our best right through the series," Ponting said.
"A lot of responsibility is on my shoulders as the number three batsman in the team. It's really a big challenge to play against India," he said.




Australia has lost its long-standing over the cricket world since the retirement of some of their former greats like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Mathew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist. They have been champion in the last thee ICC World Cup starting from 1999, but their dominance has been reduced significantly because of the retirements of some important players. In fact, Australian team is going through a formation period and now it seems that the new-looking Australian team is growing up gradually. Over the last few months, it was pretty much clear that Australia is developing as a team and it could start dominating over the others in the next couple of years, if they can continue progressing at the current rate.



Australian coach Tim Neilson has said that Australia will face a huge challenge in India and he points out that facing Indian cricket team before the home crowd would be the biggest challenge. He has asked his players to concentrate on the game without thinking much about condition and whom they are playing against.



Taragana reported:

“The biggest challenge will be confronting the big names of the Indian cricket team in front of their home ground and making sure that we don’t get too emotionally into it, we just concentrate in doing what we do best,” said Neilson, as the visitors took to the nets in Mumbai.




For India, it is a big series and Indian players are gearing up to make a strong come back against the visiting side. India failed to reach the semi final of Twenty20 world cup earlier this year and recently they were crushed out of Champions Trophy from the group stage. Naturally, Indian team is now under pressure. The disappointment of the Indian cricket fans was reflected in the poor crowd turn out during the recently held Twenty20 Champions League. Crickets fans in India are now looking forward to the Australia series and want team India bounce back against the world champions and win the series in style.



The thing is that Indian team may have failed in Twenty20 and Champions Trophy, but India’s performance in the limited over bilateral series has been pretty much satisfactory over the last 10 months. Since the ODI series triumph over England towards the end of the last year, India has not lost any bilateral ODI series so far. India clinched the ODI series in Sri Lanka, New Zealand West Indies and won the Tri Series (involving Sri Lanka and New Zealand) in Sri Lanka, preceding the Champions Trophy. Moreover, India won the 3-match test series 2-0 last year.



So, overall India does not look very weak as a team. Most important thing is that two of their hard-hitting top order batsmen Sehwag and Yuvraj have joined the team and are expected to help India win the ODI series against Australia. India’s overall performance over the last couple of years has been pretty much satisfactory, and India was looking to become the no. 1 team in ODI cricket at the turn of the year. However, Kapil Dev, India’s world cup winning captain, has said that India must win matches consistently, if they want to become no. 1 ranked side in ODI cricket.



PTI News reported:

"I know they haven't played well during the last few months. But if they want to become number one in the world, the team have to win a lot of matches," Kapil said on the sideline of a function in the city.
"I hope India also win the one-day series against the Australians," he added.





It is expected that Australia team could face a big challenge from India’s turning wickets. I am not sure if Vadodara ground would feature a turning track, but there is no doubt, India would like to have a turning wicket where Indian spinners like Harbhajan Singh can take a stern test of the Australian batsmen, who are usually used to playing on pacer-friendly wickets and in different condition in Australia.



Another problem that the touring side could face is the fatigue of the players. Most of the members of the current Australian team has been playing consistently over the last few months. First, they took on England in the Ashes series following by a 7-match ODI series against the same opponent before taking part in the Champions Trophy in South Africa and after that, many of the Australian cricketers played in the Champions League with New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, both of whom reached the semi final of the tournament, and New South Wales are going to play against Trinidad and Tobago tonight in the tournament final. So, the Australian players who are playing for NSW tonight would have only a day to prepare for the first ODI on Sunday. However, it could also help Australia in some way because these players have been playing in India for the last two weeks. So, they have been adapted to the Indian condition.



For India, they just need to play their natural cricket. They have a very strong batting side in the presence of Sehwag, Sachin, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni Jadeja and Kohli. Harbhajan Singh-led Indian spin attack is pretty much strong with Yuvraj Singh back and Jadeja included in the squad. Pace attack includes inform pacer Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma. There is no doubt, in the absence of Zaheer Khan, India’s pace attack is missing some flair and experience.



Australia has a bunch of young players who are not totally inexperienced. They have two quality all rounder in Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson. Their batting line up features the likes of Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, James Hopes, Shaun Marsh, Watson, Paine, Cameron White, while their pace attack incorporates Brett Lee, Bollinger, Hilfenhaus, Watson, Johnson and Siddle. They have also included two spinners in the squad: Nathan Hauritz and uncapped Jon Holland. Overall, Australia features a excellently balanced squad to take on India.



Live Score and Updates
You can get the live score and updates of the first ODI from the following websites:



Cricinfo
Thatscricket
action8cricket
Stickiewicket



Well, I am not going to pick up any favorite for the first ODI of the series. Confident Australia could face some challenge from Indian spinners on a turning track, while India could face problem in their pace department. Many would wonder how Australian spinners would face India’s spin specialist batsmen. Overall, there are enough indications for an exciting affair between India and Australia.

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