Raina and Kohli takes India to 4-0 lead

India makes it 4-0 as the England team failed one again in the ongoing series. India won the 4th ODI with comprehensive 6 wickets at Mumbai on Oct 23. Where the host extends their lead to 4-0 and will be aiming to clean the series with 5-0. 

England 220/10 46.1 Overs (Bresnan 45 and Kevin Pietersen 41, Varun Aaron 3/24)

India 300/5 49.2 Overs (V Kohli 86* and Raina 80)

Man of the Match – Suresh Raina 80 (62)

Suresh Raina’s aggressive 80 from 60 balls and Virat Kohli’s well paced innings of aggression and clam 86* guided India to yet another win the series. Kohli and Raina recued the Indian innings as they were 46/3 when they started together and Team India was in all sorts of trouble losing all the top 3 and Raina, who is finding it hard to hit the into gaps in the series joined the party with man in form, Virat Kohli.

Earlier England won the toss and elected to bat, Craig Kieswetter started counter attack to Indian pacers but both the openers felt back-to-back delivers from Ashwin and P Kumar.  Pietersen and Trott then rescued the England innings adding 73 runs. Vinay Kumar broke the partnership and then spinners showed act by cleaning up the middle order of England and new debutant Varun Aaron was impressive with his pace rattled the tail enders.

In reply, India got off to a sloppy start as they lost three wickets with just 46 runs on the board.  Parthiv Patel and Gautam Gambhir were cleaned up by Finn, while Rahane was brilliant catch by Kieswetter. But the Raina and Kohli pace their innings very well rotating the strike early in their innings and putting the bad balls to boundaries. Soon both the batsmen completed their half-centuries from 65 (Kohli) and 50 (Raina) deliveries respectively.

Then Raina shifted the gears and clobbered the English pace attack to all parts of the ground but perished to Finn. Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni made sure India didn’t lose any further wicket and guided India to a comprehensive 6 wicket win.

India will play their final and 5th ODI against England at Eden Gardens on October 25, 2011.

Virat Kohli completes 1000 runs in a Calendar Year!

The young Indian middle-order batsmen Virat Kohli has scored his 7th ODI century against England in 2nd one-day match at Delhi. Thereby, Kohli has completed 1000 runs in a Calendar year of 2011. Virat Kohli felt 5 runs short of 1000 runs in a calendar year in 2010, where he scored 995 runs.

Virat Kohli has been in great form in this year, when compared to the earlier stages of his career. Earlier Kohli used to get fifties but failed to convert them into big centuries. Now, he is a matured cricketer, playing according to the conditions and game plan of the team. As he is capitalizing the starts to convert them into match winning knocks.

The Delhi lad, Virat Kohli joins Shane Watson of Australia and Jonathan Trott from England, who scored 1000 runs in a calendar year of 2011. Sachin Tendulkar has scored 1000 runs seven times which is most by any batsmen and followed by his former teammate Sourav Ganguly 6 times and Australia’s two-time World Cup winning captain got there 6 times.

Right-handed batsmen, Virat Kholi is the 28th occasion of Indian batsmen to achieve these feet, while iconic batsmen Sachin Tendulkar achieved this feet 7 times and this is most by any batsmen in the World. Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly got to 1000 runs in a calendar year 6 times. The Wall Rahul Dravid and current Indian skipper MS Dhoni did it thrice, while M Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja and Virender Sehwag scored 1000 runs twice. Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and now Virat Kholi completed the list of batsmen scoring 1000 runs.

S Patel: England will continue sledging

England left-arm spinner Samit Patel has said his teammates are well determined and will continue sledging against the Indians to get them out of their comfort zone.

England is on other side of the coin after being victorious against India in all the formats in their home soil, and now it’s the turn England to face the same the treatment to tourist, as England has up came against two humiliating loses against India in their first two ODIs. England was the one which is dominating the terms on their home soil and now India once again proves they were unbeatable on their home soil, as Indians outplayed England in all the departments.

Patel said the Indians are well aware of being whitewashed in England in all the formats is badly hurting them, and they want to prove their dominance of the game on home soil. He explained the reasons, why several England fielders launched a verbal war against batsmen Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli during the second one-day international. They will be carrying the verbal war with Indian players in an attempt to get the Indians out of their comfort zone.

England's strategy proved costly in Delhi as India stormed to their second crushing win of the series, with Kohli making a brilliant century in a 209-run record third-wicket partnership with Gambhir. He added that sledging was carried on from back home from England to India, and they were sure English team will be happy to get out of the blocks.

Rhodes says Kohli has the ability to match Sachin

Former South African, player Jonty Rhodes feels that the India’s 2007 U-19 World Cup captain, Virat Kohli is capable for some extent to match the extraordinary feats of ‘Cricketing God’ Sachin Tendulkar.

Indian middle-order batsmen, Virat Kohli has already shown his potential with the bat and proved his one of the young promising batsmen in the Indian strong batting line-up to fill the big shoes of Sachin in future. Kohli might only be 22-years-old but he has shown the class, temper, arrogance, fashion and desire to be top performer for India, and this shows he can be a superstar, Rhodes said.

Rhodes insists that Kohli is most consistent in recent past as his conversion rate from fifties to hundreds in ODIs is amazing. Once Kohli gets to fifty, he is a difficult batsman to dismiss and more significantly he carries healthy strike rate all though the innings. If Kohli can able represent India for a longer-period of time like Sachin did, he can achieve compete the records with most ease and passion.

Jonty Rhodes said that Kohli is expected to play a big role in India's success in the future. He is a fine cricketer and a fine athlete. He is a complete all-rounder, he added.  Kohli has scored 2,496 runs in 66 ODIs at an average of 45.38 with the 7 centuries and 16 fifties. Kohli even scored 1000 runs in this calendar year of 2011.

However, Kohli does not have an impressive record in Tests, having scored only 76 runs in 5 innings, Rhodes believes that Kohli can also be successful player in the longer version of the game too. Finally, Rhodes added that Virat has shorts all-round the park and he is much matured player now, he finishes off games for India. And more importantly, he doesn’t throw his wicket and that’s what all Test cricket is all about.

Kohli, Gambhir completed comprehensive win

The Delhi duo Virat Kohli and GautamGambhir guided India to a comprehensive 8 wicket victory against England in second ODI on Monday. As India will go 2-0 in the 5-match series.

England 237- all out 48.2 overs (K Pietersen- 46, V Kumar- 4/30)
India 238/2 36.4 overs (V Kohli 112*, G Gambhir- 84*, Bresnan 2/41)
Man of the Match – ViratKohli 112*

Indian started the run chase in a dramatic way as their openers Parthiv Patel (12) and AjinkyaRahane (14) felt cheaply, leaving India 29/2. The Delhi pair, Virat Kholi, who is in excellent form scored his seventh century and 2nd against England. Gambhir and Kohli put-on unbeaten 200plus run standfor third wicket. Virat Kohli made all the stroke play as Gambhir played a supporting role. Kohli completed 1000 runs in a Calendar year of 2011 behind J Trott (Eng) and S Watson (Aus).

Indian pacer Vinay Kumar took carrer best figures of 4/30 as he and Praveen troubled the English batmen early in the crease. Spinners kept the lid on scoring rate and Indians bowlers were not known for their pace might find the answers and U Yadav bowled with serious pace. He touched 147.0 kmph and bowling in constant 140’s. It seems India got all its winning formula overnight as they outplayed England in all the departments. And one might wonder to play like this compared in England summer.

England won the toss, decided to bat first, but English team has the worst possible start as both their openers Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter departed for golden ducks. J Trott has hit some fantastic strokes before perishing to Vinay out swinger. Kevin Pietersen (46) and Ravi Bopara (36)rescued the England innings for some extent but both settled batsmen got-out in back-to-back overs. After their pair Jonathan Bairstow (35) and Samit Patel (42) kept India waiting for the 6th wicket. Once the Indian bowlers got the break thorough and tail was exposed and perished cheaply.

India and England will be playing their 3rd ODI at Mohali on Oct 20, 2011.