Miles to go for India despite a morale-boosting victory

In the last few weeks their champion has been missing and that was the ideal time for others to step forward and lay the theory to rest by producing some match winning performances. Unfortunately, they hadn’tresponded to the challenge, until this match and the change came not a moment too soon.

In a situation where a champion player is missing from the line up, every one in the team needs to contribute a little extra to make up for the loss.

No one player can replace Sachin Tendulkar, but a little extra from every team member can cover his loss. It was this type of team effort, which finally saw them prevail in a desperate contest with England. Despite the win there is still a lot of work to be done, especially among the top order batsmen, some of whom appear to have their footwork re-arranged by the blistering pace of Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar.

While Sadagopan Ramesh struggled with his footwork and also to come to grips with the more frenetic pace of One Day cricket, he is a fighter and his perseverance paid off. After a horror patch early in his innings where he was beaten regularly he eventually came to terms with the pitch and the timing returned as he posted his first half-century in a ODI. Hisdesperation to succeed saw India through a tough period and then skipper Mohammed Azharuddin was able to capitalise with some hefty blows late in the innings.

Azharuddin’s return to form came at a crucial time for India and as his fluency returned India’s chances of posting a competitive target increased.

Having led from the front with the bat Azharuddin would’ve been disappointed not to be able to continue the rehabilitation on the field. However, he had an able deputy in Jadeja and he was able to cajole that extra effort out of the opening bowlers.

There was an extra edge to the pace bowling of both Javagal Srinath, who produced a fiery early spell and Venkatesh Prasad who moved the ball off the seam. Between them they removed the openers and then right on cue Sunil Joshi delivered a crafty spell of pinpoint flight bowling.

Bowling his trademark leg-cutters Prasad removed two batsman and his success was due to equal doses of spirit and skill. At this point the passion was back in India’s play andthen Jadeja applied his own special brand of killer instinct.

This is a start and it gives India something to build on as they try to rebuild for a serious World Cup challenge.