Here's a wrap for both sides after England's horrendous performance here.
Rajkot is not SCG, Lords or even Kingsmead or Basin Reserve. Performances here should be taken with a pinch of salt. The Indians were erroneously sent in to bat on what Indians would call a 'patta' wicket, or English fans would claim was ripped off the M5 Motorway. The small size of the ground and the proximity of the boundary ropes was another factor. Yes, the Indians gobbled up England's superior bowling attack, but come to another ground, and the result will be different.
Matt Prior is a walking wicket. He can't get you a good innings at the top of the order, unless a high of 14 in 17 deliveries is a good innings. He doesn't have the temperament, the strokes or the power to be anywhere above eight in the order. Alastair Cook missed out, and we wonder why. His early dismissal triggered several, and the match was over. Cook is clearly a far better batsman than any of the top three, and that should be thought about.
The Indians batted superbly to score 387, but the bowling was sub-par, and the way Dhoni handled the bowlers was questionable. Your top bowler gets only seven overs with three wickets, and at a time when they could have had crushed the lower order of England, they instead bowled Sehwag for nine overs. We don't know what he can achieve by this. Sehwag is a proven failure with the ball and shouldn't have got more than the three regulation overs for a part-timer in 50. He's bowled nine excessively costly overs, gave the English lower order a lifeline, and it remains to be seen if it will affect his batting. Look, he's struggling to keep a batting average over 40, and then you make a mockery of him by bowling him?
Flintoff bowled very well initially, and should have bowled out at a stretch. He was the only one keeping the rampaging Indian top order in check. He bowled fast, on the spot, and didn't look like wearing out. His batting, though, was a disappointment, but he got his chances. Samit Patel was used well as the partnership-breaker, getting rid of both the openers in quick succession, momentarily stalling the scoring rate. India could use someone like him, a batsman bowling a steady line to support, not a pies dished out by frontline batsmen that do nothing.
They have one in Yusuf Pathan. We've seen him in action in domestic OD matches, and at the (more or less) top of the rung, in the Challenger series, he's looked a thinking bowler. He's been hard to score off and takes a few risks, but he's one bowler who'll play for the team- unlike the part-timers, who are so weak the team has to play for them. But instead, we find a hidden motive- the Indian captain doesn't rate Yusuf at all. After three overs went for over thirty with Pietersen running wild, he was taken off, but when he could recover later on with new batsmen at the crease, if not have the main bowlers back, Dhoni used the mediocre Sehwag again. And then we wonder how the Indians lose the plot when in a good spot.
Ravi Bopara, Ravi Bopara! He's done well to exploit the weakness of the Indian bowling unit, smashing a few sixes and running really hard between wickets. Unfortunately, this running between wickets is itself questionable, especially when he ran out the in-form Pietersen. Stuart Broad played a meaningful chunk at the bottom of the order, and that's something the Indians can think about- get runs out of their bottom five. As usual, he was clean, correct and a strong hitter. Otherwise, there was nothing special about a dreadful England performance.
Is this a return to form of Yuvraj Singh? Many believe so. He's hit so many sixes, one of them was actually a mis-cue that took an edge and went straight out. This time, he didn't concentrate on smashing out Chris Broad Jr (as payback again for Daddy Match Ref's actions?), but got after everyone. One look at his innings suggests this was a sensible one, reminiscent of his form before the ill-fated Australia tour. Then again, this is Rajkot, and Rajkot is not the whole world.
The unsung hero, and a more deserving MOM, was Zaheer Khan. On a pitch that isn't going to give anything to the bowlers, he kept it steady, though slow, and got three wickets. Nowhere did he bowl anything loose, and that got the edges off tentative strokes, which was not surprising, given a nearly impossible total for England to chase. He had good support from Munaf and RP Singh. The fielding was largely good, but it's shocking to see RP Singh's fielding regress so much- it's almost as bad as Munaf's!
The Indian team totally outclassed an England team that questioned their adaptability from Tests to ODIs, but have been found wanting in adapting to Indian conditions, and then big match conditions. However, they had it easy, and may have won it before England walked out to bat. Would they win if they were defending a total of 290? With this kind of bowling performance, no way!