Sep 6, RoseBowl – In what was first in the series, India won the contest here yesterday. The match which was scheduled to start at 2:30 PM local time was delayed due to overcast clouds and was played with number of overs reduced to 23. In the end it was the Indian lineup that overcome the situation and score one over England. The contest was so close that the result was not known even after the last ball was bowled. The result was confirmed only at a press conference latter when ECB confirmed Eoin Morgan is injured and hence ruled out of rest of the series. In first of the series all 11 Indian player managed to reach the dressing room safe without any injuries.
In a late press conference, Indian skipper Dhoni informed that the same tactics used in the first ODI was implemented here as well. The tactic was not to apply any tactic as he was missing players of the calibre of Joginder Sharma to experiment. He also lamented the rumours that Ganguly’s cricketing gear is being flown from Kolkata(He is already in commentator’s box close to the dressing room) to Heathrow just in case if it comes to a situation which entire nation is ready to avoid. But given the current situation any thing can happen, as can be seen from the interview of Nayan Mongia saying “I still had 1-2 years of cricketing career left in my life”.
Elsewhere since the contest was won, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri praised the shrewd tactics used by Indian skipper Dhoni. The BCCI also praised the Indian team. In a press release, BCCI informed the reporters that they have cancelled the flight ticket for another player who was planned to replace anybody who might have got injured. The reservation was made in advance as BCCI was confident if not cricket ball, the weather at Southampton would have made a player sick.
On a side note, Ravendra Jadeja, who was scheduled to replace the nth player who got injured on n-10th day got delayed due to visa problem. The English Imigration Officials are still baffled at how can Jadeja – a part-time bowler, part-time batsmen, well, a part-time cricketer on the whole – can replace an opening batsman and hence are investigating further before signing the visa papers.
Last news: In a startling revelation, BCCI has sent a letter to Arsene Wenger - manager of Arsenal football club – for advice on injury crisis. Wenger who was closely monitoring the Indian cricket team in England has sent the same letter back to BCCI by replacing the “from” address and “to” address. It was latter revealed that Jack Wilshere and Thomas Vermaelen of Arsenal are sidelined with injuries for atleast 2 months.
PS: Just for fun, Seriously no offence meant :-)
