Varun Aaron impressed one and all with his blistering pace. He clocked 145.3 in the 11th over. Even though he did not get a chance to complete his full quota of ten overs, his spell 6-1-24-3 was a pointer that India's pace bowling future is not all brimming with pessimistic prophecies.
Dhoni used him very carefully and gave him the first over after the end of the mandatory first power play. A move which ensured that the promising speedster got enough support.
Even though his first spell was uneventul, his second spell of 3-1-10-3 was great and gave Indian supporters the pep that they needed. One always wondered why a nation of 1.2 billion people could not develop fast bowlers, who could bowl faster than 150 kph.
His second spell was marked by full length deliveries and it is to his credit that he clean bowled Borthwick, Meaker and Bresnan. One should also give credit to the ball of Finn which clean bowled Raina. It came at a blistering 149.9 kph !
Kohli (80) and Raina ( 86 ) crushed England in a century partnership. England looks like a cat out of water in Indian conditions.
Dhoni was exuberant. He said "They got a good start. After 10 overs, we thought they will get 270 plus. But there was a twist in the tale. Spinners got more and more turn as the game progressed and that helped us restrain them." .
Dhoni also said pacer Varun Aaron, who made his debut, was a good addition to the team."He bowled quick. If you can bowl quick, it's difficult to rotate the strike. Now we have both Umesh Yadav and Aaron, and we can make a good choice according to the conditions."
Indian fiedling has improved. "We have improved a lot. Those 10 runs (saved) matter. Overall it has become a good fielding unit."
Cook blamed lack of partnerships for the debacle. "We fell short again. In Indian conditions, you need to score 270, 280. We lost wickets in cluster today; 220 was never going to be enough. We kept losing wickets. We have not performed to our potential. We have not played as well as we would have liked to. The guys would definitely want to win in Kolkata."
Suresh Raina, who scored a quick-fire 80 off just 62 balls, was adjudged Man-of-the-Match. "The partnership with Virat was crucial. Me and Virat spoke to each other and he said, 'We have to be together for about 100 runs'. He said 'We'll rotate strike and wait for the loose deliveries to play our shots'" said the versatile left hander.
Bowled by a fastish delivery from Finn which made him miss his century, the maverick left hander said. "I had decided to play my natural game. But I won't repeat that mistake again. We will try to win it 5-0."
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