After such an exciting game with England which resulted in to tie, India is now moving on in the tournament with back to back games with minnows. One of them will be played on Sunday 6th of March with Ireland at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Indian team might have thought that they will easily win this match but the big upset from Ireland against England has forced them to think twice about the match.
India have very good batting strength as they scored 696 runs in last two matches while bowling is big worry for them as they have given away 621 runs. I was really surprised by the statement made by skipper after England's match which says "we have couple of games to check for best bowling option for us". Is this time to check for bowling combination? what they were doing before world cup started? Well, they dont have very good options on the bench too. Piyush Chawla was expensive in last game so if they want to go with 2 spinners, there is only one option available R Ashwin. Otherwise as former skipper Ganguly suggested they will have to go with 3 seamers which includes Ashish Nehra. Bangluru pitch seems more batsmen friendly as all the games played there have more than 300 runs scored by both sides. We have already seen what bad bowling can cost in the match between England and Ireland. Fielding is also area of concern for the team. Hope they have worked out on both of these things in the big gap of 7 days they got between last match and the next one.
On the other end, Irish team is full of confidence by beating England in last match. It was first upset of this world cup. They have chased a big total which is the highest run chase in world cup history. O'brian brothers are their main strength while John Mooney has impressed with his all round performance, Alex Cusack has also played wonderful inning. They have passed the message that they are not the side to be ignored. They have amassed 227 runs in 154 balls which shows how powerful their batting is. They will have benefit of weak bowling and fielding of India If India have not worked out on these departments. They will not have anything to loose by this game. Kevin O'brain will be center of attraction as he has smashed century in just 50 balls against England.
All I can say India have to work out on fielding, bowling and of course they have to bat well too.. :)
Players to watch:
India: Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Kohli, Zaheer, Harbhajan.
Ireland: Kevin O'brian, Alex Cusack, John Mooney, Porterfield.
Head to head: India leading by 1-0.
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