Team India happened to play a practice match against New Zealand at Oval. The pitch had everything to play rather than the players. The ball was moving in and away from the batsman at the very start of the innings. Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first.
Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan opened the innings. Trend Boult was absolutely brilliant with his ball. He was bowling accurately on to the sticks, making it difficult for the batsman to play. Boult picked Rohit Sharma and Shikar Dhawan in the first power play. Sharma was not able to negotiate the swing and he was stuck in front of the stumps. He needs to rectify his approach towards the game as it is not like the IPL. The pitch and the condition do matter a lot. Skipper Virat Kohli looked good when he came in to bat. Even though he has played so much of cricket, he couldn’t adapt to the conditions. A Champion Player was out bowled by Colin De Grandhomme. KL Rahul was playing really well, he played some of the quality cover drives. He dragged the short ball on to the stumps and was played on bowled! Hardik Pandya came in to bat at no. 5. The young aggressive all rounder, Hardik Pandya hammered 4 boundaries to Ferguson. He looked in good touch and punched some of the balls through his willow. Well, he too couldn’t play for the long. He nicked the ball to the keeper.
When the Run-rate was dropped to 4-4.5, Mahendra Singh Dhoni came into bat at no.6. He got a massive reception from the crowd when marched towards the ground. The veteran, MSD took some time to assess the pitch and struggled hard when the ball was moving. He played around 42 balls to score 17 runs. But he guided the slower delivery on to the mid wicket. He was out caught!
Ravindra Jadeja played beauty of an innings. He scored a half century in England soil and celebrated his 50 in his style. Since the target was very low, New Zealand could easily finish it.
