England has been far ahead in the series, winning all, except the abandoned first ODI. Their current batsmen and bowlers have the best performances recorded in Southampton. They have also thumped India by 104 runs in the only match played between them on this ground. Yet, India has done well in the first game that was abandoned and the fact that they are the highest scorer on this ground will further boosth their hopes of registering maiden win in 2011 series.
India vs England 2011 Series Results
India has best and worst memories of Soutahmpton
English Team
The English batsmen did not get much opportunities in the first ODI. Yet, the bowlers did manage to give some fight preventing rampaging India from reaching 300-runs in first ODI. This ground has been one of their best picks winning 4 and losing 2 games.
The most successful batsmen and bowlers are in their current team.
Most successful batsmen:
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Morgan: 253 runs in 3 innings with 2 centuries
Bell: 196 runs in 3 innings with a century (Against India)
Cook: 102 runs in his single inning, against India
Best Bowlers
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Broad with 8 wickets in 4 matches is the most successful bowler here.
Anderson with 7 wickets is joint second best (with Shoaib Akhtar) on this ground.
Swann with 4 wickets is the 4th best English bowler.
Indian Team
Indian team was drubbed when they played England in 2007 series. Cook and Bell refused to respect their bowling, and then Anderson ran into their World-class batting line-up tearing them apart.
Among Indian batsmen, Dravid has two decent performances. Scoring 76 runs in 2 innings, Dravid is the 3rd best Indian scorer on this ground, after Ganguly (92 in 2 innings) and Laxman (79 in one inning).
Being the highest scorer on this ground, 290/4 against Kenya must help their morale. Yet the only thing India right now wants is to taste the elusive victory.
Hopes
With Tendulkar out of the series, Rohit Sharma – the best player of West Indies ODI series, out of the series, Indian team does resemble a very weak team. Dravid, Raina, Virat Kohli and Dhoni must play with patience to lead the Indian pack full of promising youngsters in the form of Parthiv and Rahane.
Bowling is another big concenr and Dhoni will just hope that if someday this bowling unit has to be good then Southampton would get them the much-awaited happy day.
England on the other hand, know they just need to remain calm. That is enough to make India nervous and dig their own graves as it happened during T20 match.
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