Centurions Rohit Sharma in
the first match, Shikhar Dhawan in the second along with contributions from
Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, MS Dhoni and KL Rahul over the last two games.
India's batting and bowling are up to the mark and marching towards winning the
World Cup especially after having defeated two tough sides South Africa and
Australia.
If India manages to maintain its attacking both batting and
bowling together for sure they conveniently beat New Zealand in Trent Bridge,Nottingham.
Not too long ago, India
won a five-match series convincingly by a 4-1 margin in New Zealand. It was a
thrashing that made Kane Williamson say India 'taught them a few lessons in our
own conditions'. India was easily the far superior side.
Dhawan the centurion against Australia fell to Boult four out of
four times in the series against New Zealand. Overall, Boult has dismissed
Dhawan five times in eight battles - the joint most by a bowler along with
Morne Morkel. Boult has also had Dhawan thrice in three Tests, and once in
T20Is.
Dhawan would have hoped to get better against Boult by facing him
in the Delhi Capitals nets, but the immediate result suggests not much
improvement. In the first game after IPL, India faced New Zealand in the World
Cup warm-up. Who did Dhawan get out to? Yes, Boult again.
In fact, it's a prototype that has been on the rise in recent
times. Prior to the series in New Zealand, Dhawan got out to left-arm pace
twice in three ODIs in Australia too.
Rohit's struggles against left-arm pace is well documented. He has
been dismissed by left-arm pace 23 times in 202 ODI innings, three of those for
ducks. As many as 16 of those have come for scores between 0 and 20. It's
almost unnoticed that Dhawan's record is poorer; he has fallen to left-arm
pacers 22 times in 129 ODI innings. It's likely that Boult and New Zealand
would have taken note.
India's top order is the heart of their side, but it suffers often
when the ball moves around. Over the last two years, India have collapsed
against swing quite a few times: Pakistan bowled them out for 158 in the
Champions Trophy final at The Oval, Sri Lanka skittled them out for 112 in
Dharamsala, Australia had them 4 for 3 in Sydney, while New Zealand made them
dance around in Hamilton, Wellington and London. The star performers in each of
those collapses barring the Sri Lanka one were left-arm pacers.
"The balls are actually different for this tournament,"
he said after picking up his 150th ODI wicket against Bangladesh. "They've
got a different gloss on them, they're painted differently, so there's
definitely been a little bit more swing. The white balls have been quite
prominent, you can see the quarter seams and everything with the ball, but it's
fully covered now. It's nice to hold in the hand and it's moving a little bit,
so I'm very happy."
Dhawan and Rohit successfully negated the left-arm pace threat
against Australia at The Oval. The pitch was flat, and the ball hardly moved
around. The openers batted out Starc's short first spell, scoring just eight
off his first three overs with the new ball. Can they do it against Boult? It's
a battle to watch out for.
Overall, Boult has picked
up 22 wickets in 12 matches against India. He's hardly spoken about in the
league of champion bowlers, but Boult is the third fastest to 150 ODI wickets,
having gotten there in just 81 matches.
If the conditions comply, there are few bowlers in world cricket
who can make the ball talk like Boult. Chances are that he could get the
conditions he loves on Thursday (June 13). Nottingham was drenched in rain
three days prior to the game, and the forecast for the rest of the week isn't
too promising either. If that doesn't change, the pitch could remain under
cover, and conditions could be overcast. Boult wouldn't mind that at all.
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