Moving Mahendra Sing Dhoni lead India to forceful win

India 300 for 7 (Dhoni 87*, Raina 61) strike England 174 (Cook 60, Jadeja 3-34) by 126 runs



Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni remains inflexible that revenge is not on India's mind, in spite of their great start to the ODI series against England on Friday.

Dhoni was the star for India on a exciting night of act in Hyderabad, making 87 not out from only 70 balls as India, who won the toss, register 300 for seven before bowling England out for 174 in 36.1 overs.

The 126-run win will go some way towards restore Indian pride after their miserable tour of England, where they unsuccessful to gain a single international victory.
However, Dhoni has insist that retribution is absolutely not on his or anyone else's mind.

"I believe vengeance is a very strong word," Dhoni affirmed after the game. "This is a series where the idea is to clean the youngsters. Also, this win comes after a long time and it was a main win. You can't enjoy playing the game if you lose too many matches.

"If you look at the England series particularly the second half, we did play well. We scored runs but unluckily there were rain interruption and the ball used to become heavier and tougher for our bowlers to grip."

Dhoni also describe his knock as being one of his more "precious innings", adding that he had decided from an early stage that he would throw a little of caution to the wind.

"I normally don't consider in rating my presentation but yes this innings is a precious innings for me.

"Over the years, I have played some good knock and this one is also a precious one. Once I started batting at No 6, I had remodeled my game. This innings of mine was a very well calculated one."

"I tried a lot of mid-air shots which I normally don't play these days. I was practicing a lot of hitting over the cover area. I felt this was the right match to try out and it work well," he added.

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Australia happy to let loose Watson

Australia captain Michael Clarke has affirmed that South Africa is set to sense the full force of Baggy Green ace Shane Watson during the approaching Test and ODI series.

Unlike many of his Baggy Green generation who were inactive during the new break in the international schedule, Watson was busy playing for the New South Wales Blues in the Nokia Champions League T20 in India.

Cricket Australia's movers and shakers had taken compute to ensure that Watson would not bowl at all during the competition, a move intended to keep the 30-year-old Queenslander comparatively fresh ahead of the tough tour of South Africa.

After seeing Watson land the Man of the Match award recognition to a stellar display with bat and ball during Australia's T20 defeat of South Africa on Thursday, Clarke is obstinate that he will not be giving his star all-rounder any sort of interval.

''No, I surely won't be resting him,'' Clarke told the Sydney Morning Herald before heading to South Africa.

''The priority is to stand for your country and play for Australia. If any player wants a rest, they need to work that out during the IPL or over the Champions League and get that rest if they need it.

''But, for me, this is our main concern - to win every game we can for Australia and see Australian cricket carry on to head in the right direction.

"If 'Watt’s fully fit, he'll be picked for the first ODI, he'll be opening the batting and, hopefully, have a big hundred next to his name.''

Australia is set to play a second T20 against South Africa in Johannesburg on Sunday before the first ODI on October 19.

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Jacob Oram issue New Zealand caution

All-rounder Jacob Oram has warned New Zealand not to underrate Zimbabwe during their upcoming tour.

The African side carry on their return to Test cricket by hosting the Black Caps in Bulawayo from November 1, but before then the two sides will competition two Twenty20 matches and three one-day internationals.

The series begin with Saturday's T20 clash in Harare and Oram tell the New Zealand Herald: "I think the key to this tour is not getting satisfied, not taking Zimbabwe lightly because if we are honest with ourselves, even though we had a very good World Cup, we are not the most reliable side.

"We really have to start treating every match we play like it's a World Cup make unconscious game just so we can put performance on the board that deserves our talent level."

New Zealand will be without paceman Tim Southee for the whole tour as he is yet to defeat a knee injury, with national selection manager Kim Littlejohn explanation: "We are taking a long-term view with Tim's injury and have opt to expand his revival period rather than rush him back too soon.

"He is predictable to be fully fit and obtainable for December's Test series next to Australia." But Oram, who had ponder reserved after last year's World Cup, will be part of the squad after being reinvigorated by John Wright's arrival as coach with a new support staff in tow.

"This new era is one of the reasons I required to keep playing," he said. "I had a good World Cup, my body felt well and there was no reason to stop.

"But another reason is that I see a lot of exhilaration in the current crop of players and also the changing of support staff.

"Deciding to keep going was more a mental thing than a physical thing but I have reset my target and my new goal is next year's World Twenty20, which is only 11 months away. That's what I am working towards and where I want to hit the highest point again, and maybe that's the line in the sand for my career."

Zimbabwe is without Craig Ervine (shoulder) and Brian Vitori (shin), although the latter hopes to return for the one-off test.

Keegan Meth is set to feature after getting better from the injuries suffer when he was hit in the mouth by a straight force from Bangladesh's Nasir Hossain in August's fifth ODI. Mountaineers leg-spinner Natsai Mushangwa has also been built-in in the squad.

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Alastair Cook: We will be outplayed in all departments

England captain Alastair Cook accredited India for their comprehensive 126-run win and said the home team totally outplayed the company in the first ODI on Friday.

After redistribution a challenging 300 for seven, India shot out England for 174 runs in 36.1 over’s to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

"It was a significant toss to win. We say at the end that the ball reserved low. But credit to India. They outplayed us in all department today (Friday)," Cook said after the match.

"We're leaving to learn from this, and that's the attractiveness of a five-match series." India's latest spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin (3/35) and Ravindra Jadeja sizzle in the slow conditions, allocation six wickets between them and Cook said tackle the tweakers will be a challenge for his batsmen in the series.

"We know that (playing spin) is a problem, and that's a skill thing. We're going to work hard on that in the next join of days," he said.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who score an winning 87 off 70 balls to earn the man-of-the-match honor, said it was not easy to bat on the slow Uppal wicket and to add to it ICC's new rule of two new balls from together ends also made life a little "tricky" for batsmen.

"The new system made the batting a bit tricky. We batted well, although we lost a few wickets at the wrong time. On wickets like these, if you're batting in the afternoon it can be a bit slow, and at times you have to keep your head down and stay alive," he said.

"If you don't create too many runs at first, that's ok since you can make up for it later. I think most of us were look for a score of about 250 or so, 260 would've been a good score," Dhoni added.

The India skipper said expect dew to play a big role he went with three seamers and two spinners.

"We were a bit tentative about the dew, and there was a fair quantity the last few nights, so that's why we played three steamers and two spinners," Dhoni logical. "There was no dew tonight, but if there had been it would have been easier for the batsmen."

He also lauded Ravindra and young Umesh Yadav (2-32) for their fine show. "Ravindra) Jadeja has better his game a lot, and it was good to see Yadav come in and bowl fast," Dhoni added.

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Indian Premier League5 start on April 4 in Chennai

The fifth version of the Indian Premier League will be detained from April 4 to May 27 next year with the initial match to be played in Chennai, it was announce on Friday.

The IPL leading council, after its conference, determined that player ruling, including participation of Pakistani players, and trading modalities of the sale will be discuss at the next gathering, the dates of which have not yet been announced.

"The dates of the DLF IPL 2012 were confirmed. The competition will begin in Chennai on 4 April 2012, and end on 27 May 2012. An Opening rite will be held in Chennai on 3 April, a day before the opening game," BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale said in a release.

"The player instruction and trading modalities will be discussed at the next assembly of the GC," it said.

Regarding the arrangement and structure of the competition, the governing council has asked the administration team to come back with options.

The governing council, which met under the chairmanship of IPL's new boss Rajiv Shukla, also permitted various prepared items for the forthcoming IPL season.

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