Hello and a warm welcome to Cricinfo's live coverage of the first
One-Day International between India and Pakistan.
After the Test series we now move to the shorter version of the
game - It's going to be a 5-match series with Arbab Niaz Stadium,
Peshawar playing host to the lung-opener.
I'm Sajan Nair, and I'll be your commentator for the day.
After two grueling draws Pakistan routed India in the third and
final Test to clinch the series 1-0, their seamers made the ball
talk and India were bundled out for scores of 238 and 265,
Mohammad Asif and Razzaq did most of the damage and between them
they shared 14 wickets!
A tale of two dead tracks and a green-top could not have ended in a
better way for the home team, when it came it was a massive 341
runs victory and with that win behind their back they will start
as clear favourites.
Having said that, It's a different ball game altogether and India
come into this series after good performances against Sri Lanka
and South Africa.
It is going to be a new-look Indian side that will take on Pakistan
in the shorter version, Ganguly, Patel, Laxman, Kumble and Wasim
Jaffer have all left for home to make way for Mohammad Kaif,
Suresh Raina, Murali Kartik and paceman Sri Santh.
It was disappointing to lose the Test series but the players will
not be short on motivation for the limited over matches. When it's
against Pakistan they are never short on it," that was what Dravid
had to say when asked about India's chances.
And Younis Khan had this to say - "I think one-day cricket is
different and the team which plays well on the day of the match
will carry the day,"
"We are at full strength with Inzamam back in the team and have a
lot of options available for team selection,".
The stage is well and truly set and we are in for a cracker of a
series - that's for sure!
As expected it's a flat track with no grass on the surface and it's
a batting beauty.
Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has won the toss and elected to
bowl first.
Dravid at the toss indicated that he too would have chosen to bowl
first had he won the toss.
India - Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj
Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ajit
Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth.
Supersub: Suresh Raina.
Pakistan - Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf,
Inzamam-ul-Haq, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Abdul
Razzaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul.
Supersub: Arshad Khan.
Asad Rauf and Simon Taufel will be in charge of the proceeding in
the middle, Zamir Haider is the TV umpire and Chris Broad is the
ICC match-referee.
AuthorTopic: India vs Pak -1st ODI[02/06] (Read 15588 times)
