Too close for comfort

India's win in the second ODI against England on Friday has not only thrown open the seven-match series but has also exposed their weaknesses in a big way.

Whatever good work their batsmen did was almost undone by their floppy fielders and wayward bowlers (not all). Luckily for the visitors, the Englishmen's charge came too late leaving very less scope for a win.

Sachin Tendulkar once again missed a century, his third dismissal in the nervous ninety in the last five ODI's he has played. However, this time around, the umpire was clearly at fault when he ruled him out caught behind off Andrew Flintoff when the TV replays showed the ball going off his elbow guard.

Though Sachin missed a personal milestone, he made sure that his team was on way to a huge total despite suffering from severe cramps in his hands. Indian skipper, Rahul Dravid, who too has been severely criticized for his unimaginative decisions and some poor batting during the Test series, which India won 1-0, came up with a gem of an innings despite running out of partners in the later stages of the Indian innings.

With 329 runs on the board, the Indians were expected to win quite easily despite the boundary lines being short and the outfield very fast. But that was not to be. Thanks to some poor bowling by experienced seamer Ajit Agarkar in the initial stages of the England innings and inexperienced spinner Piyush Chawla in the end.

Add to this, the fielders' continued shabby work on the field you get a frightening picture for the rest of the series. As many as five catches were floored, most of them sitters, while Rudra Pratap Singh and Munaf Patel (both said to be recovering from flu) and Ramesh Powar's performances in the outfield was pathetic to say the least.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni might be a match-winner on sub-continent pitches but in seaming conditions and on hard and bouncy wickets he looks totally out of depth. His glove work behind the wicket yesterday was below par as he dropped two easy catches, which could have proved very costly against any other team.

It might be a good idea if the team's think-tank follow a rotation policy between the two stumpers in future as Dinesh Karthik, being a better wicketkeeper, should get ample chances to show case his talent otherwise, the team might suffer banking just on Dhoni despite repeated poor showings.

Yuvraj Singh, who is considered as our best fielder, seems to be apprehensive while making diving stops despite recovering fully from his knee injury while Karthik is best described as patchy on the field.

Under such circumstances every team member is expected to chip in with major contributions on the field but sadly this aspect of the game was missing in the first two matches so far and hopefully better sense prevails and the Indians do well in the remaining five matches of the series.

Why India's fielding standard fails to match the top teams like Australia and South Africa, despite having a fielding coach in Robin Singh, is a real cause for concern. Until and unless they improve their catching and ground fielding on a consistent basis, it is hard to see them winning many close matches.

Because it is an impossible run out or a breath-taking catch which usually decides the fate of a closely fought tie and the Indians, who have lost many matches for not being sharp on the field, refuse to learn from their mistakes.

The respective coaches (fielding and bowling) should not take this lightly just because the team managed to win the second ODI but stress upon this weakness time and again so that every player tries to give more than he is capable of on the field.

Most of these young players, except for the three near veterans - Sachin, Sourav and Rahul -- are in the South Africa bound squad for the Twenty20 World Cup, where fielding will be the crucial aspect of the tournament. If they continue to field the way they did at Bristol then they may not even make it to the Super Eight stage.

Let us hope that their fielding and bowling improves for good as yesterday's win was too close for comfort.