Bell hopes team makes most of 'English weather'

England opener lauds Indian seamers

England had returned to India hoping for an encore after their Test triumph but found themselves at the wrong end of the tale after the hosts jumped to a 2-1 lead at Ranchi in the five-match ODI series.

Opener Ian Bell felt they haven’t challenged India enough in the series and hoped the familiar, “English conditions’’ here will give them just what they needed to draw level.

Mohali and Dharamsala would be the two coldest venues in the series with the minimum temperature here hovering around 6-9 degrees, after spots of showers in the last few days .

The cold conditions would brighten the prospects of seamers.

The two teams arrived here on Monday afternoon for the fourth one-day international on Wednesday with England hitting the nets first followed by India in the evening.
Bell certainly looked a satisfied man after the team’s practice session at the sunny Punjab Cricket Association stadium.

“It’s been nice today, very English really so a little bit more familiar than what we had in the last couple of games. Though I don’t think it (the weather conditions) had too much effect on the way we played, but it’s certainly nice to get out there with a bit of breeze. It sure helps everyone,” Bell told reporters.

“We are a little bit disappointed with the way we have played. We haven’t really put in performances that have challenged India at all. They are fantastic team especially in these conditions. Hopefully in next couple of days we will get opportunity to put in a performance like we did in the first one-day international to go 2-2 in the series.”

England top order has not clicked the way it did during their win in the first ODI, and Bell felt keeping the new rules in perspective, it has proved dear to their progress.
“Certainly with the new rules and two new  balls, if there is a little bit in the wicket you have to play well. It is not going to be easy to come out and play massively aggressive shots. Both teams have shown that,” he said.

“But ideally we want to get a platform, which is one thing we haven’t done well. We have lost wickets in clusters. It happened the other night again when we lost three wickets in the middle which slowed us completely down with the new rules.

Our middle-order is quite powerful and destructive so we need to get a foundation for our big hitters in the middle so they get us going. We showed we can do that in the first one-dayer, maybe we didn't quite adapt to the conditions well enough in the last game.

“Dhoni showed us in Kochi that if you got wickets in hand in the last 15 overs especially, the last 10 after the powerplay, it is hard for the bowlers to stop you from scoring runs . We haven't been able to get ourselves in that position in the last two games.

“Hopefully in this game and the last game we can get ourselves into positions to hurt India in the back end of the innings.”

For England to make a good start they have to play India’s rookie opening bowlers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shami Ahmed, well.

“We watched a bit of them in the Pakistan series. It’s nice to face the new guys in the middle and I think they have been very good.

They have got some tested skill to swing the ball both ways. They bowled very well, especially in the last two games they have made us work really hard,” he said.