Winning the toss was crucial in final ODI against India, says Alastair Cook

England captain Alastair Cook has admitted that it was a very important toss to win in the final encounter of the 5-match One Day International (ODI) series against India in India.

Thanks to Ian Bell’s wonderful hundred, the Englishmen won the final game comprehensively by seven wickets. Batting first, the home side scored 226 runs.

The Poms took a great start with the ball, as India’s top-five batsmen went back to the pavilion on 79. After the early mess, Yuvraj Singh took responsibility on his shoulders, and smashed a classy knock of 83 runs. Ravindra Jadeja also chipped in, and added
crucial 39 runs to the total.

In reply, Bell single-handedly guided the side to an easy win. He lost his opening partner early, but continued to punish the Indian bowlers.

With the help of 13 boundaries and a huge six, he smashed a superb innings of 113 runs. Eoin Morgan also batted well in the end, and played an unbeaten innings of 40 runs.

Cook believes that winning the toss was a huge benefit, as his bowlers did well in the beginning. He said after the game on Sunday:

"It was an important toss to win. But you still have to execute your skills and I thought our opening bowlers did that very well. 49 for four gave us a great chance to win and we did that."

The left-hander did not forget to lavish praise on Bell for his classy innings. He, however, admitted that the series defeat was quite disappointing.

"Belly’s hundred today was outstanding. It sometimes is easy to talk the talk but to go out there and do it like he did today is something we can take a lot from."

"It was very important to end the series on a high. There’s always disappointment when you come and try to win a series and then lose 3-2. I thought the way the lads performed today was really good."

Talking about new coach Ashley Giles, he shared that the relationship is pretty good, and the entire unit is getting to know him and his methods of coaching.

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Jan 28 2013. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry