England after their Christmas and New Year celebrations return to India for the ODI section of their tour 2012/13 and with their batting performance we can say that they are back with a bang. Scoring 325 runs in 50 overs, though not the greatest score, is certainly impressive and a tough target to chase for India who have been struggling through the past matches.

After winning the toss, England chose to bat at the Rajkot SCA stadium, in their first ODI. Captain Alastair Cook and Ian Bell had a strong partnership going until the deadlock was broken by Rahane's impressive fielding putting off Bell on his path to the pavilion who was just a few runs shy of his century. Captain Cook was the next in line headed back to the pavilion once again caught by Rahane while Raina confused him with the ball.

Ashok Dinda was the magic man with a splendid caught and bowled wicket of Morgan. He later went on to dismiss the danger man Pietersen soon but the troubles for India were not over yet. SR Patel and Kieswetter played an impressive innings supporting each other as they scored 44 and 24 respectively taking England to an impressive score of 325 with six wickets in hand.

India have made a strong comeback on the batting front. Sehwag who performed poorly was dropped to be replaced by Ajinkya Rahane, whose performance was worthy in the last few matches. At 8 overs India were at 57 for zero with Gambhir and Rahane standing at 28 each, well ahead of the Poms.

Will the New Year be fruitful for India. It is too early to say that but the first match seems to be going the Indian way.

(AW- Anil)