Suresh Raina reminds me of another young Indian left hander who made a classy, fearless 81 against the Aussies in Nairobi in the ICC tournament to showcase his considerable talent to the world - Yuvraj Singh. Greg Chappell, Rahul and the selectors deserve to be congratulated for unearthing a talent of serious potential. Today Raina took it upon himself to guide the team to victory from a potentially hopeless position by scoring an unbeaten, perfectly paced 81.

Suresh Raina's knock today is specially commendable because it came under pressure. He came on to bat at 80/4 and showed no sign of panic at all. This is the new face of the Indian ODI side. While the test side is showing a soft underbelly, the ODI team has now won 12 of the last 14 ODIs - unprecedented for any recent Indian team.

England batted first and scored 226 on a slow, difficult wicket. Pietersen top scored with 71. The highlight was Romesh Powar's bowling. I have said before ( Archives - Mind the Comments) that he is the most under rated Indian bowler and I am glad he excelled today ( 10-0-34-3).

Sehwag got 26, Gambhir 29  and Dhoni, a crucial and very restrained 38. Nice to see the commitment from the whole team.

Overall, the ODI side, as predicted before the series, is looking good and should have no trouble winning this series.

The most gratifying aspect of the recent performances of this team has been the fact that in every game, one or more players has risen to the challenge and taken the responsibility to take the team to victory. That is always the sign of a champion side.