The stats here mention that India won 11 matches in a row, chasing. I write this after India has completed 12 by beating Pakistan in the 4th ODI. However in the same period where India have this record of 12 successful run chases, India batted first on 7 occasions and won only once. Infact, the last ten times India batted first, India has won only on 3 occasions. On one occasion the margin was a paltry 7 runs (vs WI) and on one occasion the opponent turned out to be minnows Zimbabwe. The third occasion was respectable the opponent was Sri Lanka and the margin was 152 runs. On that occasion India had 350 on board to defend. On 3 of the occasions where India failed to defend a target they had scores of 278 (vs NZ at Harare), 285 (vs SL at Ahmedabad) and 328 (vs Pak at Peshawar) meaning that they had a defendable target and yet failed. There may be excuses that the Pak match was cut short by bad light but fact remains that the bowlers failed to defend the target. Also with run a ball required and Younis Khan still batting I dont think bad light caused the defeat. I wish the stats of number of succesful defence of targets also be provided for comparison. That will show more facts.
