***Official England in India***

[Burgey]

Well the curator did say this would be a 300+ wicket. so maybe we should wait and see.

That's all right, the curator in Delhi said he was giving Kumble a going away present, and it was a road.

 

[Richard]

This pitch so far really reminds me of this game on the last tour.

Broad gifted another, woeful shot from Raina.

 

[Richard]

This is becoming a ODI pattern actually - terrible England performance is followed by a big wickat haul for Broad (it's hard to see him not getting 3 or 4 today but we live in hope ).

 

[Prince EWS]

Anderson's been fairly hopeless in ODIs for just about all his career, really. He's tended to bowl well maybe 1 in 5 or 6 games and then very poorly in the others. Trouble is, not irregularly (and never more than in the summer of 2003) even his poor performances have ended-up producing something like 10-50-3, which has enabled the "ah, he's expensive, but he takes wickets" brigade who think that wickets are more important than economy whatever stage of the innings the wickets come at to claim he's actually quite good.

This added to the fact that, as we know, when he's good he tends to be really good (getting, say, 8-20-3 or something of the like quite often) so even though it's fairly unusual, it still takes 3 bad spells before his figures even look mediocre, if you only look at the average rather than the economy-rate.

The point I was trying to make though, is that he hasn't even done what has kept him in the reckoning all this time of late - that being taken key wickets and occasionally bowling a brilliant spell once every ten games or so. He's been even more horrible than usual.

 

[Prince EWS]

Hate Broad taking wickets. Just seems wrong.

 

[IndGunner]

Wow thnk you keeper. lucky break there, hope rohit can make it count

 

[superkingdave]

course the catch gets dropped off of Jimmy's bowling

 

[Richard]

Hard to argue Anderson's bowling well here.

Wondered how long it'd be before the next Prior drop.

 

[Richard]

Hate Broad taking wickets. Just seems wrong.

Just hate any wicket falling to balls that just stop completely on the pitch. ALWAYS seems wrong.

 

[Richard]

The point I was trying to make though, is that he hasn't even done what has kept him in the reckoning all this time of late - that being taken key wickets and occasionally bowling a brilliant spell once every ten games or so. He's been even more horrible than usual.

The point I was making was that he himself hasn't really done much differently. His figures have been even worse than normal, sure, but that's just because batsmen have played him better not because he's bowled even worse.

 

[jeevan]

Gambhir makes 1000 ODI runs for 2008, apparently first one this year.

Have to say, he's the one that's been a pleasant surprise the past 12 months or so.
Is in the big leagues this year, far as productivity is concerned.

 

[Richard]

Haha, lbw appeal when the ball hits the middle of the bat and doesn't even touch the pad.

Good job that wasn't given out.

 

[Precambrian]

What an abysmal start. Hopefully this will test the real strength of India's middle order. Pitch is likely to get worse, so wise decision to bat first.

 

[Richard]

Funny, ball really swung in the opening over and hardly has at all since then.

As for the start, it'll be interesting to see if Gambhir can play the situation.

 

[Richard]

And judging by the number of misfields so far I'd guess the outfield would be as uneven as the pitch.

 

[Richard]

Broad gifted ANOTHER. On to get 6 or 7 at this rate.

 

[Prince EWS]

"Thru" is not a word. TV stations to note.

Another wicket to Broad. So wrong.

 

[biased indian]

think 250+ would be a decent score on this pitch... @ toss dhoni was saying this will definetly assist spinners in the second half

 

[Richard]

think 250+ would be a decent score on this pitch...

India will have a hell of a job to get that, but they might well need far less.

@ toss dhoni was saying this will definetly assist spinners in the second half

It's assisted seamers lots so far and I imagine it'll assist both types of bowlers all day, pieces have been coming out of the pitch as many deliveries as not.

 

[biased indian]

ha ha 250 would be a great score now ..