***Official England in India***

[Richard]

Bopara taking first strike, interesting. Wonder how often if ever he's opened the batting before in any serious cricket.

Patel to open the bowling again, Ishant Sharma to bowl first-change.

This prospect of a run-out is always there, of course.

Ball doing a decent bit first-up, wonder how long it'll last.

 

[Richard]

Well, it's a good decision in the sense that it's better that it was made than not made. Swann in for a batsman would have made far, far more sense though.

Dunno that it would, in one sense. While this team has just four front-line bowlers, which I'm not in favour of, none of the batsmen (apart from Prior who keeps wicket) deserve to be dropped, and it'd have been harsh to leave any of them out. Harmison, on the other hand, does.

Twice in the opening two overs the scheme is five dot-balls followed by four off the last.

 

[Richard]

Must say it's a bit disappointing to see Prior not open the batting as well, not because I think such a thing has a future, but because he's averaged 32.40 there since his recall and we now have yet another "inconclusive". I hope he might open (and fail) again later in the series.

Not like he's batted down the order for his county in OD cricket for a long while now either.

 

[Richard]

3rd over out of 4 with a four off the last delivery, disappointing with the number of balls that have carried through and moved away and beaten the edge.

 

[Richard]

Poor stuff from Patel with this short bowling.

 

[Richard]

28 out of 36 in boundaries. Even in a Powerplay, that's pretty extreme.

Ishant Sharma on for, apparently, his first ODI bowl in India, which is ITSTL.

 

[TT Boy]

50 up for no loss. Bell's been a lucky boy but at least his got England off to a decent start.

 

[Richard]

Consecutive no-balls.

 

[Zinzan]

Wow, England doing well, particularly considering they were only 16 after 7 overs

 

[Richard]

Ishant Sharma's been woeful so far. OK, Rudra Pratap Singh would've been unlikely to have done better, but the decision to play Sharma looks a little questionable now.

61 off the last 7 overs.

 

[Richard]

Haha, how predictable is that, Bell out after getting a start. I was going to post along the lines of "time for Bell to get out now" but didn't on the basis that everything has to end somewhere.

Will just have a check in a mo and see how many times this has happened.

 

[TT Boy]

Rank bowling from the Indians. Too short and too wide, just bread and butter for Bell and Bopara.
Really good start here, hopefully KP comes in next.

 

[superkingdave]

Here cometh the collapse

 

[TT Boy]

Typical Bell dismissal.

 

[superkingdave]

So what happened to Pietersen wanting shah at 3?

 

[TT Boy]

Good to see KP in at three.

 

[Richard]

So what happened to Pietersen wanting shah at 3?

Either he was overruled or he realises an error when he sees it. Either outcome would be encouraging.

 

[IndGunner]

Meh Test match (Aus Vs Nz) more exciting than this one day tbh...

 

[Richard]

It's generally the way, especially when the unexpected is happening.

 

[IndGunner]

And also refer to my early prediction