***Official*** England in India

[Jono]

Watching this series it has confirmed to me that India will still struggle to win a series in Soth Africa, England or Australia. Apart from Dravid the batsmen's technique against the short or moving ball is very poor. Sehwag in particular seems to have gone backwards since he scored centuries in England, Australia and South Africa.

They're only going to improve if they continue to prepare pitches that are generally foreign to them during their home series. Additionally there are far more bowler friendly wickets being prepared in Indian domestic cricket now-a-days compared to a few years back.

 

[Pratters]

Come on MSN dude..

 

[superkingdave]

Udal on, Fred trying to lull the batsmen into a false sense of security obviously cos i can't think of any other reason he'd be on.

 

[aussie]

good session for england.

 

[Nate]

Anderson seems to have bowled very well.

And how amazing has Flintoff been this series! Talk about leading by example.

 

[SJS]

Almost every England commentator has asked the question whether Dhoni and Pathan are good enough to bat at 6 and 7 at test level.

The Indian commentators are fidgety in answering.

Just a few weeks ago they would have answered with a resounding YESSSS!! and an average Indian fan asked that question would have looked at you as if you had gone out of your mind to question these new Gods.

The fact of the matter is that one day cricket, matches on benign wickets or games against minnows has made Indians totally impervious to the virtues of technique, patience, a straight bat, maturity and all the other attributes that go to make a good test batsman. It may be a good thing for Sehwag, Dhoni etc to be exposed a bit for them to understand what they need to work at inspite of the demi-God status and the overflowing bank accounts.

The nIndian fan may never learn, and I am afraid the media is going to make sure they become dumber, at least the cricketers are expected to react to failure since they dont have the option that the media and the fans have for failure, " Off with their heads"

Yuvraj has clearly learnt a big lesson. Its so gratifying to see him not going for the sweep as the first second and last option to any good spinner. Now we need a bit of tempering of Master Blaster Mach II and Gilchrist Mach II. India needs it and so do they.

 

[luckyeddie]

poor behaviour of the booing

Amazing...it's the superstars who lack application and you are critical of the crowd. Just amazing. Did you send them thank you cards when they collectively made these same guys into demi-Gods ?

These wonderful cricketers who don't even appeal for LBWs - match fixing, anyone ?

That's enough, JustTroll

 

[tooextracool]

Anderson seems to have bowled very well.

hes bowled well by his standards,more importantly hes been far more accurate and hes realised that he cant just survive by being solely a 'swing bowler'. however not a single one of his wickets, along with the 2 dropped catches were off good balls, in fact at least 2 of them should have been put away for 4. so hes continued with his happy knack of picking up wickets off poor balls, much like for the rest of his career.

 

[aussie]

hes bowled well by his standards,more importantly hes been far more accurate and hes realised that he cant just survive by being solely a 'swing bowler'. however not a single one of his wickets, along with the 2 dropped catches were off good balls, in fact at least 2 of them should have been put away for 4. so hes continued with his happy knack of picking up wickets off poor balls, much like for the rest of his career.

harsh TEC response as usual...

 

[Jono]

Jeez almost a run out there.

 

[chalky]

Bloody hell Udal is bowling garbage.

 

[Barney Rubble]

Bloody hell Udal is bowling garbage.

Can anyone honestly say that he's a better player than Ian Blackwell? No, I thought not.

 

[chalky]

Shows the value of Giles no one else playing at 8 has taken a wicket or scored a run in India.

 

[SJS]

Can anyone honestly say that he's a better player than Ian Blackwell? No, I thought not.

Blackwell was knocking at lunch time yesterday and he looked pretty decent with the bat. As far as bowling is concerned its difficult to imagine much worse than what Udal has been bowling do far.

 

[SJS]

Strauss drops a very difficult one from Patahn after Udal dropped a very hard hit return.

This is a match up between the butter fingers of the two sides. I would say india are leading so far.

 

[JustTool]

That's enough, JustTroll

Now, that's so clever. I am so impressed.

 

[JustTool]

Srinath talking about 'maturity' and 'improvement'.

I hope he is listening to himself.

 

[PY]

Pathan goes, Udal lovin' it.

Loss of concentration.

 

[Pratters]

And caught too.

 

[Jono]

Really Pathan, just stupid.