***Official*** England in India

[Sanz]

Hang on, that ODI los to Bangladesh only featured three greenhorns, who did little wrong, while the India regulars fell far short of expectations. Agarkar, Karthik, Ganguly, Dino and Sriram are not my favourites anyway. As for the Number 1 team in the world, they WON the series against a FULL-STRENGTH Indian side (no freak tactics then, just the tried and tested) as against and England side that was just lucky to square the Test series against a new-look Indian side.

India were Full-Strength against England, we were so strong that Players like Laxman, Kaif, Ganguly couldn't find a place in the XI. Infact against Australia, India were not full strength, Sachin didn't play in all the games, neither did Ganguly. Murali Karthik is hardly part of our full strength side.

And as we say this India are 203 all out, Looks fairly easy for England.

 

[adharcric]

Well, I refuse to kill my positivity. Here's a real opportunity for our newly "promising" seamers to live up to the tag in a pressure situation.

 

[adharcric]

Alright guys, Sehwag is officially annoying me more than Ganguly. Bring back Dada to open.

 

[honestbharani]

England had won an important toss. I fear this is another series going the INd-RSA series way. 9 AM starts in the summer are stupid, IMHO. I know this wicket was a good one for bowling anyways, at least bowling first, given the grass and the fact that it is a relaid wicket. But even at Faridabad and at the other centres, 9 AM start would give a distinct half hour to one hour advantage to the side fielding first. But let's see what INdia can do here. I expect a 9 or 8 wicket thumping from England with Strauss scoring a hundred and Shah hitting the winning runs. Today was one day when a pinch hitter might have come off, given that the surface was always doing a bit and bowlers were bowling quite brilliantly, extracting and using every ounce of help that was hidden in the pitch. I expected Pathan in at 3 to be honest.

 

[marc71178]

England side that was just lucky to square the Test series against a new-look Indian side.

"just lucky"?

 

[Pratters]

Okay so what was the logic of Greg Chappell/Dravid of 'protecting' Dhoni till number 8? bah

 

[wpdavid]

Isn't India batting right now ? IfSo, how can Raina and Sehwag bowl right now ? And Kabir Ali is a bits-and-pieces bowler, isn't he ??

Not really - he's a bowler who can also bat a bit. He opens the bowling for his county and is one of England's second string of seam bowlers. He's not highly rated by a lot of the guys on CW, but in the handful of ODI's he's played, he's usually taken some useful wickets and, as a bonus, often made some useful runs. Before today, he's been a bit expensive though.

 

[adharcric]

"just lucky"?

just lucky because they were up against an indian side that was intent on capitulating when it mattered most

 

[honestbharani]

I wouldn't say they were lucky to win, but I think that Australian side performed better than this English side. And like I have pointed out earlier, I refuse to believe they missed anyone apart from Simon JOnes. I felt the injury to Harmison allowed them to play an important bowler in Anderson in the last test. Sure, they missed one of the openers at Mumbai (both Cook and Tresco weren't there) but again, Shah did well coming in.

 

[pskov]

England have bowled very well (especially Blackwell and Flintoff), but the Indian batsmen played some mindless shots to get out, especially Sehwag (completely mistimed pulling from well outside off), Yuvraj (absolutely no foot movement at all, slashing a poor delivery onto his stumps) and Pathan (poor shot selection and worse execution trying to hit down the ground). The ball had a hint of swing early on and was certainly bouncing unevenly, but as the ball wore older and the pitch dried out it happened less and less. By the end of the innings it looked pretty flat to me, just good death bowling from England to restrict India in the last few overs. Singh, Pathan and Sreesanth will have to get multiple breakthroughs with the new ball otherwise India will be in trouble. I back England to get this fairly comfortably; inside 45 overs with 6 wickets in hand.

 

[pskov]

Isn't India batting right now ? IfSo, how can Raina and Sehwag bowl right now ? And Kabir Ali is a bits-and-pieces bowler, isn't he ??

Kabir Ali I quite like, unlike some people on this board and the majority of my friends. He's always liable to nick a few out with the new ball and at the end, even if he goes for a few runs. I thought he was our best bowler in the ODIs in South Africa and very unlucky to not play in the Ashes ODI series.

This is his 10th ODI and his stats are now (with the help of my trusty calculator): 19 wkts @ 22.95 ave, econ 5.37, SR 25.63. Not bad figures at all.

 

[Pratters]

The shorter length was troubling Indians. Pathan gets Strauss with the shorter length as well. Interesting.

 

[Barney Rubble]

Great bowling effort by England.

And as I type, Strauss fails as an ODI opener - again.

 

[adharcric]

Yes Irfan!

 

[Barney Rubble]

On another note, what the hell did Shah do to justify his place ahead of Bell? Yeah, sure, he batted well in the Test, but Bell scored 71 the other day when Shah failed, for Pete's sake. I wonder what exactly Bell has to do in order to get a decent opportunity in England's ODI lineup.

As I speak, Shah lbw b Pathan for 4. See?

 

[IndianByHeart]

Great start by Irfunk.

Hopefully Eng will lose 2-3 more quick wkts, then the game will become very interesting.

 

[adharcric]

Beautiful my boy!

 

[pskov]

Stunning ball to get Shah lbw, it pitched outside off and was going to hit middle and leg! That's two excellent deliveries to get wickets there for India.

I said they needed multiple new ball breakthoughs, an they got them in the first over. Definitley game on.

 

[honestbharani]

Man, both sides seem to be in a real state of flux as far as batting and batting orders are concerned.

 

[IndianByHeart]

India are back into the match

Come on India!!!