***Official*** England in India

[silentstriker]

Well now it is, scores are level.

 

[Timewell]

If you were playing Australia, it would be. India can miraculously pull a choke out of nowhere, sometimes can even suprise themselves.

Maybe so...but you'd need to bowl half-decent balls for something like that!

 

[Choc888]

As a Warwickshire fan myself, I'd say that, sadly, I don't think Ian Bell is good enough for England. It seems he just cannot get the runs when it matters and cannot convert good starts into big scores often enough.

really he has ups and downs?

 

[Timewell]

really he has ups and downs?

I'd say he has them no more than any other player but his batting this winter has not been good enough for us to win a series - no-one's batting has been good enough for us to win a series. People may have made runs but those runs have been in vain, to a certain extent, if we lose or fail to win the match.

 

[adharcric]

MOM Suresh Raina, I told you guys he's solid. The emergence of a real talent here, one for the future I'd hope and believe.

 

[Timewell]

Yeah he batted well today - all credit to him. England should have bowled a lot better on that track - especially when we had them in the corner! So frustrating that we cannot finish them off - two games thrown away.

 

[adharcric]

Well England put up a much better show today. Mind you, most of the guys besides Strauss still tried (and many succeeded) to give away their wickets, but then so did the Indian top-order lads.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Why stop there? Are there any firing ranges around Faridabad?

Meh, waste of ammunition. Just give him a Greg Chappell costume and let the natives burn him.

 

[Timewell]

I know he's not presenting the programme at the moment, but does anyone else find Simon Thomas to be a bloody awful presenter?!?!

 

[SJS]

Well played Raina and Powar but India do have problems in top half batting....very serious problems. This wont do.

 

[adharcric]

England need to bring in Bell, Solanki and Hoggard for Shah, Jones and Ali.
Unfortunately, I don't see all of that happening. Well, fortunately for India.

 

[adharcric]

Loving it. Dhoni giving Raina a victory lap on the new bike.

 

[SJS]

Powar should get an opportunity to bat score a good fifty and become a permanent ODI team member. With Pathan, Powar and Dhoni we can play any combination of bowling.

 

[adharcric]

Powar should get an opportunity to bat score a good fifty and become a permanent ODI team member. With Pathan, Powar and Dhoni we can play any combination of bowling.

Absolutely with you on that one. Now Harbhajan has shown some genuine ability with the bat as well, so we have two seasoned spinners who can take wickets and make handy contributions with the bat (although Powar is more of an all-rounder than Bhajji). Add to that Pathan's all-around ability, Munaf's big-hitting and Sreesanth's glimpses of batting temperament (in that test match) and we'll have a very deep batting lineup. Just today, we had batting down to #10.

The top-order remains a bit of a concern though. Dravid's dismissal was a odd case, Yuvraj had terrible shot selection but he's otherwise shown newfound maturity, and Kaif doesn't usually play those cross-batted shots ... tried it on this case and chose a bad time on a low-bounce pitch. Sehwag was going well, I'm not sure what the hell that sweep was about. As for Gambhir, he's intent on wasting his talent again and again, frittering away solid starts with bizarre dismissals.

 

[silentstriker]

Well played Raina and Powar but India do have problems in top half batting....very serious problems. This wont do.

Agreed. Apart from Dravid, no one is consistant. And when Dravid fails, our top order rarely scores runs anymore.

Chappel and Dravid need to get together and figure out what to do about the three top batsman (other than Dravid). Maybe a complete purge is requires, bringing some new faces in. For ODI's at least, this includes getting rid of Sehwag. For tests, the problem is worse, as Sehwag, Jaffer/Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, and SRT are all not performing. That is a huge part of your lineup. The Indian top order is worse than Englands at the moment (again, with the exception of Dravid).

 

[wpdavid]

England need to bring in Bell, Solanki and Hoggard for Shah, Jones and Ali.
Unfortunately, I don't see all of that happening. Well, fortunately for India.

Bell would be hard pressed to score less than Shah, so it's hard to see why he wouldn't play as he's in the squad. Solanki would certainly give us a bit more in the middle order, where he's actually played some decent innings for us. And it's hard to see why Hoggard is still out there if he doesn't get to play. At least he wouldn't bottle it like Ali did today.

But this has 7-0 written all over it. We've lost the crucial games which were there for the taking, and the Indians can only get better, AFAICS.

 

[marc71178]

It's not inconceivable that he's significantly better suited to odi's than tests. It's not as if there's no alternatives for the test side.

For some reason he seems to be inked into the Test side regardless of opposition for his place.

 

[marc71178]

Don't see why Flintoff waited til the ball was replaced (with a harder, whiter one) to bring Blackwell back on.

My guess is that he knew he only had a few overs left so thought it better to have him on when the RR was higher rather than bowling through at 4 an over that the medium pacers seemed to be able to do.

Any chance of not seeing any more cannon fodder Kabir? Ever?

Anyone would be better than him I'd say!

 

[adharcric]

Chappel and Dravid need to get together and figure out what to do about the three top batsman (other than Dravid). Maybe a complete purge is requires, bringing some new faces in. For ODI's at least, this includes getting rid of Sehwag. For tests, the problem is worse, as Sehwag, Jaffer/Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, and SRT are all not performing. That is a huge part of your lineup. The Indian top order is worse than Englands at the moment (again, with the exception of Dravid).

Take it easy there, you're overreacting. First of all, let's take Sachin out of the equation as he's out of action for a while now. On Sehwag, I'll agree with you, he needs to be sorted out; he seemed to have gotten form back today though, then came that strange sweep. Jaffer has done fine in the chances he's gotten so far, so leave him alone; Gambhir is very talented and should be punished if he keeps wasting it, really riding his luck here. Now, getting to Yuvraj. Along with Dhoni, he's been our best ODI player this season ... yes, better than Dravid. The last two matches have seen some irresponsible shots, but don't rush to such impetuous judgments on his performance. Even in tests, Yuvraj had shown plenty of promise in tough situations but failed in the England series. He needs to get back in his groove, but no one can deny that he's matured immensely and he is far from being a serious worry at the moment.

I'd like to see something positive from you for a change, you seem to have ignored Raina's knock completely, he too is a middle-order bat you know. I can understand your feelings, but IMO you've gone into a little too pessimistic mode after that Mumbai debacle.

 

[marc71178]

Dhoni is out - doesn't really matter though. Shocking decision by Flintoff to put Kabir on...Anderson or himself would have been a much better choice

Anderson and Ali were both leaking too many runs, but 1 of them had to come back to complete the missing overs.