England in India

[aditya123]

Well done to England, impressive win. I wonder what the fallout will be in india - chappell really needed to pinch this one to save face after the drubbing in pakistan. A series they should've won.

Actually, the pople in India have short memory when it comes to cricket.
And most of them seem to be happy with our ODI performances which has been nothing short of outstanding since Chappel has come in.
(6-1 vs SRL, 4-1 vs Pak, 2-2 Vs SA)

We lost the test in PAK but the ODI drubbing of PAK (4-1) led people to forget the test series defeat.
I expect India to beat England by a big margin as well in the ODIs and again the people tend to forgive the drawn series.

 

[varunvgiri]

But Laxman hasnt been in earth shaking form to support that claim that he might have saved India here! We were positive in going with 5 bowlers and the decision was right. The toss, Dravid ought to have batted first and the batting, has become over reliant on RAHUL DRAVID just like how it was on Sachin in the 90's.



India's is not the best batting line up in the world. We are only the strongest batting line up in the world. The best batting line up in the world right now should as usual be Australia because even though they have fallen a bit from their previous years, they still are more consistent than other current teams as far as batting!

But Laxman is a fighter in these type of pitches. Even if he doesnt score freely, he is very hard to get out in these slow pitches. Besides, his form hasnt been that bad. he got two beauties in the third test against Pakistan and he played reasonably well against Sri Lanka. Most batsmen in the world would have got out to those two balls that he got at Karachi. Besides, what gives us the confidence to play 5 bowlers???? Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan are not proven test performers with the bat. Also, with Sachin and Sehwag in absolute dreadful form it was a really bad idea.

Indias batting is potentially the strongest provided we play 6 batsmen and all of them are in reasonabe form. We are looking at a situation where 2 of our best 3 players are in absolute dreadful form.

Actually, the pople in India have short memory when it comes to cricket.
And most of them seem to be happy with our ODI performances which has been nothing short of outstanding since Chappel has come in.
(6-1 vs SRL, 4-1 vs Pak, 2-2 Vs SA)

We lost the test in PAK but the ODI drubbing of PAK (4-1) led people to forget the test series defeat.
I expect India to beat England by a big margin as well in the ODIs and again the people tend to forgive the drawn series.

Yes, our test efforts havent been great recently. We seem to have stumbled on a great combination in one dayers but our test side sure needs improvement. Sachin and Sehwag need to find some form.

The two reasons for us losing this test.

1) Really poor batting from our top order.

2) Terrible catching

Our catching has very poor through out the series. We havnt got any quality slip fielders, and with captaincy on his shoulders, Dravid's slip fielding hasnt been upto his usual standards as well. Besides, Yuvraj seems out of place every where except at point.

Here's some series batting stats

.................Runs...Average..Best

R Dravid......309......61.8......95
W Jaffer......250.....41.66.....100
A Kumble.....128.....32.0.......58
I Pathan......121.....24.2.......52
Y Singh.......64.......21.33.....37
M Dhoni.......106.....21.2.......64
S Tendulkar..83......20.75......34
V Sehwag.....95.....19.0........76
V Laxman......0.......0.0.........0
M Kaif..........91......91.0.......91

P Collingw'd...272....68.0.....134
O Shah........126.....63.0.....88
A Cook........183.....61.0.....104
A Flintoff......264....52.8......70
A Strauss.....237....39.5......128
K Pietersen...216....36.0......87
I Bell...........131.....21.83...57
G Jones........75......15.0....52


India..strongest batting line-up in the world?

There is the series stats...you decide..


===================================
I think its amazing that only one India batsman made a century, during the series , compared with 3 by England.

The third-highest run-maker for India in the series was Anil Kumble with 128 runs. Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Dhoni managed 284 runs between them - 11 more than the modestly talented Paul Collingwood.

In fact, most their top order didn't manage an agregate of 100 runs in the whole series!


Can't be healthy being so dependent on a single batsman (Dravid).

If people are judged by a single series, then look at Ricky Ponting's record in India. An average of 12 from 8 tests and 14 innings. That doesnt make him any lessa player. Its just that players hit good form and they hit bad form. When people compare Ponting and Sachin today, all I have to say is that they are comparing one player who is in the best form of his career, and the other in the worst form of his 17 year career.

 

[s2sschan]

Sachin

When people compare Ponting and Sachin today, all I have to say is that they are comparing one player who is in the best form of his career, and the other in the worst form of his 17 year career.

Whoever compares Sachin to Ponting, or Inzamam, or even Viv Richards is a fool.

Steve Waugh said " After Bradman it's Sachin....".

The Don himself considered Sachin the closest to him in technique and temperment and ranked him above everyone else. Don Bradman called his wife Jessie, pointed to the television screen, and asked if she saw any similarity between the batting styles of her husband and that of Sachin who was batting.

Even if Sachin gets out for 12 ducks in a row, nothing can take history away from him.

I think Sachin's an ageing lion who should leave the stage and not give hyenas like "Chucker Akhtar" the last laugh.

 

[gaurav_indian]

Whoever compares Sachin to Ponting, or Inzamam, or even Viv Richards is a fool.

Steve Waugh said " After Bradman it's Sachin....".

The Don himself considered Sachin the closest to him in technique and temperment and ranked him above everyone else. Don Bradman called his wife Jessie, pointed to the television screen, and asked if she saw any similarity between the batting styles of her husband and that of Sachin who was batting.

Even if Sachin gets out for 12 ducks in a row, nothing can take history away from him.

I think Sachin's an ageing lion who should leave the stage and not give hyenas like "Chucker Akhtar" the last laugh.

May be Sachin is a great player but don't u dare call Shoiab Akhtar a chucker.

 

[Sureshot]

The ODIs shall be very interesting, I'll be up.

One question though, Why no day/nighters?

 

[gaurav_indian]

The ODIs shall be very interesting, I'll be up.

One question though, Why no day/nighters?

Bcoz all the matches are going to be played on small centers of India.
Actually now England team will know how big India is bcoz they will be travelling all over India during next 7 ODI's.

 

[Sureshot]

I think they now that anyway, our cricketers have nothing in common with Jade Goody.

 

[sohum]

Well done to England, impressive win. I wonder what the fallout will be in india - chappell really needed to pinch this one to save face after the drubbing in pakistan. A series they should've won.

We hardly faced a drubbing in Pakistan. We just lost a 1-test series badly.

Just a two-point post-mortem on the Indian performance, in this match:

1. More catches were dropped than taken. And they happened to be the big players. I feel this may be because of the extra pace of the bowlers. Perhaps the slip fielders forgot to move back a yard or two, and hence the ball came at them quicker than before. They really should have taken so many more catches. And that is why I was a staunch supporter of Kaif in the test side--if even only for his fielding.

2. No application from the batsmen. The England batsmen were prepared to slug it out in the second innings, on a fading pitch. The Indians wanted to hit out (particularly the middle-lower order). Seems like we are quickly forgetting how to play test cricket.

I predicted a test series victory for India and an ODI series victory for England. Hopefully I will be proved wrong on both counts.

 

[newzolt]

The coming 7 ODI's will be a keen contest to watch.With sachin out for the 1st 3 ODI's( and don't know about sehwag status)the youngsters will be eager to perform from the Indian side.
England will be coming into the series with a slight psychological edge.

 

[Stephen Bailey]

With sachin out for the 1st 3 ODI's

Tendulkar is out of the whole series, isn't he? 8 weeks out from what I've heard.

 

[inzi_fan]

Great win for England. I always thought India would struggle against good pace on a bowler friendly pitch, but I never thought they'd struggle so bad.

BTW, could somebody tell me what I said wrong in this post:

http://www.planetcricket.org/forums/showpost.php?p=328657&postcount=940

I got my first rep and it was negative

 

[Vcassano]

Hmmm, only 16 people out of 124 people predicted a draw for the test series. And I was one of them; very good .

Anyway, Udal really surprised, doubling his test wicket amount in one innings. I find it quite strange that Owais Shah isn't getting all the attention that Cook got after his impressive performances but oh well.

 

[JamesyJames3]

Hmmm, only 16 people out of 124 people predicted a draw for the test series. And I was one of them; very good .

Anyway, Udal really surprised, doubling his test wicket amount in one innings. I find it quite strange that Owais Shah isn't getting all the attention that Cook got after his impressive performances but oh well.

Most of us are aware of Owais's talent, but, we also realise that Bell won't open usually and Cook would have to come back in ahead of Owais. He will be around the squad for a while and it wouldn't suprise me if he played against Sri Lanka. He is in the ODI squad anyway.

 

[Hariz]

Well I have'nt been following the series but I must say what a performane by a battered and bruised England side to come back that strongly and draw a test match series in India and bowl out one of the best batting sides in the world for just 100 with not a full fledged lineup. Flintoff has done really well in the absence of some senior players and Udal and Flintoff must be jumping with joy after demolishing India with those figures of 4 for 14 and 3 for 14 respectively. It certainly is a famous win for England............. :hpraise

 

[SaiSrini]

May be Sachin is a great player but don't u dare call Shoiab Akhtar a chucker.

Whats wrong? Thats his opinion. I have the same opinion too. And before you or some one asks me the argument for my opinion, I have stated it often in the "India in Pakistan" thread and I dont want stevie or someone to remind me that this is the "England in India" thread.

We hardly faced a drubbing in Pakistan. We just lost a 1-test series badly.

Just a two-point post-mortem on the Indian performance, in this match:

1. More catches were dropped than taken. And they happened to be the big players. I feel this may be because of the extra pace of the bowlers. Perhaps the slip fielders forgot to move back a yard or two, and hence the ball came at them quicker than before. They really should have taken so many more catches. And that is why I was a staunch supporter of Kaif in the test side--if even only for his fielding.

2. No application from the batsmen. The England batsmen were prepared to slug it out in the second innings, on a fading pitch. The Indians wanted to hit out (particularly the middle-lower order). Seems like we are quickly forgetting how to play test cricket.

I predicted a test series victory for India and an ODI series victory for England. Hopefully I will be proved wrong on both counts.

The test form of the Indians have plummeted over the past two test series. We also didnt have a great test series against Sri lanka who visited us. So we deserved this final test defeat. Had England got those important wickets in the final day at Nagpur, they would have been celebrating here even wilder for a series win!

The most worrying form has been that of Sachin's. He has comprehensively failed in both the Pakistan and the England series. Wonder when he has had such a terrible period of loss of form? He played very well in the ODI's against Pakistan though. This is the theory - he looks very good when he attacks. Yesterday's innings strengthened that even more. He was positive and was not afraid to play his shots and he sped off to 34. It was extremely positive from Sachin and I thought "Yeah, finally he is going to play this special innings to bail India out and shut the mouth of those critics". But after lunch and after the fall of Dravid, he seemed to slowly starting to go into his shell. He doesnt play spinners well when he defends him. Spinners find a flaw in him when he defends them. He opens up LBW's, bat pad catches, bowled's, etc. The way he crashed Monty Panesar for 12 runs in that over was brilliant! But he went way forward to defend Udal and paid the price for it and he bat padded it to short leg.

The coming 7 ODI's will be a keen contest to watch.With sachin out for the 1st 3 ODI's( and don't know about sehwag status)the youngsters will be eager to perform from the Indian side.
England will be coming into the series with a slight psychological edge.

I think the Indian summer has not fully settled into the country. So I still think this upcoming ODI series is going to be a case of "Field first and win the match".

Just a question - is the Super Sub rule going to be used for this series? The ICC have scrapped it. Hope its scrapped for this series!

Tendulkar is out of the whole series, isn't he? 8 weeks out from what I've heard.

Yup. He is doubtful for the first leg of the West Indies tour which starts in May.