England in India

[James219]

Well the two openers, in Bell and Strauss, have set solid foundations in which the middle order can build upon, with confidence. A good effort in the field from England to restrict India, although they probably lost their direction a little in the middle period. The situation is well poised though, with both sides having potential matchwinners up their sleeves.
And by the way, calling World Series Cricket exactly that was a bit of a misrepresentation, wasn't it...?

 

[hondeyho]

Bell and Strauss are doing a fantastic job at the moment. Two out-of-form batsman going along very nicely with a run-rate of 6.

For England this is exactly what needed, and I can also see that the pressure of captaincy on Strauss isn't getting to him at all.

 

[m_vaughan]

Better start from England, something they havent done for the entire series. I agree that India are playing without Pathan, their main bowler, but thats exactly what England have been doing for the entire tour.

 

[ZexyZahid]

England seems to be going towards a big wickets win. Strauss is doing a fine job there.

 

[kuttakumar]

Sehwag and Kaif continues to be a problem for Ind.Kaif can field well.So I think from next series onwards,he will be a sub. And Sehwag now deserve to be kicked out of the team at least from the ODI side.

 

[BigCrickNan]

England are making a right mess of this chase, 5 down now with 13 to win.

 

[Wildwil]

Come on England win this one

 

[irottev]

Bah. India. Grrrr. Not good enough!!!!

I think I must have been drunk when I put that VCash on. Grrrrrr! lol

 

[harishankar]

It's good to see India lose. Shouldn't get too complacent. I think it was a kick in the rearside well deserved as they chose to play most of the bench strength. Yuvraj's attitude while batting said it all - laziness and complacency had crept in.

 

[Sureshot]

Yes, but you'd have won a tournament in which all those 90 teams participated. ODI cricket is an international sport. Test cricket isn't. With the exception of one tiny part of the West Indies, it's restricted solely to current or former British colonies.

The bit on it only being British colonies is irrelevant, the game was invented by the British and the British soldiers at the time showed the colonies the beautiful game, they've had longer to get a grip of the game at Test level.

Cricket in all the test playing colonies have been playing cricket for 150 odd years locally, etc.

But surely if you gave more teams Test status (Netherlands, Kenya, etc) It would only lower the standard of Tests?

-----

Well we only won due to the Indian batsman failing, we bowled well though.

Nice way to finish of the game by Blackwell.

 

[andrew_nixon]

But surely if you gave more teams Test status (Netherlands, Kenya, etc) It would only lower the standard of Tests?

The ICC give out temporary ODI status to those who perform well at the non-test level. I'd do the same with Test cricket. Permanent Test status should be reserved for the very best, say the top eight teams. But at least 4 teams should qualify to play Tests for a six year period, and have to requalify to keep that status for a further six years.

 

[Sureshot]

Yep, they can't improve without Experience.

 

[jkartik]

LMAO !!! this is propably the only match played so casually by india in months
most of them played only for the sake of playing e.g sehwag, yuvraj etc..
only dhoni and powar were impressive..

finally, england have something to cheer abt

although i hope india dont play the final match as casual as this one

 

[harishankar]

Powar certainly is shaping up to be a world cup contender. But he must shape up, though (pun intended )

 

[Sureshot]

LMAO !!! this is propably the only match played so casually by india in months
most of them played only for the sake of playing e.g sehwag, yuvraj etc..
only dhoni and powar were impressive..

finally, england have something to cheer abt

although i hope india dont play the final match as casual as this one

We deserve SOME credit for it.