Story England International Season - September 8th, 2007 - India in England

[treva]

India take command with regular wickets

England vs India
4th Natwest ODI
August 30, 2007
Old Trafford, Manchester

After a short drinks break the players resumed play with Irfan Pathan set to bowl his second over. Pietersen and bell both immediately took singles to take the score to 93/2, which soon became 93/3, Pietersen having his off stump knocked back. Pietersen tried to guide the ball down to 3rd man but without width the ball slid on past the inside edge and flicked the top of off. Pietersen had to depart for 43, just 7 short of another half century.

This brought Owais Shah to the crease, but just 4 runs later England suffered another casualty. Shah, not renowned for his excellent running, called Bell through on a quick single. Bell paused before setting off, leaving him well short of his ground after a quick pick-up and throw by Rohit Sharma. Bell had made a steady 20 from 34 balls, but he would've liked a lot more.

Pietersen is bowled by Pathan; Dhoni celebrates Pietersen's wicket; Bell well short of his ground​

Shah needed to make up for his mistake, and he immediately smashed a four over cover to announce his intentions. He proceeded to smash a slog sweep into the stands as well as playing some delicate shots, particularly off the spinners. After another sweep shot raced to the boundary England brought up the 150 with the loss of 4 wickets.

Shah hits it big; Another cover drive races to the fence; Shah's soft touch brings another boundary​

With the score on 151/4 India again pulled it back, taking the vital wicket of Owais Shah for 31. Rohit Sharma, the most expensive of Indian bowlers, fired in a quicker delivery which caught Shah by surprise. The ball skipped off the pitch before thumping into Shah's pad. After a large appeal Aleem Dar raised his finger to send Shah back to the dressing room. Hawkeye suggested the ball would go on to clip the leg stump, a good decision from the Pakistani umpire.

As had been all through the innings, India were picking up their wickets in pairs, and on 162/5 India got their second wicket in just a few overs. Paul Collingwood stormed down the track to Ramesh Powar only to be deceived by the flight of the ball. The ball whistled between bat and pad before crashing into leg stump about half way up. The England skipper had to depart for just 21 with England in a spot of trouble at 162/6.

Shah's confident innings ends; India celebrate another vital wicket; Collingwood is done in the flight by Powar​

Mascarenhas and Flintoff crunched a couple of boundaries before drinks on 40 overs. England have 10 overs remaining and currently sit on 193/6 with Flintoff 11* and Mascarenhas 7*.

 

[saladguy]

This match seems to be fairly balanced, I would expect England to post around the 230 mark

 

[surendar]

The last two pages of this story has been amazing! :hpraise :hpraise :hpraise Keep it up, Trev. But still love the c2004 part of yours more than c2005 one.

 

[timmy94]

Didn't know you were using C2004
I will definitely be reading these updates.
Two big hitters at the crease,lets hope they get England to around 250:cool:
KIU!

 

[treva]

The last two pages of this story has been amazing! :hpraise :hpraise :hpraise Keep it up, Trev. But still love the c2004 part of yours more than c2005 one.

Didn't know you were using C2004
I will definitely be reading these updates.
Two big hitters at the crease,lets hope they get England to around 250:cool:
KIU!

Cheers guys. I've had to use C05 for the last few ODI's because of the ODI save bug in C04 (The one that randomly means you cannot continue playing after a certain point). C04 will re-appear for the T20 WC in South Africa as well as all test matches.

 

[Pakistani Army]

I reckon that Flintoff & Mascarenhas should take singles during overs 40-46 as they will have to start hitting out very soon. With Broad as the final batsmen, I feel that this strategy will benefit England as 240-250 will be a respectable and maybe defendable total.

Lovely update Jack. Glad to know this is back!

 

[Roofrom50]

Good to see this story is continuing. Good update mate, and looking forward to the next one already

 

[treva]

Broad helps England to challenging total

England vs India
4th Natwest ODI
August 30, 2007
Old Trafford, Manchester

With two big hitters at the crease England looked to push on and post a challenging target for the Indians to chase. Both Mascarenhas and Flintoff looked to score off every ball, picking up the singles without really threatening to hit big. The Indian spinners came out of the attack and back came Pathan and Khan to try and finish off the England lower order.

After a brutal bouncer from Khan that almost flew away for four byes Khan managed to get the breakthrough. Mascarenhas looked to go big on the leg side but only found the splice of the bat sending the ball spiralling in the air towards square leg. Tendulkar steadied himself underneath it and took a comfortable catch to leave England 208/7.

Vicious bouncer by Khan; High off the splice of the bat; Tendulkar comfortably takes the catch​

Broad was the next man in, and really England's last recognised run scorer. He immediately set his intentions as he ploughed Pathan back over his head for six. Broad and Flintoff continued to keep the score ticking with singles and twos, and hitting the occasional boundary to leave England in a good position with five overs left.

Broad goes straight; Signalled six; Broad again goes for the maximum​

Surprisingly Dravid continued to throw the ball to Rohit Sharma in the final few overs and Broad helped himself, smashing a slog sweep over square leg for a one bounce four. In the final over of the innings Flintoff latched onto a full ball by Pathan sending it way over the rope down at deep extra cover to end the innings on a high for England.

Broad continues to flourish; Sharp running by the pair; Flintoff ends with a six​

Flintoff and Broad give England a fighting chance with a superb unbeaten partnership of 52. Flintoff surprisingly only hit the one boundary in his innings of 33*, whilst Broad smashed two sixes and a four with 27* from 27 balls.

 

[surendar]

Indian bowlers are just poor. Poor captaincy by Dravid to trust Rohit at the crucial time. May be, Dhoni's gambling kind of thing did not work for Dravid. But Indian bowlers are just poor, I hate them!

35 extras? Indian bowlers have to go to school for getting bowling coaching from the scratch. : Keep up the good works, Trev. :banana2

 

[treva]

Indian bowlers are just poor. Poor captaincy by Dravid to trust Rohit at the crucial time. May be, Dhoni's gambling kind of thing did not work for Dravid. But Indian bowlers are just poor, I hate them!

35 extras? Indian bowlers have to go to school for getting bowling coaching from the scratch. : Keep up the good works, Trev. :banana2

Cheers Suren. Yeh, I have no idea why Rohit Sharma bowled so many overs. Most of them extras are from him. I would say he bowled at least 10 wides. If it wasn't for Sharma I would have never made it near 250 so if England win this game they should thank him

 

[Pakistani Army]

Overall, not a bad effort from England there at all. I feel valuable overs were given to the wrong bowlers, i.e: Rohit, Sachin. And that has cost India quite a lot of runs as with Zaheer and RP Singh bowling at the death, it would have been more difficult to attain runs.

I feel England's batting on a whole was quite decent in the fact that most of the top order got starts (except Prior ) Indian bowling was quite good however the Indians should be chasing 235-240 instead of 261. Its going to be a tight contest.

The presentation is emaculate and I must stress the effort put into the Sky Sports Scorecards is terrific. Keep up the fantastic works Jack!

 

[OffCutters]

Nice to see 7 different bowlers bowling for India. England`s batting hasnt been bad, but the top 3 in their batting order should`ve done more tbh. Brilliant presentation and that lil bit of writing is there as well, loving the story mate.

 

[treva]

India need 261 to win

England vs India
3rd Natwest ODI
August 27, 2007
Edgbaston, Birmingham

England will be happy having posted a decent total of 260 from their 50 overs. India will look to Sachin Tendulkar for a solid start, and his performance could well determine the outcome of the match. India need to score at 5.22 runs per over to win the game, and they will want to get on top early to stop that figure from rising. Only England in the 1st ODI were able to chase down a target so far this series, including India's 48 run defeat in the last ODI, and this could well play on the mind's of the Indian team.

Lets take a quick look at the 'Beehive' of England's wickets:

As you can see, all of England's wickets, bar the wicket of Cook, fell to straight deliveries and anything wide of the stumps was put away for runs. It will be key that England's bowlers bowl straight to the Indian batsmen if they are to win this game.

Now lets remind ourselves of the two teams before the teams return to the field.

 

[Gary123]

261 would be difficult i think,but Sachin needs to fire really for India to stand a chance of winning this one.
Maybe Yuvraj should come at no. 4 i think as he is better there.
Nice update there treva.Love the presentation.
KUTGW

 

[treva]

Tendulkar puts England under pressure

England vs India
4th Natwest ODI
August 30, 2007
Old Trafford, Manchester

The Indian openers Sachin Tendulkar and Robin Uthappa came to the crease knowing their side would need their biggest score of the series if they were to level the series at 2-2. Meanwhile England knew that they would have to bowl well on a good wicket for the batsmen, a tight line and length the key to keeping the run rate down.

Tendulkar only needed a few sighters before stepping straight into his stride. He used the pace and bounce of the wicket to his advantage, smashing the ball to all parts with the fielding restrictions in place. Uthappa looked to play the supporting role as Tendulkar gave the England captain Paul Collingwood something to think about in the opening overs with the run rate flying well above what was required.

Tendulkar goes over the top; Drilled down the ground; Another four, this time off the back foot​

With Tendulkar in full flow Uthappa was given the chance to settle down and get used to the conditions. After a solid start with singles here and there he started to find the boundary. Favouring the offside, Uthappa caressed the ball to the boundary off both the front and back foot. England's bowlers were taking punishment, Ryan Sidebottom in particular going at over 8 an over from his first 3 overs.

Beautiful cover drive; Lofted off the back foot; Uthappa punishes a short and wide delivery​

England needed some sort of fight back, and the introduction of Andrew Flintoff brought some fire to the bowling attack. Despite shaking Tendulkar up with an early bouncer Tendulkar soon got into rhythm against the short ball, dispatching a hook shot to the boundary to bring up his fifty. His half century coming in just 32 deliveries, with 8 fours and 2 sixes to his name.

Flintoff's pace troubles Tendulkar; Misfield allows yet another boundary; Tendulkar reaches fifty with a well timed hook​

Collingwood changed things once again, bringing on his spin bowler Monty Panesar well inside the fielding restrictions. But it was the introduction of Stuart Broad for his second spell that brought the breakthrough. A back of a length ball by Broad saw Uthappa look to pull it to the on side. The ball failed to get up and struck Uthappa on the back leg. It seemed to be heading over the top but an appeal from Broad and Prior saw the umpire raise his finger. Uthappa walked off disappointed having made 39 from 47 deliveries.

The ball hits Uthappa on the back leg; Broad barely celebrates the wicket; Replays show the ball to be heading over the top