Wow, watched the game on Sky+. We should have won the game by a country mile, but in the end, I'm happy(ish) with a Tie, given we needed 10 an over with the bowlers batting.
We need to get Jimmy in to some form, he looks a bit low in confidence. Bresnan was superb today as was Strauss.
Frustrating, because we should have won, on the other hand, Bell should have been out and Strauss nicked two that no one heard.
I hear there's a new game been invented called "Yardy sticks", it's like Pooh sticks but more sh1t
India should have finished us off, made the target much bigger and probably fell 10-30 runs shy of what they could have reached through wicket loss.
IND 304/3 (45.5 overs, rpo 6.63)
IND 338 (49.5 overs rpo 6.78)
They added 34 off 4 overs, somewhat disappointing 8.00 rpo considering they were bombing along at 6.63 and had SEVEN wickets in hand. Then again England also went from a very strong position to one from which they only just sneaked a draw and frankly should have managed to win even at the death
ENG 281/2 (42.3 overs, rpo 6.61)
ENG 289/6 (45.2 overs, rpo 6.38)
ENG 338/8 (50.0 overs, rpo 6.76)
From that position of strength at 281/2 England added just 57 more runs for six wickets at 7.60 runs per over. Neither side really made good use of the overs at the death, considering they both sustained a run rate near 6-7 all the way through, there was little acceleration.
Could Yardy be the luckiest man to be playing ODIs? Not really a bowler but thrown in for 25 ODIs to chuck muck down and take his wickets at one run shy of FIFTY apiece and with a batting average of a modest 22.86 which is largely down to EIGHT not outs in 22 innings (36%)
But in truth we were not good and Anderson was woeful for the second match in a row. 1/91 off 9.5 overs to follow up his 0/72 against Holland. Supposedly England best bowler. Is he really? Shahzad could have done with a bit more experience leading up to the World Cup, England need a better spinner than a batsman chucking down lefties and calling it spin and frankly it is only the captain's knock of 158 that got us close anyway. Don't know why so many are surprised he can bat, he's always shown he can be as positive/aggressive as anyone, he just had to temper that in Tests when it went a bit wrong for him for a while (last NZ tour?)
Oh and big
, not my favourite player and another bits n pieces player most of the time, but he bowled well and deserved his 5wi. Just a shame some of the others didn't bowl a little bit better, a lot in Anderson's case, and maybe a total of nearer 300 than 350 would have been chaseable.