Bell's at fault if I'm entirely honest.
Rubbish, his S/R was low due to wickets falling around him.
We made 4 notable mistakes today imo:
1) Dropping Panesar for Tremlett
2) Collingwood taking the 3rd powerplay when he did
3) Bowling Tremlett more than we should.
4) Putting Fred in whilst the spinners were bowling
I was impressed with our fight when we batted, 320-8 batting in the 2nd innings is a great effort under lights. Dimi and Broad did really well, with Dimi making up for a poor bowling performance, Broad is such an impressive young cricketer, great lines when bowling, athletic fielder and a handy batsman.
I'm disappointed that the wicket we got tbh, although it was a great spectacle I feel it favoured their team more than ours, I want wickets with bounce and well paced, with some turn. Credit to India they did really well, especially Sachin and Dravid, in the end though 9 runs is incredibly close when chasing 330.
For Edgbaston on Monday, I'd bring Monty in for Tremlett and bat Bopara at 6 and Flintoff at 7 (or whenever the spinners aren't on). Of course hopefully Freddie is fit after his fantastic bowling effort earlier. I thought Cook and Prior showed good promise in those powerplays, Munaf's 2 wickets in 2 balls was very important in the context of the game, even if his figures at the end were expensive. KP played for spin when there was none, he is a good player of spin, but I think he can be susceptible to spin when a spinner is brought on for the first time, ie when he has to find out how much turn there is.
Overall 7.5/10 for England, the little things mattered today, but we put up a fight and we should be proud of that. No doubt though we'll get several "England were rubbish", "Same old for England", etc.
My MOTM goes to Dravid, I thought his 92* from 63 balls was match changing, more so than Sachins 99, he wasn't out, but it looked out and I think the umpire can be forgiven as it wasn't exactly blindingly obvious it his arm guard, good 'non-catch' by Prior though. Another plus for us is our 3 best bowlers all look in good form.
Had he not got for over 70 we wouldn't be chasing anywhere near 330, it would be 325 I imagine.
