India in England/Ireland/Scotland

[MasterBlaster76]

Well done England on a great series win, I thoroughly enjoyed the matches and I like the direction the team is going in. I just wish Flintoff could be sorted out. Send him to America, they know how to sort troublesome sports injuries, don't they?

 

[.Mob]

Well, I know Tendulkar decisions was dodgy and probably was pretty important, but I won't complain.

England were by far the better team, outclassed us today.

 

[sohum]

Congratulations to England. It was a good series and I certainly think the future of English cricket looks good with the likes of Stuart Broad and Luke Wright. It was a long but entertaining tour. Now both teams will probably go to South Africa and put in a couple of hideous performances.

 

[angryangy]

Yes, they improved in playing them in the latter ODIs.

India's positives in terms of future players is that Yuvraj continued to show that he is still a class middle order batsman. Gambhir and Uthappa showed that international level is not too great for them (judging on how they handled some of the world's quickest bowlers - without much trouble - less than Ganguly even) and that they should be able to take over from Tendulkar/Ganguly when the opening pair retire. Uthappa is a good fielder too!

Piyush Chawla really showed that he is a fantastic bowler and I strongly believe he could be a world beater in tests, the extent to which he destroyed Zimbabwe in those two games was reminiscent to an inform Muralitharan. His fielding is very good too due to his speed and enthusiasm, though that may die out a bit as he gets the wrong side of 25, but that is still 7 years away. Zaheer Khan has continued his magnificent form and with a bruised heel, still troubled the England batsman, I truly think that with the heel rested in the twenty20 championship, he could be even more of a threat in this year and the next.

HOWEVER, there are a lot of negatives. Powar, Munaf, Ganguly, Dravid, Zaheer are awful fielders by any standards but I believe that with the right coaching, they can be on the right side of absolutely useless. India still search for the second seamer in both Tests and ODIs (never mind the third):
-Muanf Patel: lazy, slow, inconsistant
-Agarkar: expensive, often unproductive
-RP Singh: Too 1 dimentional and fitness in bowling spells seems to be an issue too. In one game alone (the first one IIRC), an average pace of 87mph dropped to one of 84mph.
-Sreesanth: Expensive in ODIs and too often wayward in tests...too much of a bipolar bowler.

Good points.

Powar is a bit of a fatty. Bring back Harbhajan. Chawla's leggies were wonderfully elegant, but being young he doesn't have much variety, or perhaps confidence in his variety. Even so, I felt there were openings when the batsmen decided to take him on through the legside, they should have tried to frustrate that area so the batsmen would need to use their feet to get runs. I think I'd prefer someone more aggressive captaincy in general, though.

India definitely should stop pretending like Ganguly is a first change bowler. I know they are keen on using spin under the improved Powerplay rule, but 2 pacemen is not enough in seam-friendly situations. Plus, Yuvraj is the other part timer. I'd gamble on Patel and Singh. Work them into their potential.

 

[SaiSrini]

Good points.

Powar is a bit of a fatty. Bring back Harbhajan. Chawla's leggies were wonderfully elegant, but being young he doesn't have much variety, or perhaps confidence in his variety. Even so, I felt there were openings when the batsmen decided to take him on through the legside, they should have tried to frustrate that area so the batsmen would need to use their feet to get runs. I think I'd prefer someone more aggressive captaincy in general, though.

India definitely should stop pretending like Ganguly is a first change bowler. I know they are keen on using spin under the improved Powerplay rule, but 2 pacemen is not enough in seam-friendly situations. Plus, Yuvraj is the other part timer. I'd gamble on Patel and Singh. Work them into their potential.

Munaf Patel doesnt have a place in this team until he throws in amazing domestic performances and fully assures that he is ready to bowl full throttle and is still passionate to play at his best for the team. India also need an all rounder (bowling all rounder) and would be wise for them to give Irfan Pathan another chance. The team's attitude towards fielding needs to be revamped. Fielding should be given more priority when selecting a batsman or a bowler. Oh yeah, Harbhajan needs to be brought back. His fielding is a huge plus and he has a very good arm. In fact, he was once a average fielder. Suddenly he transformed into a very good fielder. And he is a world class bowler and now in great form for Surrey.

But as Shastri said, India have found back the passion towards the game and surely seem to be enjoying their cricket. Their fielding and bowling at times let them down in the ODI's but they have so far played wonderful cricket both at Belfast and now in England.

i just watched the highlights..my favourite bit..

when uthappa hit the cover off the ball and was caught behind...given not out...then afterwards motioning to freddie that it hit him on the sleeve..when the ball was short and 3ft wide ofthe stumps..

if you're gonna lie, you should at least make it plausable

Who said he was motioning to Flintoff that it hit him on the sleeve? Just because he lifted the part of the shirt on his shoulders? The words that went on between Flintoff and Uthappa at that time was anybody's guess.

 

[harishankar]

Somehow the result (4-3 in favour of England) was expected. Dravid should remain India's test captain, but I think in ODI cricket we should move forward and give the youngsters a chance.

If we are serious about winning big tournaments, India cannot afford to have such a weak fielding side and one without an all-rounder. We cannot afford to have fringe players in the side or players who aren't good at at least 2 of the 3 skills (batting, bowling, fielding). Gambhir is a case in point. He is neither a dominant top order player nor a great finisher of innings. He isn't an exceptional fielder either. So his place in the ODI scheme of things is suspect. Munaf Patel is another one. He cannot bat or field and his bowling isn't so great to make him a fixture in the side.

England were inspired by Flintoff's return and played great cricket to clinch the series. India always did struggle in crunch situations. Even at their peak in the World Cup 2003, India failed miserably in the Finals against Australia.

 

[surendar]

I was impressed by two things,

* When commentators pointed out that, " this young bowling lineup for England have displayed a fantastic performance in this tour. Great job by Donald."

* When KP pointed out, " We worked hard for two and a half hours in nets yesterday which has never happened before.. and we were working hard with Andy Flower.. "

Hard work really deserves. This reminds me the Ashes series which England won because in that presentation also, similar comments like, " we were putting all our best efforts for many many weeks and we got the result " came up. Hard work is always deserved no matter whatsoever the situtation is.

Inspite of two poor decisions from umpires yesterday, i never trust our dear bowlers. There might be some positives from Chawla but its never going to be enough when overall bowling is considered.

Its also sad to hear that inspite of having Prasad and Robin, our team struggled the most in bowling and fielding overall. This is where Donald must be very proud of his boys.

Like i have said many number of times, unless our bowling improves ( no signs of it though even after a poor 2007 WC ), we are likely to struggle even more worse in future. :cool:

 

[Vcassano]

For all Powar and Chawla's dominance over the England batsmen they didn't take many wickets.

 

[Eddie]

For all Powar and Chawla's dominance over the England batsmen they didn't take many wickets.

         Mat    O       R     W     Ave     Econ    SR      BB

Chawla    7     60     314    6    52.33    5.23    60.0   3/60   

Powar     6     51.2   235    6    39.16    4.57    51.3   2/45

Agarkar   5     44     313    7    44.71    7.11    37.7   4/60   

Khan      6      56     270    4    67.50   4.82     84.0   1/43 

Singh     5      42     222    7    31.71    5.28    36.0   3/55   

Patel     2     13      107    4    26.75    8.23   19.5   3/70    

Ganguly   7     25      120    2    60.00    4.80    75.0   2/26

some interesting stats i feel..

Ganguly and singh had better figures than i expected..zaheer khan didn't really have much of an impact ..

 

[Leicester Fox]

so we won 3/4 with Flintoff in the side, just shows what a massive impact he has on us even when he's not batting well. I had my doubts about Mascarenhas but he's improved a lot. I'm not sure whether his bowling will cut it against Australia though. Luke Wright i think we should judge later on. I completely forgot about Sidebum but I don't think he's an ODI bowler. Bells improved a lot too, surprisingly this series has done good things and not just a 7-0 drubbing. I'd still trade it for the test series win any day though.

 

[Eddie]

not surprised really freddie is a class act as these stats show...

Mat    O       R   W    BB1    BB2    Ave   Econ   SR  4w 5w

 4     35.3   144  10  5/56   3/45   14.40  4.05  21.3  0  1

 

[evertonfan]

I can't believe some of you Indians are still moaning about the umpires. It's just sour grapes. Grow up.

How any of you can moan about the umpiring against India after what Sreesanth survived against at Lords is beyond me.

 

[manee]

How any of you can moan about the umpiring against India after what Sreesanth survived against at Lords is beyond me.

Maybe because Rahul Dravid was given out to a clear not out earlier that same innings.

 

[RoboRocks]

Tendulkar was clearly not out but I thought Dravid's was out since it sounds like a woody noise and there was nothing else near the ball.

 

[Animator!]

Do we England fans need to play the same cards at remind you that Utthapa hit the absolute cover off one and was given not out. He hit that edge better than he hit for the rest of his series.