Feb 27 - India v England

[Varun]

That was a thriller. I was literally jumping off the chair every ball.

 

[AngryPixel]

Even Netherlands managed 292 runs vs England, so its a shallow argument from poms that their attack is any better than Indian attack. Oh I forgot, Canada also scored 270 odd runs in the practise match vs poms. So both attacks are poor. I'd dare say that indian attack is better than english in subcontinent.

 

[Themer]

I rather take a fully fit England attack over the Indian one even in Sub Continental conditions, and without wanting to sound like I'm making up excsuses, we've been struggling with a lot of injuries (Swann's just back, Bresnan just back and Broad's out).

As things stand I'd literally only take Khan from the Indian bowling stocks.

 

[SaiSrini]

What is the use of scoring 370 and 338 when you end up with a NRR of 0.876 ?

Well, thats what happens when you concede almost as much runs to the opposition. But not to worry. I dont see us crashing out of the tournament due to NRR. We should be able to make it to atleast the Top 3 of Group B (if not Top 2).

 

[SaiSrini]

I rather take a fully fit England attack over the Indian one even in Sub Continental conditions, and without wanting to sound like I'm making up excsuses, we've been struggling with a lot of injuries (Swann's just back, Bresnan just back and Broad's out).

As things stand I'd literally only take Khan from the Indian bowling stocks.

Harbhajan has been quite good with his economy this series. In games like these, economy is highly important, and Harbhajan has been among the best in both games we have played so far. Zaheer and Munaf have picked 5 and 6 wickets respectively in both games, but Harbhajan has the best economy rate of 4.95 overall, which is bloody good for today's ODI setup (which is heavily influenced by T20).

 

[mohit_dude10]

Interesting fact, Dhoni seems to win the tourney's in which his team manages a tie. 2007 T20 Wcup,2010 IPL,2010 CLT20 to name a few

 

[DJ Ager]

I hear there's a new game been invented called "Yardy sticks", it's like Pooh sticks but more sh1t

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%)

Haha that's very true. I think his bowling with Swann can be quite useful in keeping runs down in T20, but even that is overated. I'd put Luke Wright up there with luckiest ODI player even though he didn't play yesterday, nothing personal against the lad but a batting average of 22 and only 2 fifties and best of 2-34 and an bowling average of 55, after 44 ODIs, he has had far too many opportunites I think, brief 20s and 1 wicket hauls at 5 an over don't warrant his persistant selection.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

England were very lucky to make it as a tie match. Strauss was out in zaheer's 2nd over only. Dhoni didn't appeal. Bell was given not out of a plumb LBW decision. what ever it is great game of cricket . well played both the teams.

And by the same token, India were very lucky to even get a chance of a tie after England appeared to be cruising to victory.

 

[Gaurav_7]

Yeah, it was all nullified really and the best result the game could have had. Both teams played equally well and no one deserved to win/lose.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Yeah, it was all nullified really and the best result the game could have had. Both teams played equally well and no one deserved to win/lose.

Yeah - it was simply an earth shattering game of cricket that would've graced the Final!

 

[War]

The first edge was very obvious, 2nd, there was definitely a noise, and it could really only have come from the bat.

I dunno i have seen a few times in the past ball passing the edge, even when snicko was available. A edgy sound was made & nothing was shown up on snicko.

As for the LBW, yes there's the stride of batsman to take in to account, but it's guidance for the umpire more than anything, it was obvious the ball was hitting the stumps, it hit him in-line with off-stump (that is the only reason why Billy couldn't have given it) and I think he got very lucky. On pitches like that LBW's are a lot easier, it's not Perth Though it's still the hardest decision for umpires to make.

Yuvraj is left-arm spinner that would turn away from a right hander slightly still. Thats why i saw the guys who made URDS technology aren't 100% they can average balls that can hit the stump over a certain meter range, thus they have told umpires as the situation was with Bell, if the ball hits them so far down give the batsman the benefit of the doubt. Which i think is fair.

 

[SaiSrini]

Interesting fact, Dhoni seems to win the tourney's in which his team manages a tie. 2007 T20 Wcup,2010 IPL,2010 CLT20 to name a few

Ah, I love that! I noticed it too when the tie happened y'day but didnt want to say it here because people will then point up my post if we dont win the cup here.

Hope that luck of Dhoni continues!

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Yeah, it was all nullified really and the best result the game could have had. Both teams played equally well and no one deserved to win/lose.

Or maybe both teams tried equally hard to lose? I thought we had fluffed it up when England decided to make the game interesting and when they needed like 11 runs per over in the last 3 overs, we decided to make it even more interesting.

 

[AndyRAC]

Great game, great entertainment!!

One thing I noticed on Twitter last night posted by ESPNCricinfo - everything about the game was trending in India. Sadly, here in UK, not a jot.

What can we do to get cricket back in the mainstream. Call me alarmist - but I fear for the game in this country. It's becoming minority. Counties recording big losses. Maybe it needs 'normal'/terrestrial TV. I've hardly heard anybody talking about it.

 

[Highlander999]

I completely agree with you. Sky do an awesome presentation with the cricket and they do inject a lot of money into the County game as well, however, everyone must remember the way the 2005 Ashes victory was celebrated, compared to that the last couple have been pretty poor. Yes, it was the first time we had won in ages, but I also reckon a lot of that was down to the fact it was on Channel 4 and everyone could watch it.

I know with not having Sky Sports I can basically only watch cricket when I am back home at my parents these days. That's all changing when I get my own place next year as Sky Sports is the first thing I'm getting, but it really does affect how much cricket I get to see and be part of

 

[sohum]

My point exactly. I couldn't believe the commentators praising the pitch. What happened to battle between bat and ball? It's time for them to stop tailoring pitches to India's jacked up batting line up and set up for the long term . . . they were playing on a freaking mattress!

The logic doesn't follow. One would expect that if our bowling sucks this much it should be given as much help as possible since the batsmen are good enough to take care of the conditions.

In fact, I'm surprised we haven't seen slower pitches.