Uthappa holds nerve for India (206)
- 5 Sep 07, 06:24 PM
Another enthralled the Oval crowd, and ended with India completing a remarkable victory to set up a winner-take-all final at Lord's on Saturday.
England appeared to have the match in control until Robin Uthappa produced a clinical finish.
Having swept Stuart Broad to the fine-leg boundary for four, with Monty Panesar on the edge of the circle, he teased England into making a fatal move - to drop Panesar to the edge, and bring up long-off.
Uthappa ruthlessly came down the pitch to Broad and hammered him past the diving Alastair Cook at mid off to win with two balls remaining.
Owais Shah will take the credit for England's imposing total for his excellent century, but the real impetus to the innings was given by 22-year-old Luke Wright, playing in his first international.
He came to the crease with England in terrible trouble, after Kevin Pietersen had brainlessly run himself out by 22 yards, and after six run-less deliveries, Wright promptly hit a four and six.
Glorious strokes all around the wicket followed while Shah played very much the second fiddle. Having reached 50 from 39 balls, Wright was then run out by a direct hit - and the standing ovation he received from the crowd said: "We will be seeing plenty more of you!"
Shah should have been caught behind on 40 when Peter Hartley - who had an interesting opening day of international cricket - failed to detect a catch down the leg-side.
But he cashed in sensationally; combining lusty blows with dinky, improvised sweeps and suddenly England were in reach of a decent score, after all.
But the most devastating burst was saved for the last over - bowled, unbelievably, by Yuvraj Singh.
Having declined a single from the first ball, Dimitri Mascarenhas proceeded to hit the last five deliveries of the innings for six! It was a remarkable assault and one that made India's task a seriously tall order.
Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly built the perfect platform by putting on 150 for the first wicket, but after Ganguly fell for 53, Tendulkar suffered a severe attack of cramp, and was made virtually immobile.
His dismissal, to a fine catch by Paul Collingwood, seemed to be borne entirely out of frustration.
From that point, wickets fell just when England needed them - Shah completed a remarkable day when Rahul Dravid chipped a catch to the diving Collingwood - but Mahendra Dhoni joined Uthappa to add 60 from just 46 balls to keep India in the hunt.
Dhoni perished when he tried to sweep Broad, but Uthappa kept his cool.
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Aggers, you described Shah's batting, Mascarenhas's clinical hitting and also Luke Wright's wonderful debut in great detail. You reserved the least amount of words for Sachin's terrific innings and the wonderful opening stand (against the immense pressure of chasing 316) that set up this chase. As a cricket lover, is that all you have to say? C'mon...be a sport!!
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Very exciting series. Why it was not best of 9. Had it been the normal 5 match series we would not have witnessed such an excellent match today. We need more one dayers rather than boring test matches.
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Great game!
Robin Uthappa and Luke Wright are a MUST in future selections!
Why was Agarkar still included? Are india's bowling options so limited? And Dravid nearly goofed up the game by giving the last over to Yuvraj! What was he thinking! - or maybe he wasn't!
Both teams are equally good or bad! However both need to be much better if they want to beat Australia.
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this england team reminds one of cronje's south africa were everyone could ball & bat but lacked the finishing touch.the indians inspite of dravid's captaincy errors came through due to a great platform provided by the greatest oneday opening pair ever and by cool uthappa.let's hope lords provides a grand finale.
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This was wonderfull cricket all round from both teams and a great advert for the game.
From an Indian perspective well played - Ganguly and Tendulakr started wonderfully -Ghambir and Dhoni kept the momentum going and Uthappa was brilliant at the end.
England Played well and Luke Wright needs to be opening insted of Prior and Macheranous is really starting to pick up - awesome hitting.
Well played both teams and lets hope we get a great game on saturday - that India wins ;-)
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good article. An exciting game. Both teams deserve to win and it will be great if the final would be a tie. But i hope that india win it, considering their team game and also some improved fielding (which is quite new) Uttappa is the man. good on the field and had a good time with the bat too..
remove agarkar and bring in RP sing. this team looks good!
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Mighty India has done it again in style. The Sachin-Saurav combo is working well for the men in blue. Gambhir has looked solid and Uthappa was simply too hot to handle.
Shah, KP, Wright, Bell and Mascarenhas contributed well for England. The last named is indeed a fine hitter in one dayers.
Team India keeps on improving all the time. Best of luck to the two sides in the summit clash at Lords.
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Obviously as an England i'm gutted, however, Pietersen is really starting to annoy me. If running Collingwood out wasn't enough, he decided to arrogantly ignore Shah's screach of no to a second run and runs himself out. How he had the cheek to curse at Shah i will never know.
Then when fielding, at either long off or long on, (can't quite remember) he manages to take his eye off the ball and allow a four. Add that that to the end - 7 off 3 balls instead of 4 off 3 and Uthappa's task is very very hard. I wouldn't normally be so horrid to one person - after all, what do i know about playing international cricket! - but he is letting the side down a lot recently.
But what a truly brilliant game, and 3-3...usually one-day cricket is criticised for being predictable etc, and 7 matches too long - not this time around!
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Interesting to see that England bowled three more wides than India in a match where India so very nearly ran out of balls to level the series.
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What a fantastic advertisement for one day cricket with 20-20 cricket ready to take off on all cricket lovers. Credit to both teams for playing a solid game of cricket full of entertainment. It is sad in one way to see Sachin struggle to play one day cricket with very few breaks for his battered body (especially in a series as long as this one)...I hope that he remains true to the messages his body gives him and gives up one day cricket to focus on test match cricket. However, it was a privilege to see him play one more masterful innings that made the Indian victory even remotely possible before Uthappa's heroics. Excellent article by Aggers too to round off an excellent day of cricket.
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disappointing blog today... great match...
if i had to read the game summary, i would go to match article...
what a game! india deserved to win though... they playes excellent cricket for first 25 overs in each innings... in the end it was their day really... what can you say... all teh runs were coming from 3rd man and fine leg...
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Yeah, the last two games show that england performance in the ODIs were prematurely glorified. Yes, They have the team for the future but they are miles away from being classified as a good ODI outfit...i say this cause they are not able to beat a side which takes the field with at least 60-70 run deficit...england save at least 20-25 runs in the field...india gives away as many...and indians are so lethargic in running-between-the-wicket that they at least loose out on 25-30 runs...i am dead sure that the same indian team will be mowed by australians when india play at home later in the year but england are not able to beat them in their home turf...
Also, england team under new coach seem to believe in talking more than performing...every player was talking abt how ruthless they plan to be as a team after the 4th ODI...backroom workers have done them IN in Tests and they are a shot away from rubbing the salt in that.
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Great game of cricket and as Collingwood said there is no shame in losing such game.Everyone played very well. Shah might prove to be answer to English fans prayers, while, Wright seems like an answer for the future. I think they should replace Prior and Bell should be wicketkeeper and that way they can play Flintoff and Mascarenhas in future without dropping Cook who seems like a good player going through hard time. He should be persisted with as he is very young.
For India, Tendulkar played gem of an innings, what we saw was Tendulkar of old and I wish he plays till next World Cup. Ganguly was also excellent. Gambhir played nice and can stay in team for a while. Yuvraj and Dravid could have played better shots. Star of the show Utthappa was ably supported by Dhoni and I believe this is deadly combination for INDIA and they look much better team when playing 4 bowlers and an extra batsman.
So, its 3-3 now and everything to play for, I suggest Flintoff should be allowed to take rest and let him recuperate from his injury. Every cricket lover wants Flintoff to be completely fit, so, please wait until he reaches the desired fitness levels. Young lads like Wright should be given chances and for Prior he may be good but there are better as his glovework was really shoddy. I am not in favor for Prior not at all in the test matches. Mustard for one day games or even Bell doing keeping and Read for test matches
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Great Victory for India. But same problem again.
Agarkar waste of a place in the team and Dravids horrible captaincy.
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Great commentary from Aggers and Arlo all day.
A terrific match which sets up Lords perfectly.
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Dravid!!! What the hell were you doing asking Yuvraj to bow the last over!?????
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For all the excitement, this match should be remembered for the strategic blunders by both the captains - Dravid for having Yuvraj bowl the last over, Collingwood for not using the Power Plays wisely.
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it was a GREAT GAME, as an indian i was waiting for that kind of remarkable victory...
they have don it in style, all credit goes to indian openers and to the finishers dhoni and uthappa.
now we need to win the LAST FRONTIER - LORDS
good luck to the indian team.
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Awesome India! Great performance by both teams and truly if this is anything to go by 20 twenty will be exillerating. Now for the goof ups why does India still persist with Agarkar i dont see him as anything special or international quality why are they so bull headed in selections, Dravid needs to be a bold Captain and it may be a major mess up had India lost the match the last over he gave Yuvraj but he tried his best option despite having Agarkar in the bag. If thats not a case in point then Agarkar has some major vashila as they say it in the right places.
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Great game of cricket !!.
Uthappa is a great future for India. How Agarkar finds a place in playing 11 is still an unsolved mystery !! Is the bowling option for India is so limited that you have to settle for a far below international standard bowler like Agarkar ??.
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Well done India
What a super game (and series). A really good advert for ODI's
I thought they had been pretty borning for a long time until these games.
Lets hope for a fitting final!
Im going to India on holiday in a few weeks - if India win, will I get lots of stick???
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Nice piece Aggers, a dispassionate recount of events during the match; shouldn't it be under "Match Report"?
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A fantastic effort by players from both teams.
A fantastic finale on cards.
Just make sure Agarkar is not even in Europe ,leave alone Lords, on Saturday.
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wat a great gameee
but i think its about time to get rid of agarker
hes gud for nothing and gives away too much runs
he should be replaced with rp sing
or even sreesanth ( although he has a bad attitude ..hes a gud bowler than agarger at the moment)
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Once again Sachin just shows England the way to do it. He is the perfect example of the perfect sportsman. An inspiration to millions it just showed today he can handle the pressure. Never take anything away from this man. Forget Mascarenhas and Shah. This blog doesnt show the true game in which India were champions and Sachin ruled.
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When did Yuvraj become a death bowler? He is surely a great finisher batting but not bowling. Zaheer is the one who is good in sending yorkers in the last over.
Dravid needs to sharpen his captaincy skills. He is pulling everyone together nicely to produce great games but some of his decisions leave you scratching your head.
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The difference between the two teams was the opening partnership. England's made nothing (again!) whilst India built the platform needed to win. Even slogging five sixes off the final over did not help England win. Your opening partnership wins one day matches. England hierarchy take note!
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Yes it was an exciting game but if it had not been for Mascarhenas's bit hitting India would have strolled it.
Not sure if India's later batsmen were just plain lucky or England's bowling and fielding were poor. Anderson was quick but expensive.
OK so I'm a bad loser but is there any other way if you want to win!
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It requires some nerves to handle this match. Mascarenhas hit the 5 sixes, which is very creditable. But the Indian batting, starting with Tendulkar and then picked up in bits and pieces by most others held it's own. Hats off performance by Robin to finish off the match in this way. Surely a nail biter. And a batsman with much lesser international exposure to finish it off overseas is a sign of a promising player in the making. As for England...KP seems excess baggage for now. Seems like he has his heart and mind mixed up...and that does not work well at this level. Colly should tone down his players so that they can focus on real cricket and not here and there bailout's by a handful of players.
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Forgive me if I am seeing things the wrong way. And I am a powerful England supporter
But I have just seen one of the most entertaining games of cricket for many years.
Village green stuff played by a team of highly paid professionals. In which England came second! How often do you see five sixes in one over! How often does every ball count rather than 鈥 in a Test match 鈥 every day?
Well done India.
Lords promises to be truly spectacular.
But England, until you show any sign whatsoever of avenging that five nil white washing in the Test series in Australia, for me, you still have a long way to go.
John
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What an excellent game and a series of helpful and unbiased comments by most people. The day belonged to India overall, but who can deny Shah and Luke Wright their contributions. Mascarenhas was awesome but unfortunately Dravid pitched him against an out of sort (on the day) Yuvraj. It became a really tall order to chase even though India were ahead of the game to almost the end. But Mascrenhas HILL was almost most difficult to climb. Well done Uthappa to have done so.
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that was an awesome match
i even switched off the t.v. once when i thought india would surely lose
superb fighting finish to the match with neither side willing to give up
extraordinary cricket from both sides
that thirty-runs last over was fantastic
it can be termed legendary
u english are really cool!
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Surley the most fantastiacal point in the match and the most hilarious in the series was after those amazing sixes the apropriatley named 'Bumble' duubbed the hero 'Dangeranus'
in the commentry. it makes me think of many possible new soundbites:
'Dangeranus is spreading his runs around the wagon wheel'
'A slip from Dangeranus, and he gives some runs away'
etc etc can anyone else think of more, i am brimming over with purile jokes, class!!!
No disrespect though a great over of aggressive attacking from Dangeranus i hope we will see many more thrilling runs from him!
Come on england! Don't retire yet Bumbler!
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Congratulations India for achieving this excellent victory. Congratulations to England for coming so close to win. India's strength is batting and when it comes off it is joy to watch. Although India won the match they looked slack in the middle overs particularly after the opening partnership of 150 runs between Sachin and Saurav.
I wrote in this blog some days back to watch out for Robin Uthappa who has the capability to win the match single handedly. He showed glimps of that today.
England's middle order batted really well with Shah scoring excellent century which helped England scoring 316 for six.Collingwood shuffled his bowlers really well. Watching Robin Uthappa being interviewed he said" in the last last over only 10 runs were to be scored" That shows his confidence in himself playing at the highest level and in the crunch situation. Well played Robin.
The final at Lord's will be a great match.
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i have no words.
simply.
WOW.
what a game, what a finish, and what a finale Lords will be!
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Great game very exciting but how England missed Flintoff's bowling, as good as the batting line-up looks they need another bowler in there who can give an economical 10 overs. Collingwood can't really bowl in the Power-plays, Pietersen doesn't want to bowl and Shah will never get anyone as good as Dravid again. Oh an lets open with Cook and Wright, drop Prior to 7.
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Very true account of a wonderful match. It did have everything, sadly we didn't get to see all 50 overs! The way India played I think the final match will be a walkover as they have everything in their favour. The impotus of coming back from 1-3 down and their openers are better than ever now. England can only win if we get the little master out for under 10, and then get Dravid in his first 2 overs. We don't have the bowlers for that level of strike rate. England had the chance to win today but 3 edges made all the difference.
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It is heartenig to see that English fans have not started moaning yet. No complains abouy toss, D/L method, umpiring(how can they? when Shah was given not out when on 40?)
Well played England. Good win India. Great innings by the little master.
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I'm glad India won as Shah should be ashamed for not walking for the caught behind and surely Chawla had control of he ball in catching the first 6 of the last over. Justice was done in the end but it's still meanlingless made-for-TV-airtime fodder.
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Ryan Pettman, how on earth can you pick on Pieterson solely?
I doubt he 'arrogantly' ignored ignored the shout on purpose! KP gets a lot of unjustified stick simply because he is an aggressive player, England with KP playing well is a better team than England without him. He misfielded one ball, as nearly everyone will do at some point.
Fantastic game though I have to think England have let India off the hook now and it could be very difficult on Saturday.
Great game! What an advert for cricket!!!
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Another umpiring GEM by Hartley !!! 80% of bad calls have gone in favour of England ... seems like conspiracy to me !!!
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Tendulkar was stunning like always. I hope he never retires. Best batsman to watch in the world.
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Sachin is great. india won despite Dravid's captaincy. India needs a better captain.
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Good to see the Indians chasing the mammoth total to level the series. What can be infered from such an exciting match is that India is no longer in the slumber, they are gearing up to give a strong fight in the deciding ODI. With the England side being satured with plenty of batsmen and hitters, it is really going to be a contending game at Lords.... But England loosing two consecutive is a dose of declining confidence for the side... even they are looking forward to put forth the best they can....
but nonentheless, the powerhouse opening pair for India is is doing a great job with the lower middle order icing the cake....
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Jonathon - I doubt a One Day Final Series Decider has been more avidly anticipated and looked forward to than at Lord's this Saturday. A terrific effort from an makeshift England team, with each and every "new face" putrtring in as well, if not more, than the absent player each replaced. The future for England in this format of the game at last has promise. For India, everyone has given their all and I take this talented, but vereran team to prevail in Saturday's pressure-cooker Final. Of 2 matters there can be no further doubt nor adverse debate - first, that Dhoni has proven himself to be the rightful incumbent as Wicketkeeper for India through both the Tests and the One Day Series with some inspired and reliable keeping (plus important contributions with the bat), and secondly, that Gangully and Tendulkar have reinforced their reputation as the finest One Day opening partnership of all time, and that India would not now be eyeing the battle ahead on Sarurday without their experienced and valuable contributions, not least in the last 2 matches. I expect this group of England players to acquit themselves both individually and collectively, well but ultimately to lose to this Champion Indian One Day Series Team. What a mothwatering prospect for everyone lies in store. Sincerely, Michael McInnes.
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It was a indeed a thrilling match. But questions remain about Rahul Dravid's captaincy. It is astounding to note that Yuvraj Singh, a part-time bowler, was asked to bowl the final over of the England innings, when there were regular bowlers who hadn't completed their respective quotas. There is something to be said also if Tendulkar, another part-time bowler, was asked to bowl the 49th over. A lot of these strategic mistakes would be covered up by the gloss of this thrilling win for India. There has been a pattern to these errors since the World Cup. One has to agree that captaincy is not one of Dravid's strongest suits, unlike his batting, where he is always "Mr. Dependable".
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i congratulate india on their victory. however, because of our seemingly endless injuries, we w
ere a seam bowler short[a topclass one that is].i do hope we shall be able to remedy that problem by saturday..
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What a thrilling match!! The nucleus of England and Indian teams for the next (ODI) world cup was on display and it augurs well for the future.
Surely, Agarkar must be the luckiest cricketer on earth. How he gets to play game after game for his country is beyond me!!!!
All set for the finale at Lords. India would probably look to RP Singh to take AA's place.
May the best team win!
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well written!(?)----- every positive by ENGLAND players and INDIAN just by chance won . KEEP WRITING and ENGLANDteam will win 2011 world cup................
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It was a thrilling win for India without question. But questions remain about Dravid's captaincy. It is astounding to note that part time bowlers like Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh were asked to bowl the 49th and 50th overs, respectively; the regular bowlers hadn't even completed their full quota of overs. The gloss of this win would hide the underlying strategic errors of the Indian captain. There has been a pattern to his errors at least since the World Cup 2007. One has to agree that captaincy is not one of Dravid's strongest suits, unlike his batting where he is always "Mr. Dependable". Congratulations to both teams for such an entertaining match.
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What an excellent series this has been. A number of tight finishes. Great to watch the likes of Tendulkar and Ganguly. Can any man ever have batted so well for an entire summer and not made a hundred, lets hope sachin gets that score he deserves at lords.
One note of regret though, i've tuned in to this series mainly in the hope of seeing the explosive players such as Pietersen, Dhoni and Flintoff. These guys have had pretty disappointing series. Wright and Mascarenhas demonstrated how exhilarating odi cricket can be with their onslaught today, and i dearly hope these players find form for the 20/20.
Those of you who have predicted that these two sides will be thrashed by australia. You are probably right, but that is not because either lacks talent, it is because both India and England have weak links. India are in desperate need of some penetrative seamers, gilchrist and co will like the look of agarkar, khan and singh, whilst England really need to sort out their top order, Prior is not an opening bat and Cook seems unsure of his role.
When you think about what we've got in these departments, genuing pace and wicket taking bowlers like Lee, tait and Johnson, and an opening partnership of gilly and hayden, you see the problem.
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What a fantastic game ! Played brilliamtly by both teams I have to add. Ultimately, I think the game of cricket and its followers were the winners.
And excellent commentary, might I add, by the TMS team as usual.
I hope Aggers, that you are not paying too much attention to the "Indian bloogers" :-)
There will be the usual rant about luck playing a part, and players missing (thankfully no rain or D/L method today) and so on by supporters of both sides, but all in all the game was a great advertisement for cricket!
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At 08:24 PM on 05 Sep 2007, Anil A. Desai wrote:
I would rather blame it on poor quality and judgement. As i keep telling Aleem Dhar has overtaken Simon Tauffel and is pushing the envelope far. It is a challenge to other umpires to catch up.
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sachin is the greatest among cricketers. not only class, but records to show for
for too long, he was criticized as incapable of playing fast bowling, scores only at home, and idiotic words from muthiah muralidharan ,who says sachin does not play him well and so on
sachin has hammered the daylights out of this english bowling several times
so, jonathan agnew, not covering sachin is not a worry for real cricket fans
ravi bala
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Poor captaincy by Dravid. It is understandable why Agarkar is playing as he is the only right handed option in the squad.. But why would you send him time and again before Zaheer Khan during batting.
And big mistake to let Yuvraj bowl the 50th over. OK the decision has been made and he was hit for 2 sixes. As a bowler change of line and/or length is necessary. If the stalwart Yuvraj can't think what where the think tank including Dravid doing. The sensible way would be to talk to the bowler.
Given the options i would have used either Powar or Ganguly. Both of them would not have gone like Yuvraj. 30 runs in the final over is just too.o many even for internation(:)- ) cricket.
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An extremely tense game and a extremely good effort from England beaten by an even better one from India. However, at least part of the excitement was due to some very curious decisions and not just from the umpires.
When I read that England were batting I assumed that Paul Collingwood had lost the toss: not to many captains would choose to bat first in September, in England, with a 10:30 start. That decision though seemed positively inspired reasoning compared to what came later! For example, bowling the spinners for the last two overs cost India 42 runs and nearly cost them the match having had their foot on England's throat at 137-5 in the 31st over.
We also had the weird "oh no he isn't! Oh yes he is!" dismissal of Paul Collingwood. When there is only a stiffled appeal and no referral, should such tight decisions even be shown immediately on the giant screen? When Kevin Pietersen was (correctly) reprieved in the Test series thanks to tv evidence after initially walking many fans on here thought that it was disgraceful cheating by the England side. Was this delayed trial by television any better [NB: the laws state that an appeal *can* be lodged at any point up to the delivery of the next ball, so technically Paul Collingwood can have no complaint]. The difference was that in the Kevin Pietersen incident the players on the balcony were accused (without clear proof) of interving and causing dissent against a plainly wrong decision, here it was the crowd that intervened. One for the lawmakers to think about...
In the end, it was Uthappa who rescued India when it looked like England had just done enough to close the match down. With Jiimmy Anderson leaking 10-an-over, Paul Collingwood didn't trust Luke Wright with the ball and was forced to turn to Owais Shah and his own, rather expensive bowling: the lack of that extra bowler who could tighten up the flow of runs at critical moments really did cost England (ok, why DID Owais Shah bowl instead of Luke Wright????)
Anyway, as an England fan, there have been many positives from this series, including Broad, Bopara, Wright, Shah and Mascarenhas who have all seized their chances and a general fighting spirit that has appeared when required. India can also point to a real upturn since their catastrophic World Cup and some wonderful performances from younger and less well known players.
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This was a great game. It was do-or die for India. Robin Uthappa played excellent when it was essential. He should play regular as a opener or at number 3. Sachin is playing unselfish cricket and that is why India is winning. He is no longer playing for records. We should keep this team except Agarkar. RP Singh should replace him in the next game. Spinners, especially part-timers, should not bowl last 4-5 overs.
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Indian has the momentum now.
After scoring 316 and a player scoring 30 runs with 5 sixes in the last over and still..LOST THE GAME!!IF i was english team i will be very very dipressed!!
England will be under a lot of pressure after loosing the prized home test series!!
In this situation India is Psychologically advantaged to beat England in the final one day!!what ever may be the result...India has won in england in this whole visit!!
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Incredible game,
India seem to be able to chase big scores in pressure situations.
England were very unlucky, at 140 for 4 odd of 31 overs they showed the depth of their batting to get over 300.
Again lots of contoversy this series, to mention a few:
1.Broad was LBW before he helped to get England 3-1 up (4th ODI)- likely Eng would have then lost
2. Yuvraj should have been out before he got India over 300 in 5th ODI (I think Eng would have then won)
3.Andersen intentionally shoulder barging Indian Batsmen but getting away with it unlike Sreesanth
4. Umpire asking for 3rd umpire AFTER seeing replay (6th ODI)
5. Shah playing on to his pad and then being caught but deemed not out (don't think Engalnd would have got past 280 otherwise)
...I know what your saying swings and roundabouts.....I agree with Nasser Hussain, the time has come to use our technology as too many games are decided on errors ( and occassionaly bias)
Summary:
Wright/Shah/Tendulkar/Uthappa were brilliant
Agarkar should never be playing ( even Dravid preferred Yuvraj for the last over)
Those who think Pietersen should be dropped are COMPLETELY insane. He is still the most feared batsmen...ofcourse the runout was silly but COME on....he will become one of Englands best batsmen (OD and test) in history i'm sure
Bring on 7th ODI ...and i'll be there
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Match Highlights
Score Eng- 3 V/S Ind -3
----------------------------------------------
Owais Shah - Good knock after reprieve
Luke Wright - Great debut
Mascarenhas - Lusty Hitting at its best
Tendulkar - Best in Business at 34
Ganguly - Fiesty as ever
Uttappa - Cool as a Cucumber!
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well the game was there to win for england,i feel they took things too easy once they got big guns out.remember Robin uttappa when he played against england in india,he is more like dravid in every where.robin and dravid opened the batting.so he is one day opener not n07 so england should have respected him..
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Great game. But why are most of these posts from India fans (most of whom are probably British nationals in any case)? some bias by the politically correct 大象传媒 perhaps? bring on Saturday - lets hope its a as good as this one.
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A wonderful match and more to come too. A thought for England selectors: I think Mascarenhas and Shah should be dropped from the team. Reason: They have done well!! That seems to be the motto when you come across a good England cricketer with an Asian background.
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Any chance of Colly getting fined for showing his displeasure after being run out?
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If I see Ajit Agarker selected for another match I will start tearing out my chest hairs , after today I none left on my head !
Why did Tendulkar and Yuvjaj bowl the last 2 overs ?
Obviously Dravid can't trust Agarkar that's one of the reasons but he's the one that keeps picking him.
Also why was India's most economical bowler Ramesh Powar not bowled out today (only bowled 9 overs) ?
Dravid's team selections and decisions at the toss defy belief.
This series should have been a cake walk for India (as many Indian and English fans were expecting) but they could still lose it.
I hope saturday's match will be another fantastic match.
India Vs England is a prestige fixture in international cricket these days.
Only behind India VsPakistan and the Ashes.
Do English fans agree?
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Drop prior fullstop.
Mustard for the spot and to open, cook will be lucky to survive, the game of wright and Mustard and other talents in England is changing by the second and these type of players are leaving others behind.
Priors batting is poor and keeping is shocking at times....picked only because he plays at sussex....at least wright has talent.
Sidebottom and freddie if fit as the indians are running scared of fred then re think after about some of these players.
Still very unsure about Moores and unsure about some of colly's captaining, though no doubt about his one day talent.
Future is bright..
And well done india despite shocking fielding!
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SK (#57):
You don't see any merit in England making a game of it when, after 31 overs they looked dead and buried? They should never have been allowed to make 250, let alone 316. Let's face it, many England sides of the last 18 months would have been rolled over for less than 200 from that position. They were beaten, despite that effort, by some brilliant batting from two great batsmen, so there is no reason to feel depressed. Either side could have won. Neither side could have complained too much had it lost in such a tight finish.
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Ok, so you all complain about Dravid's captaincy, and I admit, his decision to bowl Yuvraj in the last over was perplexing, but for one thing you have forgotten and have to give him credit for it. He is the one who gave Uthappa his place in the squad. Had it not been for this, the series might be over already. I also think Prior should be dropped, he has built foundations but never gone on to get that elusive hundred. I know there's a bias since I'm Irish, but what about Niall O'Brien, he hits the ball hard and is a great keeper. Also, he has stated his willingness to play for England, if called upon.
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GREAT match....whatever the result was..one thing i gotta say...dravid is a poor captain..he tries to get too cute sometimes with his bowling options...i love dravid as a player but i hate dravid as a captain...
INDIAN fans gotta stop moaning about umpiring decisions and ENGLAND fans gotta stop moaning abt injuries...
and to all those people who just cant stop talking rubbish abt KP and agarkar...KP is englands best batsman by miles...give him a break...he can have few bad games as well....
and abt all those people who wants to kick the cracker out of agarkar...he has been indias best and most consistent bowlers for last one year...so what if he had a bad series...agarkar should take heart from the fact that these same people who wants his neck....wanted tendulkar out of indian team (test and one days) few months back...people do have very short memory..and thats sad
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A superb game, but lost by Collingwood. Bringing fine leg up showed loss of bottle. let them sweep yorkers colly!
also - india my 2nd fav one day team but lucky. you need luck so no excuses but 24 runs of the edge! that was luck!
Can anyone tell me why dimi was dropped for lewis who wasn't originally picked in squad?
same old england, same old tactics.
all i say is i want the best bat in england back... vaughan, series won if he was skip.
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Uthappa and Gambhir look promising for India and same is true for for Shah and Wright for England. Hoping to see another thriller final match.
As for Yuvraj bowling last over, I think he was bowling well till the last over which made Dravid make a wrong choice.
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Indeed a great game but not one England should have lost. Some poor thinking from Collingwood and a lot of brainless bowling at start and finish made an excellent effort from India into a winning one. Congratulations to India but England are going to have to play with their brains as well as their hearts if they are ever going to really challenge in this form of the game
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A superb game, but lost by Collingwood. Bringing fine leg up showed loss of bottle. let them sweep yorkers colly!
also - india my 2nd fav one day team but lucky. you need luck so no excuses but 24 runs of the edge! that was luck!
Can anyone tell me why dimi was dropped for lewis who wasn't originally picked in squad?
same old england, same old tactics.
all i say is i want the best bat in england back... vaughan, series won if he was skip.
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Most of us thought SACHIEN,s days where over but, he is real MARATHA boy and pride of MUMBAI
We are WRONG he is re born again. I belive in reincarnation trust me he wil be in the next WORLD-cup 2011 for sure. HE WIL BE BACK for next THRILLER
I wish you all good sleep tonight.
I love cricket
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Chaps
Please stop using this blog to have a pop at Aggers. He has to chuck his analysis on here as soon as stumps are drawn so to expect profound meditations on the genius of Tendulkar or the obnoxiousness of Ganguly is a little unfair.
And to complain that his blogs are a little England-centric is a bit rum, considering he is an Englishman, contributing to a British website. I'm sure there are hundreds of Indian-based blogs where the tremendous verve of young Broad and the fact that Colly is on the road to become the best skipper since Brearley seldom get a look-in and 'Sachin is God' has it's own abbreviation.
Well bowled Aggers, keep it up
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to all those biased observers drivelling on about Owais Shah's non dismissal. Would they like to comment on whether Youvrav should have walked after clearly hitting the ball off Monty and getting away with it in the last match? He went on to make 70, a contribution which might well have been decisive. Neither side is getting the best of it and neither side is any less or more honest than the other. This is modern day cricket and its this or infra red and tv replays of everything. Want that?? ...no? well shut up then!
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Sachien is GREAT and wil wil stay great for long time to come. was good cricket from both side
My hero is only SACHIEN no one can replace him.
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First of all congratulations to both sides for some great cricket and an extra congratulations to India for getting the win.
To the few India fans who are still complaining about the umpiring give it a rest. Collingwood was given out (alright he was out) only after the umpire saw the replay on the big screen, which I'm sure is only shown after the umpire's descision has been made as not to influence his descision. Owais Shah didn't walk like Yuvraj Singh didn't walk so don't start on that.
Overall a fantastic game and doesn't Chawla look like a fantastic bowler, definetly one for the future.
Still can't see why Agarkar is in the team. The only reason Dravid went to Yuvraj for the last over was because he couldn't trust Agarkar with it, which begs the question of why is he in the team. RP Singh is far more economic and with India's tail reinforced some what by the inclusion of an extra batsmen you can afford to have him in the team.
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Sorry - forgot to ask after a great game, why is prior still playing? lot's of keepers would have stopped some of those edges and we would have won.
Bring in Mustard or Pothas please.
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It is desperately frustrating to see a wicket keeper performing so incompetently, making the simple things look difficult. England has two or three top class 'keepers to call on, who can also score runs, given the chance, who would be a pleasure to watch. They can make difficult things look easy and take the difficult chances, not let four byes through (their legs) or miss stumpings. The present incumbent may be being mentored by the coach but the coach's time would be better spent helping an accomplished performer improve futher. Surely an objective selector should not stand for more of the same?
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India minus Uthappa innings is Typical India's cricket!!Lucky that India decided to play him today!!
The other day while chasing 212, Engaland was brought down to 114/7 by India and managed to slip the match away.
Today England was at 137/5 and India allowed them to get to 317.And, while batting got an excellent start 150/0 in 22 overs or so and lost the advantage to England pretty quickly until Uthappa chased the runs for them.
Cant understand how do they manage to spoil all the great STARTs they are getting?? I guess it is the Captaincy!!Or may be not!!
Anyways, we have seen some Great Young kids in this series. Broad, Bopara, Uthappa, LJ Wright. Hope these kids will go on to become GREATS!!
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Where was the insight? What do England still lack? Who should be considered an automatic starter from now on? What do you think the ramifications of Collingwood's dismall are?
This was just a robotic description - not an interesting insight and analysis.
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Kudos to India for making a comeback
They were up against the wall but now they're right back in it. What a choke job by England....giving up a 3-1 series lead!
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Dear Mr. Agnew,
I read your articles irrespective of England wins or looses. This has been an amazing series. You have described England innings in great detail. What about Sachin and Saurav setting it up for India with a opening stand of 150? I couldn't agree more with Shankar here, have some heart to praise a great game and a great batting line-up in display and who-so-ever made it great. Cheers to Dhoni and Robin Uthappa for an amazing chase which has kept India alive. In Cricket, Amazing chase is impossible without amazing chasers.
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Dear Mr. Agnew,
I read your articles irrespective of England wins or looses. This has been an amazing series. You have described England innings in great detail. What about Sachin and Saurav setting it up for India with a opening stand of 150? I couldn't agree more with Shankar here, have some heart to praise a great game and a great batting line-up in display and who-so-ever made it great. Cheers to Dhoni and Robin Uthappa for an amazing chase which has kept India alive. In Cricket, Amazing chase is impossible without amazing chasers.
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Arrogant bullyboy Pietersen lost England this match. But apart from his "brainless" antics, and a poor display by England's openers (6) - as opposed to a brilliant one by India's openers (147) - this really was an exciting and enthralling match. Roll on the final decider, especially if Pietersen is dropped ! ! ! ! !
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English fans ultimately started showing their true colours. Now talking about Yuvraj's non dismissal in game 5. I guess they don't have much to whine about in this game. Of course some of you started to whine about injuries again. Be a sport and admit that India deserved to win this game.
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Ray (#80):
I think that the best answer to that is that we have now had 4 wicket-keepers in 9 months. Matt Prior has had 7 Tests and 9 ODIs so far. If we drop him too after just over 3 months in the job we will just end up making things worse.
I put this question today to Jack Russell (a former England wicket-keeper who was repeatedly dropped for a far inferior wicket-keeper who didn't even do the job regularly for his county at the time). Jack Russell's answer was plain common sense: England has more competant and talented wicket-keepers than all the other major Test nations together. You drop someone after one bad Test and you make life impossible for anyone in the job and just heap on the pressure that makes failure more certain.
The fans hounded out Geraint Jones and Paul Nixon. They are now getting on Matt Prior's back. Ok, so we drop him. Do we go back to a previously rejected 'keeper? Or go for someone like Phil Mustard and get on his back within three months the first time that he makes a mistake?
Matt Prior should be given at least until the end of the Sri Lanka tour without ANY additional pressure from the fans. Then we can start to look at his position.
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If Agnew posted this at 6:24 p.m., I wonder how one could expect his coverage of the second innings to be very detailed.
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well done india, well done sachin, well done yuvraj and dravid, well done utthappa, well done angew, well done well done well done.
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Captaincy on both sides had its ups and downs as commentaors have remarked. Yet no one has asked the question: why wasn't Wright given a bowl? He is an all-rounder. Surely his bowling is better than Shah's.
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I am very dissappointed with Englands performance. Colly, who is good, has a lot to learn. Quickly:
Colly do us all a favour: Cut out the 鈥榖ullshit鈥, for England!
Collingwood Says: I can鈥檛 fault our efforts.
Bullshit!
Has Colly actually looked at the scorecard, does he realise they lost with a score of 316? Does he realise the openers got 6, he got 1, there were 3 stupid runouts, Pieterson seems unable to play real batting strokes any longer, always trying arrogantly to 鈥榩lay like he likes to play鈥, crap strokes, bad stroke choices included, 鈥業 am a stupid superstar with a silly haircut and I always play this way, doh! Can I have my job back please mister. Getting out not listening to his partner, and taking the mickey out of Ganguly, who got the better for once. How big is this guys arrogance, too big! I find him embarrassing. Drop him, tell him to go back to the academy and learn his trade properly. Regular performers, no problem, arrogant pratts, a real big problem, tell him to come back when he has grown up and got a mature hairstyle, and preferably married with a few kids. For gods sake someone tell him what the job is, only 53 from God! What sort of God is that? Trouble is who teaches God? I know Geoff Boycott!
He still thinks 'everyone did good'. Gramatically incorrect, technically incorrect, emotionally incorrect, you don't get the best out of people if you tell them they have done ok when they underperformed. Wake up Colly!
I suspect the competition has deliberately overplayed Pieterons ego to diminish him, knowing his ego is so big that by praising him so much when he is so young they know he will go into meltdown as a result of lack of quality experience and an ego too big for anyone to handle, including him. His mentor, Shane Warne believes in himself 200%, Kevin Believes 110%. Shane is Australian, and always will be. Even if he Captains Hampshire. He does not want KP or England to murder the Ausies. It is that competitive.
Tell Colly Bullshit comments after a match are no substitutes for the right actions in a match, tell them all to cut out the bullshit and perform. Tell Peter Moores to tell all his team that he should tell them all he is going to 鈥榗ut their balls off鈥 if they loose. Colly is pretty good, I am not sure he puts the fear of god into men, I am sure (football) Fergie does, hopefully Colly will grow into it.
Proffessional sport is 'big time' and not a friendly club, we seem to have been drawn into sledging. Forget it, focus, and play quality cricket.
Why on earth didn鈥檛 Colly bowl Wright, first ODI, 50 under his belt, good bowler, all fired up! Stupid reaction, the boy with fire in his belly could have made the difference, you can always take them off! Wright is an adequate bowler, certainly better than Tandulkar, I realise they play on different sides, for those that think I might not appreciate this!
Use people with fire in their belly, when they are on fire! Like Freddy or Wright. Understand human desire. Put Prior back to seven and Wright up to 2, use Wright bowling. Use real imagination, for gods sake, you are 'too safe', just like previous skippers. I agree it is good to use non bowlers for 1 or 2 overs, but you were short today and you did not use Wright. What a mistake.
Wake up England, the young guns want to do it for you, let them you old foggies!
From a real old foggie
Cook c Dhoni b Zaheer 0 2 0 0
Prior lbw b Agarkar 6 5 1 0
Bell b Chawla 49 59 10 0
Pietersen run out 53 82 4 0
Collingwood run out 1 3 0 0
Shah not out 107 95 11 2
Wright run out 50 39 7 1
Mascarenhas not out 36 15 0 5
Extras 6w 1b 7lb 14
Total for 6 316 (50.0 ovs)
Bowler O M R W
Zaheer 10.0 0 43 1
Agarkar 8.0 0 63 1
Ganguly 7.0 0 43 0
Chawla 10.0 1 44 1
Powar 9.0 0 44 0
Yuvraj 5.0 0 59 0
Tendulkar 1.0 0 12 0
Fall of wicket
0 Cook
20 Prior
79 Bell
83 Collingwood
137 Pietersen
243 Wright
Back to top
India Innings - Close
Runs Balls 4s 6s
Ganguly c Pietersen b Broad 53 60 7 1
Tendulkar c Collingwood b Panesar 94 81 16 1
Gambhir c Panesar b Mascarenhas 47 57 3 1
Yuvraj c and b Mascarenhas 18 24 1 0
Dravid c Collingwood b Shah 4 5 0 0
Dhoni b Broad 35 37 3 0
Uthappa not out 47 33 8 0
Agarkar run out 1 1 0 0
Zaheer run out 0 0 0 0
Powar not out 0 0 0 0
Extras 9w 9lb 18
Total for 8 317 (49.4 ovs)
Bowler O M R W
Broad 9.4 1 46 2
Anderson 8.0 0 79 0
Mascarenhas 10.0 0 55 2
Collingwood 8.0 0 54 0
Panesar 10.0 0 55 1
Shah 4.0 0 19 1
Fall of wicket
150 Ganguly
156 Tendulkar
209 Yuvraj
216 Dravid
234 Gambhir
294 Dhoni
307 Agarkar
309 Zaheer
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Some of the English fans over here are understandably upset.
Neil Hewitt (93), man, cool down this is just a game. Pieterson is the only good thing that has happened to English cricket. Tell me one batsmen from all countries right now who can match this charismatic player. Tendulkar is old, Ponting is getting older, Dravid, Ganguly all these players will retire within next 4 years( at max). Tendulkar is a class act who is the only batsmen who is comparable to Bradman in existing era. Even tormentor of England, Warne mentions him as the greatest challenge ever faced. Now, he carries so much pressure every time he bats, it doesn't matter whether its England or Bangladesh, people expect him to score runs every time. Many of people over here who are singing like canary his praises wanted him out of team when India lost test to England in Bombay test.
You must consider England very lucky that Pieterson chose to play for England. He is still new to the game and will become more mature with experience. Flintoff was so inconsistent when he first came into team and many even questioned his attitude. Now, he is the best all rounder in the world and England badly hopes that he plays in the final. As for his style of play, everyone has their own way of playing and Pieterson is no different. Thats what makes this game beautiful. If there is one Bell, then, we do need Pieterson also. So, public should be patient with him. He is future English captain. Also, for Prior he hasn't performed that badly, he is certainly not a Tendulkar, so, even if he contributes like quickfire 20-30 and once in a while 50-60 thats good enough for team. I believe that they should persist with him in one day team, but, he would survive at Test level becoz wicketkeeping will be really hard for almost 3 days in test match and then perform with bat. Players like Gilly and Tendulkar are once in a century player. England should keep in mind world cup 2011 and right now, their aim should be giving as much exposure to their players as they lack in experience if compared to other teams like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia. Also, at one stage they were 137-5, so, you should be proud that they actually made match of it..Other than that everyone has their own opinion and you can have yours. I understand that you love England team very much thats why that shows in your frustration
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This is question for all Indian fans:
Many of you guys are cribbing about the fact that Ajit Agarkar is in the team. OK, I take your point, but, tell me his replacement. RP Singh he is good, but, is a left armer like Khan, so, it gives predictability to the attack which is not very good for team. Munaf Patel, he went for plenty in his game at Bristol. You guys have to realize what Khan said after he was awarded Man of the Series against England "He bowled and bowled and bowled non stop". Like batsmen, bowlers also do get out of form and like batsmen who is out of form need to spend time at crease. Bowlers have to bowl more and more overs. Thats the way it goes. There are not many good fast bowlers in India. Tell me some? Where is Balaji, he seemed like decent talent. he should be back in the team. They should try out VRV Singh or other bowlers. You gain experience only when you play, there is massive difference while playing for your county and playing for your country against quality opposition. So, find some more bowlers and then, Agarkar can be out of the team. Pathan he was becoming good, but, now he is also out. I personally believe that he Pathan, Kaif, Sehwag, Dhoni, Robin Uthappa, Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Karthick, they are all future of Indian cricket. I would add Munaf also in that list but sometimes he is just too inconsistent..but he is still in his early days...Sreesanth is also similar
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Will the Indian Parliament pass a constitutional amendment banning Agarkar from all forms of cricket?
Pls ,pls I beg them.
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Will the Indian Parliament pass a constitutional amendment banning Agarkar from all forms of cricket?
Pls ,pls I beg them.
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One of the most thrilling finishes i have ever seen and satisfying for every Indian. But the fact remains, that despite England batting better (except compared to Sachin), bowling better and fielding better, they lost the match. congrats to both the teams.
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I disagree that Dravids captaincy was bad when he gave Yuvraj the last over.The medium
pacers were indeed going for 2 mainy runs and Dravid tried to surprise the batsman by
bringing in Yuvraj . Luck was not to favour Dravid and Dmitri surprised Dravid and Yuvraj
and probbably whole of India. No credit taken from Dmitri for that.He was awesome.
Lots of people will point out to many incidents of the game as turning points.
But for me the turning point of the game was the lucky(yes LUCKY for India) run out of
Agarkar on the last ball of 49th over.I shudder and shiver to think what would have
happened if that waste of time.money,effort called Agarkar was on crease for last over.
Collingwoood on hindsight must think he should have ordered all his men not to get Agarkar
out.
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why oh why dont indians use the bumper as a dot ball.
spinners should practise this in the nets.
Fifty dot balls from bumpers not really, but at leas 20?
Agarkar can, so can zaheer
at least twenty there?
who's the best bumper dot ball bowler in ODIs a good quiz question
pradeep vijayakar
the times of india
i
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One of the most thrilling finishes i have ever seen and satisfying for every Indian. But the fact remains, that despite England batting better (except compared to Sachin), bowling better and fielding better, they lost the match. congrats to both the teams.
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I disagree that Dravids captaincy was bad when he gave Yuvraj the last over.The medium
pacers were indeed going for 2 mainy runs and Dravid tried to surprise the batsman by
bringing in Yuvraj . Luck was not to favour Dravid and Dmitri surprised Dravid and Yuvraj
and probbably whole of India. No credit taken from Dmitri for that.He was awesome.
Lots of people will point out to many incidents of the game as turning points.
But for me the turning point of the game was the lucky(yes LUCKY for India) run out of
Agarkar on the last ball of 49th over.I shudder and shiver to think what would have
happened if that waste of time.money,effort called Agarkar was on crease for last over.
Collinwoood on hindsight must think he should have ordered all his men not to get Agarkar
out.
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I am glad to see that the series will be decided in the final match. That did not look possible when England got third win and need one more match to win the series.
I still think England have the edge for the final match but this is really interesting stuff.
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What can we say, as an ex pat living in Israel who does not like 1 day Cricket I have been glued to my T.V. for every game
One of the letters say that it should be a tie at Lords and I totally agree as this series has been fantastic entertainment and is a true advertisement for the game of Cricket
Well done England, well done India
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Great game, Though an Indian fan, would like to talk about England team for a change.
I think England has finally arrived in the One Day arena. The clutch of promising youngsters that are making up the lower middle order is amazing even without Flintoff. Except Prior, the top order is all class with Cook, Bell, KP and Collingwood. Add to the mix, a strong lower order to choose from Shah, Bopara, Wright, Dimitri and even Broad 鈥 it seems like Eng finally has the depth of, dare say, Australia in batting. With Flintoff fit and ready, who wouldn鈥檛 want this batting order? Admittedly, bowling is still a little weaker compared to batting. If Eng can nurture the nucleus of this team and preserve them until next World Cup, I鈥檇 wager that they would be strong contenders for the cup glory.
As an Indian supporter, I鈥檓 extremely wary of this side for the Saturday final. Momentum not withstanding, I feel anybody could win the game on Saturday 鈥 the first time, I can say that genuinely. Would be disappointed to see a one-sided final.
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why oh why dont indians use the bumper as a dot ball.
spinners should practise this in the nets.
Fifty dot balls from bumpers not really, but at leas 20?
Agarkar can, so can zaheer
at least twenty there?
who's the best bumper dot ball bowler in ODIs a good quiz question
pradeep vijayakar
the times of india
i
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I am glad to see that the series will be decided in the final match. That did not look possible when England got third win and need one more match to win the series.
I still think England have the edge for the final match but this is really interesting stuff.
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It is the most nail bitting match ever played.
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I hope Uthappa bought a lottery ticket after he got back to his hotel last night.
Once again India win thanks to nothing but dumb luck - it will be a travesty if England don't win this series now, but the way things are going I don't think they have a chance.
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Aggers,
I know that you have gone on the record to say that Dimi Mascarenhas hasn't got a long term future in the England side. I wonder if you've changed your views after yesterday. I disagree with you because one of the key ingredients for a successful one day side is a dangerously explosive lower order hitter. South Africa have Kemp and Pakistan Razzaq. In past times Pakistan also had the Moin factor. So I would play Dimi for his batting alone. His bowling is nothing special, but neither is it terrible and with Collingwood himself being such a canny one day bowler there are plenty of options for England.
Another key ingredient is an opening pair that can take advantage of the powerplays. And I think we have just had a glimpse of the future. Cook may have scored a century earlier in the series and he is a fine young player, but I remain uncomvinced that he is the best person to open for England in this form of the game, and Prior has not been effective as a pinch hitter either. His strike rate is actually worse than Cook's. Realistically, I think Bell has to open and after yesterday, I think many people have a hunch that Luke Wright's future is at the top of the innings. So my England XI would be as follows.
Bell
Wright
Pietersen
Collingwood
Shah
Bopara
Read or Foster
Mascarenhas
Broad
Anderson
Panesar
I think it's vital to have a top class wicket keeper, because the key to England having a wicket taker in the middle overs is to get Monty bowling as he does in tests, and to do that he needs someone who can take every edge and stumping. If Fred is ever fully fit, he obviously has to play and then the selectors have a dilemma, but as the cliche goes, it would be a nice dilemma.
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Without sounding like a bitter sweet English Fan, I could not believe how many fake edges and French cuts Uthappa played, it was a great innings but a seriosuly luckcy one, there were at least 24 runs that I saw off the bat that were lucky, I did feel sorry for Anderson, at one point I was screaming at Collingwood to put a Long stop in!!,
that said what a game of cricket by two evenly matched teams, will be a shame for one to lose over the weekend, (lets hope its not ruined by the weather)
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What a one sided column.....writing realms on the wonderful efforts of the BRAINLESS ENGLISH players & so little on the GREAT OPENING PAIR of SACHIN & SAURAV.
Grow up....else India will take over England
With Love
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Good game, I wouldn't say either team deserved to win anymore than the other as it was such a tight game.
Pietersen needs to change something, his attitude I expect. To run out the captain and yourself is pretty poor and to add the misfield is a poor round performance despite the 50+
I don't mind too much if we don't win the series as it's given new blood some experience.
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R. Uttapaa really showed a lot of character and class and guided India home after the ODI had become a cliff hanger with India needing 23 odd runs from the last two overs.Uttapaa did not loose temperament and hold his nerve and just hit boundaries and took his team to victory.Sachin's innings was also classy and his innings would really now stop the critics.The ODI was a cliff hanger which had been stretched to wires,Ravi Shastri also mentined that The match would stretch to wires during India's batting.R. Uttapaa really showed his class in difficult circumstances.
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I fully appreciate Sunil Gavaskar's comments on Collingwood's run out "the most important thing is that a correct decision was finally given". But what I'd like to know from Sunil is why he didn't say the same thing about Dhoni's catch of Kevin Pieterson in the Lords test. At Lords, Sunil and his team of commentators were only accusing the England players of attempting to cheat, and going into the laws of the game etc. But neither he nor his fellow commentators- English ones included- never talked about the correct decision being finally taken.Somehow the TV commentry on ESPN appears biased. One would expect these great cricketers to give us a NEUTRAL EXPERT assessment of what they see.
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High time Aggers, you read the comment and post it. This forum is increasingly getting used to express some people's fancy whims.
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Hats off to TMS and Aggers in particular for some great commentary at the end of Wednesdays game. Aggers despair as long off was brought up was a great piece of radio
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Once again we have a barrage of armchair critics complaining about Prior's keeping. All of it is absolutely true. Footwork, the lynch pin of good keeping is absent and he takes his eye off the ball when the batsman makes a big shot against the spinners. (Wear a helmet?)
These criticisms are all irrelevant as the man is selected as a BATSMAN. Like Jones of Kent, if we try to improve his keeping then his batting will probably fall off.
Stop complaining about Priors Keeping and let him get on with his batting!!
If he does not score good quick runs, then think again.
Note that Read of Notts is averaging around 60 in County Cricket this year. Foster of Essex can't be far behind.
Don't bother with other Batsmen who keep wicket.
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I fully appreciate Sunil Gavaskar's comments on Collingwood's run out "the most important thing is that a correct decision was finally given". But what I'd like to know from Sunil is why he didn't say the same thing about Dhoni's catch of Kevin Pieterson in the Lords test. At Lords, Sunil and his team of commentators were only accusing the England players of attempting to cheat, and going into the laws of the game etc. But neither he nor his fellow commentators- English ones included- never talked about the correct decision being finally taken.Somehow the TV commentry on ESPN appears biased. One would expect these great cricketers to give us a NEUTRAL EXPERT assessment of what they see.
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I fully appreciate Sunil Gavaskar's comments on Collingwood's run out "the most important thing is that a correct decision was finally given". But what I'd like to know from Sunil is why he didn't say the same thing about Dhoni's catch of Kevin Pieterson in the Lords test. At Lords, Sunil and his team of commentators were only accusing the England players of attempting to cheat, and going into the laws of the game etc. But neither he nor his fellow commentators- English ones included- never talked about the correct decision being finally taken.Somehow the TV commentry on ESPN appears biased. One would expect these great cricketers to give us a NEUTRAL EXPERT assessment of what they see.
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To all those English fans whining about luck especially, what about the humongous number of times Ian bell's been edging Zaheer Kahn into vacant fielding areas? Inside edges outside edges, dropped catches , he's had them all, so England were lucky being 3-1 up until now. All those dropped catches by India, England lucky again.
To blame it on luck is a load of nonsense. Luck goes both ways, give Uthappa the credit of trying something different, he upset the bowlers impeccable lengths by stepping out and across to alter the dynamics of good death bowling.
I've been wondering why India were playing Karthik who's wonderfully well suited to the test Arena but hasn't really done anything yet to show us his ODI capabilities in this series, especially when they've had Uthappa to call on until now. Extremely poor selection policies by India and really does show up in the light of what's happened in this game.
As for the calls for dropping Anderson and Pietersen are concerned, you must be kidding me. Anderson has been the best English bowler in this tour until now, he's had a bad day, so what, everyone has one, doesn't mean you call for the chopping block. Pietersen's going through a bit of a shallow patch in terms of runs, but he's still by far the best English batsmen I've seen for a long time, and questions regarding his commitment to the game are downright ludicrous if not breathtakingly stupid. If England were to follow these stupid suggestions seriously they would have a brand new team every two months.
Aggers nice reading your posts, they're always interesting, though the shorter version of the game doesn't allow for same kind of detailed analysis afforded by a test so the conciseness is understandable.
This win was huge for India and whatever Dravid's said before about momentum not being all that important is definitely untrue in the instance of such a morale boosting win. India are looking good to clinch this series at lord's on Saturday, but my money will not be a part of any punt when it comes to backing the winning horse. England may yet prevail, but hey we've already got the big fish of a test series victory well truly in the net, this will just be additional icing on the cake if we were to win the ODI series.
P.S: calls asking for unbiased reporting on a 大象传媒 website and that too when England are involved is just childish. Plenty of other India centric views to be read elsewhere on the net, got there to satisfy your need for neutrally unbiased opinions.
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Uthappa did a great job. his batting wa brilliant. for young guy like him this is a tremendus effort. i am very sure that he will be in saturday's match. i think india have to take out ajit out of the team. he takes one wicket per match but same time his bowling econommy goes more than 6.5. if he is going to bowl like that england is going to score more than 300 runs on saturday. credit goes to shah. he was brilliant. i think he did just the thing to keep him in the team. dimitry. he is a brilliant six scoreer. trust me he is going to break gayle's six record. india has to sort out thier last 10 overs of bowling and their batting. this was a great day of cricket
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To all those English fans whining about luck especially, what about the humongous number of times Ian bell's been edging Zaheer Kahn into vacant fielding areas? Inside edges outside edges, dropped catches , he's had them all, so England were lucky being 3-1 up until now. All those dropped catches by India, England lucky again.
To blame it on luck is a load of nonsense. Luck goes both ways, give Uthappa the credit of trying something different, he upset the bowlers impeccable lengths by stepping out and across to alter the dynamics of good death bowling.
I've been wondering why India were playing Karthik who's wonderfully well suited to the test Arena but hasn't really done anything yet to show us his ODI capabilities in this series, especially when they've had Uthappa to call on until now. Extremely poor selection policies by India and really does show up in the light of what's happened in this game.
As for the calls for dropping Anderson and Pietersen are concerned, you must be kidding me. Anderson has been the best English bowler in this tour until now, he's had a bad day, so what, everyone has one, doesn't mean you call for the chopping block. Pietersen's going through a bit of a shallow patch in terms of runs, but he's still by far the best English batsmen I've seen for a long time, and questions regarding his commitment to the game are downright ludicrous if not breathtakingly stupid. If England were to follow these stupid suggestions seriously they would have a brand new team every two months.
Aggers nice reading your posts, they're always interesting, though the shorter version of the game doesn't allow for same kind of detailed analysis afforded by a test so the conciseness is understandable.
This win was huge for India and whatever Dravid's said before about momentum not being all that important is definitely untrue in the instance of such a morale boosting win. India are looking good to clinch this series at lord's on Saturday, but my money will not be a part of any punt when it comes to backing the winning horse. England may yet prevail, but hey we've already got the big fish of a test series victory well truly in the net, this will just be additional icing on the cake if we were to win the ODI series.
P.S: calls asking for unbiased reporting on a 大象传媒 website and that too when England are involved is just childish. Plenty of other India centric views to be read elsewhere on the net, got there to satisfy your need for neutrally unbiased opinions.
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I would like to say the umpiring in these matches have been controversial on both sides and that means they aren't doing there job properly like they used to
Good for India, keeping the game alive and keeping us on the edge of our seat, as usual and the fact that Sacchin couldn't reach his century.
Keep up the good work and WIN, WIN, WIN is my thinking, is to watch the last hour of Lagaan and see how they fought, through pain and the fact that they didnt actually know how to play!!!
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To all those English fans whining about luck especially, what about the humongous number of times Ian bell's been edging Zaheer Kahn into vacant fielding areas? Inside edges outside edges, dropped catches , he's had them all, so England were lucky being 3-1 up until now. All those dropped catches by India, England lucky again.
To blame it on luck is a load of nonsense. Luck goes both ways, give Uthappa the credit of trying something different, he upset the bowlers impeccable lengths by stepping out and across to alter the dynamics of good death bowling.
I've been wondering why India were playing Karthik who's wonderfully well suited to the test Arena but hasn't really done anything yet to show us his ODI capabilities in this series, especially when they've had Uthappa to call on until now. Extremely poor selection policies by India and really does show up in the light of what's happened in this game.
As for the calls for dropping Anderson and Pietersen are concerned, you must be kidding me. Anderson has been the best English bowler in this tour until now, he's had a bad day, so what, everyone has one, doesn't mean you call for the chopping block. Pietersen's going through a bit of a shallow patch in terms of runs, but he's still by far the best English batsmen I've seen for a long time, and questions regarding his commitment to the game are downright ludicrous if not breathtakingly stupid. If England were to follow these stupid suggestions seriously they would have a brand new team every two months.
Aggers nice reading your posts, they're always interesting, though the shorter version of the game doesn't allow for same kind of detailed analysis afforded by a test so the conciseness is understandable.
This win was huge for India and whatever Dravid's said before about momentum not being all that important is definitely untrue in the instance of such a morale boosting win. India are looking good to clinch this series at lord's on Saturday, but my money will not be a part of any punt when it comes to backing the winning horse. England may yet prevail, but hey we've already got the big fish of a test series victory well truly in the net, this will just be additional icing on the cake if we were to win the ODI series.
P.S: calls asking for unbiased reporting on a 大象传媒 website and that too when England are involved is just childish. Plenty of other India centric views to be read elsewhere on the net, got there to satisfy your need for neutrally unbiased opinions.
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To all those English fans whining about luck especially, what about the humongous number of times Ian bell's been edging Zaheer Kahn into vacant fielding areas? Inside edges outside edges, dropped catches , he's had them all, so England were lucky being 3-1 up until now. All those dropped catches by India, England lucky again.
To blame it on luck is a load of nonsense. Luck goes both ways, give Uthappa the credit of trying something different, he upset the bowlers impeccable lengths by stepping out and across to alter the dynamics of good death bowling.
I've been wondering why India were playing Karthik who's wonderfully well suited to the test Arena but hasn't really done anything yet to show us his ODI capabilities in this series, especially when they've had Uthappa to call on until now. Extremely poor selection policies by India and really does show up in the light of what's happened in this game.
As for the calls for dropping Anderson and Pietersen are concerned, you must be kidding me. Anderson has been the best English bowler in this tour until now, he's had a bad day, so what, everyone has one, doesn't mean you call for the chopping block. Pietersen's going through a bit of a shallow patch in terms of runs, but he's still by far the best English batsmen I've seen for a long time, and questions regarding his commitment to the game are downright ludicrous if not breathtakingly stupid. If England were to follow these stupid suggestions seriously they would have a brand new team every two months.
Aggers nice reading your posts, they're always interesting, though the shorter version of the game doesn't allow for same kind of detailed analysis afforded by a test so the conciseness is understandable.
This win was huge for India and whatever Dravid's said before about momentum not being all that important is definitely untrue in the instance of such a morale boosting win. India are looking good to clinch this series at lord's on Saturday, but my money will not be a part of any punt when it comes to backing the winning horse. England may yet prevail, but hey we've already got the big fish of a test series victory well truly in the net, this will just be additional icing on the cake if we were to win the ODI series.
P.S: calls asking for unbiased reporting on a 大象传媒 website and that too when England are involved is just childish. Plenty of other India centric views to be read elsewhere on the net, got there to satisfy your need for neutrally unbiased opinions.
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Anup - I didn't miss the irony in your choice of words... "little" and "brainless" - sounds just like you mate.
No why don't you go and "grow up".
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I cant believe no-one has made more of England being a bowler short? Either Luke Wright has to bowl in the final game or Sidebottom has to come in somewhere. Without Fred there is a bit of a problem with balancing the attack
Anderson and Broad are shoe-ins
Monty - I love Monty as much as the next English fan, but is he our best one-day spinner? Especially when Fred is out, we cant afford to carry too many not-batters
My solution when Fred is missing?
Bell
Swann
Shah
Pietersen
Collingwood
Prior
Wright
Mascheranas
Broad
Sidebottom
Anderson
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To all those English fans whining about luck especially, what about the humongous number of times Ian bell's been edging Zaheer Kahn into vacant fielding areas? Inside edges outside edges, dropped catches , he's had them all, so England were lucky being 3-1 up until now. All those dropped catches by India, England lucky again.
To blame it on luck is a load of nonsense. Luck goes both ways, give Uthappa the credit of trying something different, he upset the bowlers impeccable lengths by stepping out and across to alter the dynamics of good death bowling.
I've been wondering why India were playing Karthik who's wonderfully well suited to the test Arena but hasn't really done anything yet to show us his ODI capabilities in this series, especially when they've had Uthappa to call on until now. Extremely poor selection policies by India and really does show up in the light of what's happened in this game.
As for the calls for dropping Anderson and Pietersen are concerned, you must be kidding me. Anderson has been the best English bowler in this tour until now, he's had a bad day, so what, everyone has one, doesn't mean you call for the chopping block. Pietersen's going through a bit of a shallow patch in terms of runs, but he's still by far the best English batsmen I've seen for a long time, and questions regarding his commitment to the game are downright ludicrous if not breathtakingly stupid. If England were to follow these stupid suggestions seriously they would have a brand new team every two months.
Aggers nice reading your posts, they're always interesting, though the shorter version of the game doesn't allow for same kind of detailed analysis afforded by a test so the conciseness is understandable.
This win was huge for India and whatever Dravid's said before about momentum not being all that important is definitely untrue in the instance of such a morale boosting win. India are looking good to clinch this series at lord's on Saturday, but my money will not be a part of any punt when it comes to backing the winning horse. England may yet prevail, but hey we've already got the big fish of a test series victory well truly in the net, this will just be additional icing on the cake if we were to win the ODI series.
P.S: calls asking for unbiased reporting on a 大象传媒 website and that too when England are involved is just childish. Plenty of other India centric views to be read elsewhere on the net, got there to satisfy your need for neutrally unbiased opinions.
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Once again we have a barrage of armchair critics complaining about Prior's keeping. All of it is absolutely true. Footwork, the lynch pin of good keeping is absent and he takes his eye off the ball when the batsman makes a big shot against the spinners. (Wear a helmet?)
These criticisms are all irrelevant as the man is selected as a BATSMAN. Like Jones of Kent, if we try to improve his keeping then his batting will probably fall off.
Stop complaining about Priors Keeping and let him get on with his batting!!
If he does not score good quick runs, then think again.
Note that Read of Notts is averaging around 60 in County Cricket this year. Foster of Essex can't be far behind.
Don't bother with other Batsmen who keep wicket.
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Great match and great finish etc but Dravid's management of the bowling after having England on the mat at 140 or so for 5 shocks me. Infact it frustrates me. One has to learn from the indian captain on how to convert 'a walk in the park' match to a 'nailbiting' match.
Some thoughts:
1. Wright was brilliant under the pressure situation he came in. wright and uthappa are the hero's of this match for me. Shah, tendulkar, mascherenas were great too.
2. India played with 3 bowlers and England with 1 extra bowler(Agarkar). well done Dravid on picking him - he seems to be happy as long as his per over economy rate is in single figures(by the skin of his teeth mind you).
3. Tendulkar had an equal part to play in making this win difficult for India after a wonderful start. Great knock - no doubt (infact a match winning one) but he should have gracefully 'RETIRED-TIRED' instead of hobbling about making it impossible to take even easy singles with gambhir - getting the asking rate from 6 to 7.5....(getting Ganguly to run for you is like 'out of the frying pan, into the fire' )
3. India's most economical bowler - powar had one over to spare when he made tendulkar and Yuvi bowl the last two???agarkar ofcourse wasn't in the race anyway since India played 3 bowlers (see point 1)
4. hats off to you uthappa - the last 2 balls of the match were the most intelligent pc of batting i've ever seen. Both the balls were pretty similar from Broad(right up there as they should be) but the way he used the field placings to improvise those boundaries makes me rate these 8 runs of 2 balls higher then the 30 of 5 by mascheranas.
Lavneet Gyani
New Delhi
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Once again we have a barrage of armchair critics complaining about Prior's keeping. All of it is absolutely true. Footwork, the lynch pin of good keeping is absent and he takes his eye off the ball when the batsman makes a big shot against the spinners. (Wear a helmet?)
These criticisms are all irrelevant as the man is selected as a BATSMAN. Like Jones of Kent, if we try to improve his keeping then his batting will probably fall off.
Stop complaining about Priors Keeping and let him get on with his batting!!
If he does not score good quick runs, then think again.
Note that Read of Notts is averaging around 60 in County Cricket this year. Foster of Essex can't be far behind.
Don't bother with other Batsmen who keep wicket.
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Once again we have a barrage of armchair critics complaining about Prior's keeping. All of it is absolutely true. Footwork, the lynch pin of good keeping is absent and he takes his eye off the ball when the batsman makes a big shot against the spinners. (Wear a helmet?)
These criticisms are all irrelevant as the man is selected as a BATSMAN. Like Jones of Kent, if we try to improve his keeping then his batting will probably fall off.
Stop complaining about Priors Keeping and let him get on with his batting!!
If he does not score good quick runs, then think again.
Note that Read of Notts is averaging around 60 in County Cricket this year. Foster of Essex can't be far behind.
Don't bother with other Batsmen who keep wicket.
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I hope Agarkar's visa for England is cancelled before the final at Lords and he is deported by the immigration authorities. Only this way we may be in with a chance to win at Lords.
A
garkar seems just hell bent on making the task of winning difficult for his batsman by throwing lollypop hit me balls.
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I cant believe no-one has made more of England being a bowler short? Either Luke Wright has to bowl in the final game or Sidebottom has to come in somewhere. Without Fred there is a bit of a problem with balancing the attack
Anderson and Broad are shoe-ins
Monty - I love Monty as much as the next English fan, but is he our best one-day spinner? Especially when Fred is out, we cant afford to carry too many not-batters
My solution when Fred is missing?
Bell
Swann
Shah
Pietersen
Collingwood
Prior
Wright
Mascheranas
Broad
Sidebottom
Anderson
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@val russell
u said english players are injured common if not they would have win it?? there is no if and buts in any sports
well in that contest then india don't have a coach just to remind you dear
and some one said uttapa innind was a fluke and fake shots for you info in cricket every plyer inning will have a fake shot etleast onece....his innigs was really great
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Great match and great finish etc but Dravid's management of the bowling after having England on the mat at 140 or so for 5 shocks me. Infact it frustrates me. One has to learn from the indian captain on how to convert 'a walk in the park' match to a 'nailbiting' match.
Some thoughts:
1. Wright was brilliant under the pressure situation he came in. wright and uthappa are the hero's of this match for me. Shah, tendulkar, mascherenas were great too.
2. India played with 3 bowlers and England with 1 extra bowler(Agarkar). well done Dravid on picking him - he seems to be happy as long as his per over economy rate is in single figures(by the skin of his teeth mind you).
3. Tendulkar had an equal part to play in making this win difficult for India after a wonderful start. Great knock - no doubt (infact a match winning one) but he should have gracefully 'RETIRED-TIRED' instead of hobbling about making it impossible to take even easy singles with gambhir - getting the asking rate from 6 to 7.5....(getting Ganguly to run for you is like 'out of the frying pan, into the fire' )
3. India's most economical bowler - powar had one over to spare when he made tendulkar and Yuvi bowl the last two???agarkar ofcourse wasn't in the race anyway since India played 3 bowlers (see point 1)
4. hats off to you uthappa - the last 2 balls of the match were the most intelligent pc of batting i've ever seen. Both the balls were pretty similar from Broad(right up there as they should be) but the way he used the field placings to improvise those boundaries makes me rate these 8 runs of 2 balls higher then the 30 of 5 by mascheranas.
Lavneet Gyani
New Delhi
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@val russell
u said english players are injured common if not they would have win it?? there is no if and buts in any sports
well in that contest then india don't have a coach just to remind you dear
and some one said uttapa innind was a fluke and fake shots for you info in cricket every plyer inning will have a fake shot etleast onece....his innigs are really great
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Great match and great finish etc but Dravid's management of the bowling after having England on the mat at 140 or so for 5 shocks me. Infact it frustrates me. One has to learn from the indian captain on how to convert 'a walk in the park' match to a 'nailbiting' match.
Some thoughts:
1. Wright was brilliant under the pressure situation he came in. wright and uthappa are the hero's of this match for me. Shah, tendulkar, mascherenas were great too.
2. India played with 3 bowlers and England with 1 extra bowler(Agarkar). well done Dravid on picking him - he seems to be happy as long as his per over economy rate is in single figures(by the skin of his teeth mind you).
3. Tendulkar had an equal part to play in making this win difficult for India after a wonderful start. Great knock - no doubt (infact a match winning one) but he should have gracefully 'RETIRED-TIRED' instead of hobbling about making it impossible to take even easy singles with gambhir - getting the asking rate from 6 to 7.5....(getting Ganguly to run for you is like 'out of the frying pan, into the fire' )
3. India's most economical bowler - powar had one over to spare when he made tendulkar and Yuvi bowl the last two???agarkar ofcourse wasn't in the race anyway since India played 3 bowlers (see point 1)
4. hats off to you uthappa - the last 2 balls of the match were the most intelligent pc of batting i've ever seen. Both the balls were pretty similar from Broad(right up there as they should be) but the way he used the field placings to improvise those boundaries makes me rate these 8 runs of 2 balls higher then the 30 of 5 by mascheranas.
Lavneet Gyani
New Delhi
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:( I hate pesky server problems...
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:( I hate pesky server problems...
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What a match!
Had it not been for Dravid's poor captaincy, this match would not have been as exciting. Dimi is a fantastic player and England should persist with him. Agarkar should have been an obvious choice for the final over. If the selectors want to persist with Agarkar (they do not neccessarily have to), he should not open the bowling and should come up the batting order. One should not forget that he is a very good death bowler and also the fact that he has scored a century at Lords (in a test match). He should be brought in as a first or may second change bowler, when the field is a little bit spread around. Batting,.... well..if he is playing as an allrounder in the team, then they should try and give him more chance for him to prove his batting. It's obvious he can't bat under too much pressure. And then the questions, despite all his weaknesses, why persist with him?
I am only commenting on Agarkar, as he seems to be the only weak link in this team and in all fairness Pathan would have been a much better choice. But for some reason Pathan has been kept out of this team, reasons only known to Vengsarkar. Look at England selection policy, they persisted with Bell despite below par performances in the past and now he is delivering. Australians think that Shane Watson is their quest for an allrounder and they keep persisting with him (whenever he is fit!) despite some mediocre performances.
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Very interesting article!!
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I have to question the captaincy. With eight runs needed of just four balls, why was the field set to stop the singles? So frustrating.
England needs some dynamic thinking in the field.
And why oh why is the wicket keeper standing behind the stumps at that late stage. Too many boundaries were given away with balls that missed the bat, the stumps and the the keepers gloves.
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one thing is for sure, i think englands future is a lot brighter than india's.
sachin, ganguly and dravid might not be at the next world cup. if they wont be, they might as well retire now instead of 2 years down the line so help blood youngsters like england are doing with broad, bopara, wright, mascheranas, cook, etc.
if sachin, ganguly and dravid are at the next world cup then it will probably not be good for the indian team as they will be too old and an indian selector will not have the guts to drop them.
india might win the series, but i know which team has a better future.
agree with the comments about england being a bowler short. need 3 genuine seamers and not 2. however they need to learn to kill off games. however the learning experience will be invaluable for these young guys. bopara vs SL in Antigua, broad vs india at old trafford and yesterday is great learning for such young talented guys.
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What a match!
Had it not been for Dravid's poor captaincy, this match would not have been as exciting. Dimi is a fantastic player and England should persist with him. Agarkar should have been an obvious choice for the final over. If the selectors want to persist with Agarkar (they do not neccessarily have to), he should not open the bowling and should come up the batting order. One should not forget that he is a very good death bowler and also the fact that he has scored a century at Lords (in a test match). He should be brought in as a first or may second change bowler, when the field is a little bit spread around. Batting,.... well..if he is playing as an allrounder in the team, then they should try and give him more chance for him to prove his batting. It's obvious he can't bat under too much pressure. And then the questions, despite all his weaknesses, why persist with him?
I am only commenting on Agarkar, as he seems to be the only weak link in this team and in all fairness Pathan would have been a much better choice. But for some reason Pathan has been kept out of this team, reasons only known to Vengsarkar. Look at England selection policy, they persisted with Bell despite below par performances in the past and now he is delivering. Australians think that Shane Watson is their quest for an allrounder and they keep persisting with him (whenever he is fit!) despite some mediocre performances.
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Doesn't Mascarenhas look like Jayasurya? I wonder if anybody else noticed?
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Can't get better than this. hope the lord's one day is a cracker... what has happened to Pieterson. Anybody tell.
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A great game of cricket displaying an exhibition of skills that only the very top players can execute. There are many comments stating that Robin was lucky to see india through via the edge of his bat but on the other hand shah should have been out to Powar if it had not been to a poor umpiring decision. I think india will get complacement in the final and england will win it because they are stronger mentally. India need to bring in RP or Munaf for Agarker but both are lesser fielders when compared to agarker therefore we might still see Dravid persisting with Agarker. C'mon india!
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What this series is proving is that it doesn't matter what the standard of cricket on show - if it's competitive and close it's entertaining and compelling. Because let's face it; a couple of batsmen aside, this is pretty poor 50 overs cricket. Against India's bowling yesterday Australia would have scored in excess of 400 and might even have topped 500.
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Sameer you are right, Mascarenahas looks quite like Jayasuriya. In fact, It is a typical Sri Lankan look, well, his parents are Sri lankan anyway. Mascarenahas not only looks like Jayasuriya, but bats like him too.
But the pity is, they'll drop him again when Bopara is fit.
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To Marc Yates post # 76.
The following taken from one of indias newspaper. Can you get more balanced than this.
And Surely after what Collingwood appeared to do in the last one dayer(block the ball from the view of the bowler to take one return catch) and this one in particular is he playing in the right spirit?
==============
The unselfish Collingwood responded, but was edged out by the Karthik-Dhoni combine at the striker鈥檚 end.
The Indians appealed. Hartley ran in to fix the bails. In other words, he had negated the appeal.
Former England opener and coach David Lloyd, a qualified umpire, told The Hindu, 鈥淓ffectively, he (Collingwood) was run out by the big screen! But the rules clearly say that the umpire can change his decision before the bowler sets off for the next delivery. So the umpire in question was well within his rights.鈥
Losing his cool
Collingwood, normally calm and collected, appeared to lose his cool for once, arguing his case with Hartley. He was a disgruntled man as he returned to the pavilion.
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shahid shah - on what grounds do we need more ODIs?
It took 6 before we had what might be termed as a good game of cricket, and it was only close because of freakish hitting by Mascarenhas, otherwise India would have won at a canter.
One day cricket is like the penalty shootout in football, a quick thrill of excitement that appeals to those who don't truly understand the sport they are watching.
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Great game of cricket. Both teams gave their 100% and it is sad to see one team loose. However, going by the comments made in this blog about Dravid's captaincy, among others, prompts me to say my piece.
Agaarkar...that eternal enigma...failed once again leaving his Captain no choice but to turn to part timers. This is brutal and total lack of commitment by a senior player, especially when the team goes in with four bowlers. Rahul's reasoning (as he expressed in the post match interview) was correct that his medium pacers (he was too polite to say "pacer") were going for quite a bit of runs and that he took a gamble. Well, every captain is faced with having to make such tough choices once in a while. Also, if you look at the 48th over, Yuvi conceded only 9 runs. So, considering how he bowled to both the batsmen, Rahul was justified in reposing his faith (considering he had Agaarkar as an alternative) in Yuvi. The only thing that made me frown was to see Powar having one more over. But then, you need some one who can bowl faster and flatter for the final over than some one who can loop the ball and give the batsman all the time in the world to tonk you over.
Just imagine if Yuvi's final over produced a couple of wickets. The reaction would have been the opposite. Anyhow, I thought if even a couple more dot balls of that over, India would have wrapped up the match with plenty to spare.
About performances: Great batting by (my favorite) Ian Bell, Pieterson, Shah, Wright and Dimi. However, a word of caution about these players and their form to my fellow English cricket supporters. Please do not go overboard in your adulation about your inform players. Just keep in mind that they were batting against just one world class bowler and the rest probably from a club side. Besides Zaheer (who correctly proved where Cook belonged in the last three games), none of the Indian bowlers are in the same class as a Pollock, Lee, Akthar, Asif, Vaas, Muralitharan and co. So, let me caution you again. Do not go over board in dreaming of a great English cricket future, based on these performances against such a weak bowling attack. You will get to see wheat from chaff when they go to Sri Lanka.
Words fall short to describe the style, class and substance of the Indian batsmen. Sachin and Saurav are getting younger by the day and their hunger for success is quite evident. What a masterclass from these masters? Poetry is what their batting is. Beauty is what their timing is and perfection is their placement. I have never enjoyed their batting more. Not sure what is it about England, but it sure seems to bring out the best out of these two. I can only wait and pray that Rahul bats at #3 so he too can dazzle us lesser mortals.
I will reserve my judgement about Robin, as I have seen too many one match wonders. I sincerely pray that this young man succeeds. It was a great comeback game for Broad (my second most favorite) from the walloping he got in the last game. Dimis sixes....welll, read what I said about India's bowling above. So, no big deal.
Finally, it was awesome to see India outfield England. Wow. what a turn around! Sure some one from Indian team management was reading this blog.
Looking forward to a cracker of a match on saturday. The momentum is firmly with India and England may have conceded the psychological point. But, this is a game of great uncertainities. Good luck to both.
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Why wasn't Mascarenhas declared out after the 1st "SIX" he hit ??? The ball was caught in the field of play ... it was under total control of the fielder ... the ball never touched the ground ... the fielder did touch the boundry marker as he slid. But then ... it should have been a FOUR ... not a SIX !!!
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WAS MASCARENHAS OUT?
yes I think he was. The ball was caught and the fielder was in total control.
Secondly, if it went beyond this, it had to be ruled a four and not a six. The umpiring has been questionable all the way through. Hopefully it holds good for the last match. Your comments please...........
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Agger, I read your every blog with great interest. I always try to see your take on the match and compare with what I think. I never miss your articles.
Here is my few pennies...
1. Great debut for Mr. Wright. We will see plenty from the young fellow. Wasn't he suppose to be bowling in the lesser mold of Flintoff? I would love to see him bowl few overs and show that he can bowl useful overs.
2. Mascarenhas is proving to be a lusty hitter like Jayasurya. Aren't they related as some distant cousins or at least neighbor. He could prove a useful arsenal at the disposal of his captain. I think Warne was right at touting him highly.
3. Why India still has buried Agarkar along with nuclear waste deep underground so that he would not appear again? I think RP Singh is the man to turn to. He was excellent in test. He did well in one dayers before, so why not?
4. Dravid is showing cracks in his leadership and team selections.
Till next game, caio from great apple, New York
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The fielder did not have the ball under control as he was still sliding after he caught it. When he touched the boundry rope the ball still hadn't touched the floor so it counted as a 6.
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Ajith agarkar should be replaced with Sreesant minus the tantrums. Dravid is a great batsman but I have doubts about the leadership role.
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We should thank Rahul Dravid for his captaincy blunders which made the game interesting:-) Had he not given the last over to Yuvraj, the game would have been an easier and less exciting win for India. But Dravid almost gave it away. Just like the blunder in the test match, where he settled for a draw rather than a win by not enforcing the follow-on. The team won today despite their captain!!!
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England missed Flintoff, India would have never reached the total had he been playing esp aft the last over from Yuvi. Dravid's captaincy sucks, Agarkar's selection is a million dollar mystery.
Awesome cricket from Wright, Dangerenous, Robin.
KP and Dhoni were a big disappointment this series either both of them are burdened with the fame or with the new responsibility (Vice Captain for OID's and Captain for 20-20).
Wright opening can be very very bad news for India with erratic sub standard useless Agarkar opening for India.
Lastly about your article, disappointed, nothing about Sachin's innings or how valuable Gambhir's contributions were.
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Just a fantastic match and what limited overs cricket should always be like. Both sides played remarkably well, with big scores and great bowling (you would think these are mutually exclusive). The whole series has been the cricket to watch this Summer. Usually, I'm more of a 5 day test man, but I've really enjoyed this seven match series, despite the fact I thought there should have been a 5 match series and one extra test. So, we have a decider on Saturday and win or lose, England have done themselves proud with the young ones coming to the fore. I wish this team had been available for the World Cup.
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100% agree with Shankar, we heard so little about the Indian openers and considering the quality of Sachin's innings, i expected about 5 lines just for a description on Tendulkar's innings.
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i find it quite amusing that all of you are giving a piece of your mind to Dravid, telling what he did wrong , how can he improve. i mean comeon, how many of you can hold the bat, how many of you are captains, sod the captaincy, even a team leader. i doubt if its very many. its interesting how every indian supposter has such an insight about cricket that they know more than batters, more than bowlers, more than captain and coaches, whereby all these have litterally done nothing but played the game compared to all you guys who wasted thier lives sitting in front of TV wathcing these very same players.
why dont you just enjoy the game and keep your dimwitted comments to yourself. because you will never be able to comprehend the position and situation thet Dravid is in every game because you will NEVER be able to get there.
so show some respect to the guy who bears responsibilty of repesenting one billion Mr know it all`s.
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Sorry if covered previously, but strange incident with Collingwood's dismissal when the third umpire seemed to be making the decision via the TV screen (unasked originally).
No sure what the rules are here, but caused some pretty heated discussions on the pitch at the time.
Surely the TV replays should only be shown if asked for?
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At 03:08 PM on 06 Sep 2007, Eddie wrote: The fielder did not have the ball under control as he was still sliding after he caught it. When he touched the boundry rope the ball still hadn't touched the floor so it counted as a 6.
If the fielder was on the air when he touched the ball then it should have been a SIX. In what happened the umpires/3rd umpire/referee goofed up. Simple. It must have been a FOUR.
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At 03:08 PM on 06 Sep 2007, Eddie wrote:
If the fielder was on the air when he touched the ball then it should have been a SIX. In what happened the umpires/3rd umpire/referee did the wrong call. It must have been a FOUR.
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I am glad they dropped Karthik. Don't think he would have led India to victory.
Agarkar's face and body language has "struggling" written all over. I bet RP Singh could score more runs than him. We already know he can bowl better.
England is going to have a great future in One-day cricket. Not sure about test cricket.
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what an amazing match!
i hope india win @ lord's as it will give them the confidence when they face sri lanka and aussies on their tour in australia this winter. its about time the india play well ouside their home turf. i hope this is not a one off, and india continue to perform like this. the introduction of young blood into the team with a few experienced players to guid them is a key to their success.
go india go
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, Alan Johnson wrote: Sorry if covered previously, but strange incident with Collingwood's dismissal when the third umpire seemed to be unasked originally.
This has happened not for the first time. When there is a delay in play after somthing like that i have seen 3rd umpires call the two out there in the middle.
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Re: Dimi's first six. I refer you to the laws of cricket:
4. Fielder within the field of play
(b) 6 runs shall be scored if a fielder
(i) has any part of his person touching, or grounded beyond, the boundary when he catches the ball.
(ii) catches the ball and subsequently touches the boundary or grounds some part of his person over the boundary while carrying the ball but before completing the catch.
It was ruled that he did not have control of the ball so therefore it had to be called a six.
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people who are whining abt collingwoods dismissal....if i remember right pieterson was given out by umpires in the test series (caught by dhoni when ball touched the ground)...but when the umpire saw his mistake ..he did call pieterson back...so lets say things even out...and it was a fair call anywyas...lets stop whining and enjoy some good cricket
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Of course Mascarenhas wasn't out. If the fielder had the ball under control he wouldn't have fallen onto the boundry. There was a similar incident (can't remember who against) when KP caught the ball, had it in his grasp for a couple of seconds but couldn't stop himself stepping over the boundry.
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To be the best you need a FINISHER and India never had one. There best ever (S, S, D) are also not good finishers at tense situations. So if India finds a finisher as clinical as Robin, it will be a huge boost for them, as they will be able to compete for the TOP SPOT, they are eyeing for such long.
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Whatever happons on saturday. England have done better than all of us thought they would do. we all fought india would of won ages ago
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Why Ajith Agarkar is still playing?
Agarkar is being pushed into the team by some top official and few top players. His cricket merit cannot be the cause, he goes away but like a roach shows up again in the squad.
Someone like Ravi Shastri, still claims that Agarkar is an all rounder. What the heck - India is a 10 men team. Agarkar adds one to the opposition.
I guess, Agarkar will be playing for India.
until, the left wing in New Delhi takes this as an issue against ruling Congress Govt.
Agarkar, the new word for Mediocre
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I have been really disappointed with Kevin Pietersen in this ODI series. He just hasn't performed with the bat and his fielding is at times just not good enough for international cricket.
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ANY TOURING TEAM COMES TO ENGLAND AND GIVEN A CHOICE.OK YOU HAVE POOR CAPTAIN[DRAVID]MANY OLD PLAYERS[SCHIN,SARAV,RAHUL]BUT YOU WILL GO BACK HOME WINNING A TEST SERIES,HAVING ENGLAND ON BACK FOOT IN 2ND AND 3RD TEST.3-3 IN SEVEN ODIS.I THINK THEY WOULD SAY YES AND GRAB THE OPERTUNITY WITH BIG SMILE.SO INDIA IS A BETTER SIDE......................
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Indians are rocking!!
England and its captain must be in deep dipression after loosing with 316 on board!!
What elase they can do to stop India?
what ever may be the result in the final match...Indians must be very happy to beat england in their home in test series and 3-3 in one day matches.
For dravid,saurav and thye GREAT sachin,they will be playing for the last time in their lifes at lords!!watch out !!
Go India Go!!
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What a finish, for a moment I thought I was watching the Natwest Series Final 2002. Same good start, another middle-later order fumble and an excellent finish. India has comeback in the last 2 games due to a true feedback of experience by senior players and fightback by the youngsters.
What really bothers me is hopefully, we are not getting back on relying on Sachin-Ganguly combination to give us good platforms. Plus Freddie was out, which I think could have been a decisive factor in England's score and India's run chase.
Anyway, cannot wait for Saturday!!
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Even as an Indian it's sad to see KP missing out in such matches. I really really love the aggression and batting style of Pieterson..... That guy is a real gem .... how can you english be wanting to throw him out, I just think this series is jinxed for him
I still fear Pieterson might hold the key to the results of the final match.
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Inall fairness, Flintoff may have given some problems to Indian batsmen. But then Dravid forgets captaincy sometimes by asking Yuvraj to bowl the last over, when regular bowlers are languishing
As Ponting says, if your regular bowler cannot deliver, why pick them - Agarkar is a puzzle - shines once every 4 matches, drops catches, and scores 1 and 2
why we need this guy?
Uthappa, my God sense finally prevailed in the Indian selection team - what an innings
Ravi Bala
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To Peter message 63
You said:
' Great game. But why are most of these posts from India fans (most of whom are probably British nationals in any case)? some bias by the politically correct 大象传媒 perhaps? bring on Saturday - lets hope its a as good as this one'
I'm sorry to annoy you but I am a British born Indian supporting India.....this is not to say I don't support England otherwise.
Your comment is bitterness at the highest level. This blog is open to anyone, are you suggesting British Indians should not be allowed to give their opinion? or perhaps pretend we actually are supporting England.
To actually think that the 大象传媒 is some how displaying more Indian supporter's comments is beyond belief.
I'm afraid without the comments of BOTH supporters, this blog would hardly be as interesting.
If you want to just see English supporter's opinions, how about not using this blog.
I will be there at Lords and can't wait- (by the way, I bought these tickets when we were 3-1 down) I think whoever wins this has been a fantastic advertisment for cricket.
Lets remember this is a SPORT and a person should be able to support whoever he or she wants.
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This is one of the most ridiculous pieces of captaincy that I have seen from the Indian captain Dravid. Having Yuvraj Singh bowl the last over !!!!
Secondly, I don't understand the point in picking up Agarkar - He has given more than 6 runs an over in almost all the one days. I think Indian selectors and Dravid should think about calling either Sreesanth or Munaf Patel for the one days too - having Agarkar makes no sense at all. He is supposed to be a batter too but guess what - scores of 11, 1, 6, and 1 in the 4 innings that he has batted in don't show that.
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I am a Sri Lankan cricket fan live in USA. Yes I love Sri Lanka and am an English Cricket fan too .
England can come back and win the final match. Go England. I always liked English Cricket.
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Another wonderful game and everything set up for an exciting finale.
The success of any blog is the number of people who participate, so you can feel very satisfied Aggers. You have proved to be just provocative and forgetful enough to get everyone involved!
Whoever wins on Saturday -- hopefully England -- this series will be long remembered. As a OD team, England have come back from the dead and the enforced selection of members of the "B" team has shown that there is much more depth in the squad than anyone suspected. Almost all of them have done a damn good job and the excitement created by Shah, Wright and Mascarenhas in the second part of the England innings was something we have been deprived of for too long.
At Lords, we need to win the toss, put 350 on the board and watch India self-destruct. If India bat first, it might not be quite so simple.
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Dhoni and Robin can be a deadly combination if they play to their potential and stick to the basic (First get the feel of the ball/Bounce and adjust accordingly).In cricket most of the time low of average comes to play. If Indian's can take a leaf from Australian cricket. Then they can do it. England has a pretty good unit. Wish Flintoff and Sidebottom could play for the final. Even though I'm an Indian fan. I want to see full strength England in action. At Lords England may be having advantage. Anderson may be a handful over there. So England definitely has an advantage over there. They have better fielding/Swing attack.Zaheer, RP sing along with the New Delhi pacer they have to produce some thing very special and have to get their acts right to restrict English Batting order. If Indians can stick to the basic and can manage and pace their innings some what to their plan of action they can do it. I want to wish both the teams all the luck. Hope we will have a great show @ Lords.
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Englands ability to lose games that they could win continues to give me tremendous joy...as does their form over the past, say 10years. Like the All Blacks the English cricket team are chokers and havent been ably led since...Atherton probably. Nasser Hussain - what a joke?! and as for the current bloke...whats his name...you know the back stabber - get rid of him. When are England going to stand up and be counted? When are they going to play like men instead of whimpering like schoolboys? Schoolboys with jellybeans. Perhaps the motivation for vitory could be a Knighthood...it appears your majesty hands them out like a croupier dealing cards in a casino. Remember Sir Clive Woodward...another joke. Englad dominated once upon a time with strong leadership and fighters...Botham, Gower even Derek Randall would stick around for hours and despite his measly scores he showed spirit. I think that England needs a coach & slectors that arent going to blow smoke up each other's backsides and help make cricket against England enjoyable to watch. One off performances arent good enough England!
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re harry jethwa
interested by your comment that any touring team would be happy with what India has achieved in England this summer. Well can i point out one that would not - australia. australia has won 4 out of the last 5 test series played in england. Ok last time it was defeat, but then our boys had to face the full force of harmison, flintoff, jones and hoggard. India edged a three match series, Australia would be looking to dominate that side.
You can not afford to be happy with this performance, it was fine but hardly awe inspiring. Teams must push themselves. Cricket needs someone to be able to compete with australia, i thought it would be england, but their team seems to be constantly changing. As for India, they need much, much better bowlers. There's no pace or real quality in that attack.
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Will someone please read this comment and pass the information to the decision makers?
Adam Gilchrist is a one-off in 120 years of Test cricket. Picking batsmen to keep wicket only makes you look foolish.
Opening the batting is a specialist job. Sticking your "wicketkeeper" in as an opener, especially after he has been keeping for 50 overs with a break fore-shortened by a slow over-rate, is as Boycott might say, just plain daft However fit you are, it takes a while to get the legs moving, and the footwork suffers.
Prior finds himself as tha last recognised batsman in Tests, and has to suddenly switch to a specialist opener in one-dayers. If he gets a game for Sussex he is in the middle order. Is it any wonder his batting form is erratic?
India's bowling is poor and their fielding woeful yet they are level at 3-3, partly because we can't score runs during the power plays. Alistair Cook is not a one-day opener, nor is Prior, who could do some damage down the order, but so could one or two of our real wicketkeepers.
I thought once Duncan Fletcher went that things had to change but nothing has. We still occasionally leave Monty out, and it usually backfires.
If you pay attention to your bowling and fielding first, the batting falls into place. Trescothick is missed more as a first slip than for his batting. Remember the Gloucestershire side of a few seasons ago? Demons in the field, keeper standing up to opening left-armer, but difficult to name their top-order batsmen.
Cricket only evolves due to the introduction of rule changes like power plays and legside deliveries being called wides. In essence it hasn't changed for a hundred years. Bowling wins matches and batting saves natches and it will always be so.
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If England win the series,they should give Agarkar the Man of the Series Award.
If Agarkar plays,India will enter the final ODI with 3 bowlers and England will have advantage of Agarkar playing as a batsman for England.i.e with 12 players.
Those of you saying Agarkar takes wickets,dont forget anyone can take wickets if the bowling is lollypop , but wickets are a more a result of batters greed for more runs of the lollypop bowler . If you leave aside statistics and watch Agarkars wickets most of his wickets are when the batsman is trying to hit him for a 3rd boundary or even if he manages to get a wicket by a good ball ,he gives 2 hit-me balls soon after..spoiling all the good work and relieving pressure.
I just pray to God Agarkar twists his ankle or gets flu or gets injured a day before the final.
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It was a great match indeed, but look at the team composure, England is full of youngsters and Indian team is loaded with experience. If someone to sum of the total games played by 22 players, Indians have 1700+ games against 450+ of English team. India has to win, to keep the reputation of awesome 3 intact. They have done it. England has given Indians few sleepless nights, England is banking on the youngsters to deliver while India on the experience but it needs the young guns to fire. India will win the Lords game.
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What an excellent ODI i HAVE EVER WITTNESSED.gREAT CRICKET,BOTHY TEAM played to their potential.The match was stretched to the wires after England posted a huge total on the board.
England posted an immpresive and huge total of 316 while batting first.They were in trouble during their proceeding when some mix ups really brought them on the mats.But, Shah and Wright really played good cricket and ensured that their team got close to 300 runs mark.Then ,a batsman came ,I do not remember the name,he smashed 5 sixes of Yuvraj of the last over of ENGLAND innings,much to the exitement of the jam packed crowd in Oval.
India needed a good and immpresive start to really set a good foundation.Sourav and Sachin batted well in the begining and just began to accelerate.Tendulkar was really in a punishable mood ,he drove too many boundaries .India were well in the chase with 134 odd runs for no wicket in 19 overs.
But,things changed gradually when Ganguly was dissmissed and soon after Tendulkar was dissmissed when he developed cramps ,he drove one off Panesar and Collingwood took a dream catch.Tendulkar made a brilliant 94 off 81 deliveries.
Gambhir and Yuvraj came ,just tried to stick on the crease,they did well,but run rate jumped dramatically to close to 7 ,Tendulkar and Ganguly had really brought the run rate under control with their classical drives.Yuvraj was dissmissed and India were needing close to 90 odd runs in 66 deliveries.Actually,I missed some match,I took time and watched the final 66 legal deliveries.
Dhoni and Uttappa were on the crease as Gambhir also lost his wicket.Dravid and Yuvraj could not hang around at the crease for long.
The difference between balls remaing and runs required was close to 28.So,it was becoming difficult for India to really come close.But,what an entertainment to the viewers.Dhoni and R. Uttapaa did not loose temerament and cool and just began to cruise nicely.But,the NAIL BITTING encounter was it's best when India needed 42 from last 24 deliveries.
Dhoni was perished when he tried to clear a boundary, leaving India needing 23 odd runs to win off 12.But,Uttapaa played superbly and hit boundaries and brought India close .Now,India needed 10 from the last over.First ball produced 2 off the bowling of Broad.The ,a dot one which claimed Zaheer's wicket ,then,the boundary which really eased India's preasure.Now,India were needing a boundary from 3 deliveries and Uttapaa again drove close to straight and the ball ran all the way to the fence to bring India's victory.
India and England ,both the teams played an exellent cricket.
So, HEADING SHOULD BE:
INDIA CLINCHED A CLIFF HANGER ODI IN OVAL
OR
INDIA WON A NAIL BITTING ENCOUNTER IN OVAL,LONDON.
My brother also resides in London ,but he watched the match at his office.
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oops!!!!
Its far better game to watch and get excited about from both sides and I really think playing cool in last few overs where Robin shown maturity in thinking and handling the pressure well.
There are some serious concerns about Indian bowling sides and poor thinking by Dravid using the bowlers in last fifteen overs.
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Six, Four, Out, Not out????
If you are really interested in Cricket, then why not spend 50 pence and buy a copy of the MCC laws AND READ IT!
A Catch is completed when a fielder retains control of the ball AND HIS OWN PERSON while remaining WITHIN the boundary.
By sliding into the boundary rope, he was clearly NOT in control of his person.
The Ball had NOT touched the ground.
Correct ruling:-
NOT OUT
BOUNDARY SIX
The officials got it right And the sporting young fielder signaled it to the Umpire as well!!
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Aggers did you actually watch the Indian Innings! when was the last time did you see an English player (bar Vaughan) hit a ground shots for four through packed offside field! Tendulkar was simply awesome.
Maschi should be playing for Major league! Lets hope England dont drop him if he has a one or two bad games!
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Agarkar's Performance in the 5 ODI's he played in this series:
Overs - 44, Runs - 313, Wickets - 7
Hypothetically by this average if every bowler in the Indian team bowled like him in a 50 over match (and counting about 24 extras in the whole inning), England would get the following score:
Overs - 50, Runs - 380, Wickets - 7 or 8
WHY DON'T WE JUST HAND OVER THE TROPHY TO THEM RATHER THAN PERSISTING WITH AGARKAR?
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What a match! A true match of glorious uncertainties.
It was vintage Tendulkar. But we may not see more of this for long.
Roll in Saturday.
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Brilliant game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Much improved batting peformance by India(Sachin of old).
This must be taken into the final.
Their bowling definitely has to improve.
Maybe try new combinations.
An excellent all round peformance by England as well.
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I went to the headingley match and the atmosphere was superb in the wintershed with lots of good hearted banter and humour between the Indian and English supporters and it was really a good first time match for my girlfriend, she loved it! I wish I could be at Lords on Saturday!
I hope Freddie does not play unless he is 100% fit as the team at Lords was as good as England have at the moment tho I would swop Prior with Wright and have him open with Bell who is improving all the time! To drop Pieterson is just stupid as his poor showing has been more from bad luck than bad playing. Looking forward to tomorrow it will be a cracker..........so long as England win the toss and the openers make 100no!
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How is Mascarenhas not in the 20/20 squad? he's would be in the top 10 all time best 20/20 bolwers in county cricket, according to the stats... and with hitting like that! it is an utter joke that he is not there! the english selecters need there heads read! im am very frustrated by this... everyone can see he should be there.. why cant they? shot them all.
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AS AN ENGLISH CRICKET LOVER LIVING IN AUSTRALIA I HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING THE ENGLISH CRICKET RESULTS, AND IT HAS BEEN A MYSTERY TO ME WHY MARK RAMPRAKASH IS NOT IN THE TEST SIDE, HE HAS BEEN MOST CONSISTENT THIS SEASON IN COUNTY CRICKET, MAKEING MANY HIGH SCORES,AND ALSO A FINE FIELDER, ENGLAND NEED A MIDDLE ORDER BATTER LIKE MARK THAT CAN BAT FOR LONG PERIODS AND GET BIG SCORES / REGARDS JACK ROBERTS.
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England are showing themselves to be a very strong team.
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England are showing themselves to be a very strong team.
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what is point of playing this series if 2 of indias best plyers namely sachin is always getting bad deciscions from umpires....its not as if he is a number 10 or 11 batsman.. the edge is taken out of the game if your best player is time and again given wrongly out.
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Freddie Flintoff, an extremely good bowler, continues to benefit from umpire errors and get prize scalps of top Indian batsmen. Those 5 wickets were not really his. At Lords, the wickets of Tendulkar and Dravid too were wrong decisions though both the balls were very good. It really does not feel that he has earned them and we our victory if we win at Lords. Leaves a sour taste in the mouth a feeling of bad sportsmanship. Is winning the only objective now? We need that referral system quickly!
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congratulations to our terrific one day side for putting India firmly in their place.What a victory! No doubt all the moaning Indian supporters will once again be blaming' poor 'umpiring decisions.Get a life!
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