is the title of the post. But this is not the post I wanted to write when I started.
I wanted to write about the depth and variety that the English bowling attack possesses, their hunger after the Stanford debacle,India being emotionally spent after the departure of two of their stalwarts coupled with the draining experience that is playing Australia,the over confidence that comes in with a 2-0 defeat, the one month lag between the end of the Australia series and the first test.
In short, the be wary of England and lets not get too carried away post.
Then I saw this.
98.. Ninety Eight! N I N E T Y E I G H T!!
The England first XI for the 7 ODI set mustered ninety bloody eight runs against an attack that could charitably be called Mumbai's third XI!
And so, the be wary of England and lets not get too carried away post has been consigned to the dustbin.
Instead, I sense the best opportunity India has for a repeat of 1993. The English, already bitter over the shenanigans in Antigua, are now where we want them to be.
In the two warm up games, they have not been able to run through scratch outfits. And in the two warm up games, their batting has been scratchy ( despite Flintoff getting a hundred in the first of the warm ups).
And if India can take advantage of this, if we can beat England handily (7-0 will be ideal, 6-1 will work as well), we will be doing ourselves a huge favor leading into the first test.
With the Ranji Championships going on, the non ODI Test players can actually use the less stressful environs that is domestic cricket to maintain or work up form leading into the Tests.
And with 7 ODIs, India can actually rotate its bowling stocks to keep the first and second lines of attacks ready for the 2 Test series.
We have the opportunity, are we willing?
Are we ready to be millionaires?
PS:- "Who wants to be a millionaire?" - a nice sign to wave in the stadium to remind the English of what they lost in Antigua.. Sure to warm Kevin Pieterson's heart :)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Who wants to be a millionaire?
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10 comments:
7-0 or 6-1.. Wow!
I can't wait for the series to start.
Yeah Leela, a comprehensive victory in the one dayers will bolster our confidence going into first Test.
And a comprehensive defeat will shred whatever little confidence the English have following the debacle at Antigua and the mauling in Mumbai.
Which is exactly the way we want it going into the first test - a Kevin Pieterson beset with self doubt and team problems will be brilliant!
Because, this English team has a lot of variety in their bowling stocks and can play attritional cricket when they are on their A game..
The trick is in not getting them to play their A game.
Cheers,
england are a good team and their odi form has been pretty ok in recent times. plus they have all these fringe players that they discovered against SA.
bopara might turn a leaf on this tour.
this 98 is humiliating no matter how much kp tries to brush it off.
not good signs for eng. some of the shots played were really horrible
Which works just fine for India Damith :)
Cheers,
India should win but it will not be a walkover.
England with Flintoff are formidable. Good depth in batting. Quite a few utility players.
India must rotate players. Rest to Zaheer and Ishant is esssential.
Test the batting bench strength.
And if series is wrapped up early, may be even farewlls to SG and RD.
rgb,
I think England has better depth in bowling than batting.. Their top order is suspect with Bell and Prior not exact;y Sehwag and Gambhir..
KP and Flintoff will pose problems, as will Collingwood but England has depth and variety in its bowling and that is going to be the main threat.
About the rotation, I agree.
Cheers,
England has variety in bowling. But it is not as potent on Indian pitches as evident from today's match.
Yes, top order with Bell,Prior,Shah is suspect. May be they need to shuffle a bit. But they bat deep. Broad at 9.
If they do get close to winning a match, flash pictures of Stanford fingering on the giant screen... that will do the trick.
rgb,
I have always believed that batting wins you games, bowling wins you Championships.
If the English are a little more judicious with their team selection and paid a little more attention to the shorter versions of the game,it would make for a much tighter contest.
Cheers,
lol Scorpi.. You are a cruel man :)
Cheers,
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