After watching a CRAZY tied match between India & England, well, there is lots and lots to say. If I was commentating like Ravi Shastri, I would have said "In the end, cricket was a winner".
- Virender Sehwag's edgy start. Should have been out 3 times in the 1st over. Wasn't and helped the team get off to a flier.
- Sachin Tendulkar's brilliant century. And seeing him hit those big sixes off Swann was special. The best one though was the first one off Collingwood and here is what Cricinfo had to say about it, 17.4Collingwood to Tendulkar, SIX, the ball was straight, but the bat much straighter. Tendulkar with one, simple movement has lifted this over the bowler's head and straight into the advertising boards. First six of the match, made to look indecently easy
- Tim Bresnan was brilliant in the end. And he was in my Fantasy League team along with SRT.
- Munaf Patel ran out Zaheer trying to take an impossible second run, after having run the first one short. A little thing but in the proved decisive.
- Forget Sehwag, this time around even the entire team could not bat out the 50 overs.
- At the halfway stage, it seemed India would romp home but our bowling attack (sorry, wrong word) just wasn't there for most of the England innings.
- Strauss played an innings hardly expected from him or in general any English batsman for that matter. But Zaheer's yorker took him out.
- Ian Bell (the hero of this blog) was playing fine till he got a cramp. Also involved in a bizarre decision review. Started walking off on seeing the replay but umpire stood by his original decision and gave him Not Out on a technicality.
- The Batting Powerplay seriously scares the Batting side. India lost their way a bit, while the English almost lost the match.
- And when the Indians seemed to have the match under control, a flurry of sixes from Swann, Bresnan & Shahzad sealed a tie.
- England nearly choked. Well, with so many South Africa born players in their ranks, what else could we expect.
- India & England both have a good batting and pathetic bowling lineups. Not sure how longer they can go on with this.India's in particular starts and ends with Zaheer, the rest are just kind of running through the motions.
- The "Movies Now" channel was showing all 6 Rocky movies. Manged to catch quite a bit of action in between overs. Just wondering how awesome it would have been to watch the match with the Rocky theme on rather than the cliched commentary.
In the end I can say this was probably the best match of the past 3 world cups. The best since Edgbaston 1999, another tied match.
And a day earlier, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka in another close game further strengthening my belief of Pakistan as a dark horse for winning the Cup. Still a long way to go.
Now over to some boring matches from tomorrow. Predictions Zimbabwe & West Indies to win.
sir shane warne predicted this result just before da match in his tweets
ReplyDeleteTendulkar's straight six off Collingwood was the most pleasing to watch aesthetically. But my favourite were the two-in-a-row to Swann immediately when he came for his second spell.
ReplyDeleteThose were not sixes... they made a statement! They told Andrew Strauss that I do not think anything of the best bowler you have... do what you can!
So Strauss eventually did what he could! He made his own statement while batting... telling Dhoni that I do not think anything of your entire bowling attack... do what you can!
At the end, I would have to say that it was a tremendous match that could have gone on a different path but for the silly Billy!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't think this was the best match of the world cup, even though the end result may have made it look like one. It was a match of swinging fortunes from one-side to the other not because of their own brilliance, but because of the unimaginative efforts of the other side.
ReplyDeleteAfter India had scored that many runs, it was over to England for the rest of the match, as India hardly did anything on the field, except for going with the motions.England put up a brilliant chase thanks to that epic inning of Strauss, controlled the game to the point of almost winning it, then called the power play and ended up playing into the hands of a hitherto clueless India,and almost lost the match. Then again, fought back to earn a draw, which was kind of a relief to them.
This was a rare occasion where, I found Dhoni to be a mere spectator like you and me.
@Sambit Yes, Dhoni did seem clueless about his field placing most of the innings. The batting powerplay forced him to bring in the field, which sort of choked the run rate
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for stopping by here :)
Sambit, Nishant, actually the batting PP did not choke the run rate. A couple of overs had gone quietly before they opted for the Batting PP.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly, the over before the Batting PP started had gone for 2 or 3 runs only. England took the PP just when they were losing momentum, thinking that they could regain the momentum in the PP.
That was a mistake. In my opinion, the batting PP should be taken when the side already has momentum, not to create it! So just after 3 dot balls in the very first over of Batting PP, Bell threw it away.
So I don't think it was the fact that the field had come up during the Batting PP that dried English runs and caused a collapse. I think English batsmen applied the pressure on themselves by forcing themselves to score in the batting PP... in a way, taking it at the wrong time!
That's just my way of looking at it though!
Bell getting cramped up was probably the momentum turner
ReplyDeleteHi Nishant,
ReplyDeleteShridhar might have a point,the wrong timing of the powerplay has indeed done the trick. But the question to be asked now is what now? I'd like to know your opinion. Please let me know (http://hititoffwithsambit.blogspot.com/2011/03/dhoni-dilemma.html)