The Series is now lost, do we now rest our main players in preparation for the Test matches, or is it more important to get a win underneath our belt
England lost their fourth consecutive One Day game in Bangalore on Sunday night and probably the rain saved us from chasing another mammoth total; as it was, we only lost by 20 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method. One or two of the lads look very low on confidence at the moment and also some of the planning that was going into the tactical side of the game looks awry to me.
I couldn't for the life of me fathom out what was happening when we started batting, for us to be on 20 runs for the first four overs, chasing 198 was crazy. It amazes me that with the opposition on the edge of the 30 yard circle in those powerplay overs, they are happy to give six runs away an over; there were just too many dot balls that we did not score off. Secondly, having stated before the third one day game that the captain was going to bat at number three to give the best and longest opportunity to have a knock, how during a 20 over game did he drop down the order??
Owais Shah and Andrew Flintoff gave us a sniff of victory, both playing some fantastic shots, but once the pair of them were out the asking rate was just too much for the rest of the batting order. Granted Zaheer Khan bowled a fantastic spell, but the intent of our openers and their openers also has a direct effect on their front line bowlers and our front line bowlers. I am sure our opening bowlers running in for their first ball think that if I do not get this right it is going to disappear and yesterday the first ball served up to Sehwag and was smashed over extra cover which immediately put our bowlers on the back foot. I am not sure the Indian opening bowlers are being put under the same pressure.
The Series is now lost, do we now rest our main players in preparation for the Test matches, or is it more important to get a win underneath our belt; an interesting dilemma for the selection committee.
I do believe, as Steve Harmison intimated over the weekend, playing in the IPL has certainly sharpened the game of the Indians. Many moons ago when I was a youngster playing County cricket, it certainly helped my game playing with and against the two overseas players that are allowed in county cricket. The IPL is crammed full of the world's best cricketers' and in my mind if you are worth anything as a cricketer you can not help but improve your own game, both intensity wise and skill wise by playing with and against the world's best, it's a no brainer.
Let's see what the 'think tank' come up with next, and hope we can win a game or two.