INDIA ARE THE WORLD CUP CHAMPS

WE ARE BLOODY WORLD CHAMPIONS OF CRICKET IN ODIS AND TESTS. 

WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS. 

KINGS OF THE WORLD. MOVE AWAY FOLKS, THIS IS OURS. THE WORLD CUP IS OURS. A TIGHT SLAP TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN DOUBTING THE INTEGRITY OF INDIAN CRICKET, THIS IS PROUD MOMENT FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTRY.ALL INDIANS ACROSS THE GLOBE, INDIA, USA ALL OVER COUNTRY.

WORLD CUP FOR SACHIN TENDULKAR. 

WORLD CUP FOR EVERY INDIAN. EVERY PROUD INDIAN. IT HAS TO BE A MOMENT WE AS ENTIRE NATION HAS TO BE PROUD OF. 

INDIA WOULD NEVER REJOICE LIKE IT WOULD TODAY,

INDIA ARE THE WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS.  WORLD CUP CHAMPS.

India through to the finals

What a feeling it is. To be in the world cup finals beating Pakistan for the 5th time in the world cup. Its just difficult to digest. Goosebumps in the  tummy. Butterflies flew all around, screaming and abusing was a bit low key thanks to being in the foren country.

The tension to see in the finals after 8 long years and this time go one step further to lift the cup of glory in homeland was unpalpable. All superstitions were followed. Unmoved at times when things went right for India and when runs were leaked, when wickets didnt fall. Reeling Munna and Bhajji when they leaked runs. Blowing off Kamran Akamal when he showed his stupid poker face on screen during keeping and batting was all done.

Facebooking and watching cricket has been the trend this world cup. Update the status message on FB, update stats on FB, update number crunching there and put on some superstitions like Cmonnnnnnnnnnnnnn and to see a wicket tumble moments after that was all fun. Dont have the luxury to watch on TV on any channel, so have to rely on  the ISP and host of live streaming sites to watch the action LIVE.

It all happened on a day remarkable for Indian cricket, what a day it has been. Reaching 3rd world cup final, 2nd in 8 years and almost with the same group as it was in 2003.  Sachin, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Nehra are the survivors of that match India lost in Wanderers to rampaging Ponting and co. This time its a step to go further. Win the world cup in Mumbai, the hometown of Sachin Tendulkar, country’s greatest sports icon and perhaps the best ever batsmen to play cricket in all times.

Thanks to Pakistan to turn up in India despite the hot and cold diplomatic relations, thanks to them for making the match living all the hype it had before this game even began. Thanks for them to provide us yet another opportunity to savior this victory. Beating Australia, Pakistan in the route to finals is amazing. The contests with this 2 countries have always been intense, thrilling and top quality. And Pakistan did go out in a proud fashion, forget what Misbah did in final overs, they have done their nation proud with almost flawless and mostly controversy less performance in the world cup. None expected them to come this far given what happened in past year in their build up to the world cup, so Afridi must be a proud man given how his men have delivered.

Sachin Tendulkar has played all 5 victorious games against Pakistan in World cups and he has been man of the match in 3 of them. He has scored 54, 31, 45, 98 and 85 in this 5 games. He has played with great Kapil Dev to Azhar to Jadeja, Mongia, Venkatesh Prasad and the great trio of Dravid, Ganguly and Kumble. Not to forget Javagal Srinath.

India won its first semi final at home. Previously it had lost its 2 semi finals, both chasing in 1987 to England and pretty controversially in 1996 to SL. This time India defended a 260 and won. 

The biggest turning point of the game was the dismissal of Gambhir in the 20th over which led to a mini-collapse in the 25th – 30 th over and a score of 350 became 260. Sehwag in his super assault on Umar Gul had set India on another huge total, but once he was out and the rest just went in the shell. Gambhir has been erractic this tournament. he has thrown away his wicket in almost every game. Something not expected from man of his stature.

Tendulkar was cratchy, scratchy and whatever, but his 85 set India to cross 250 and that proved to be the difference in the end.  MSD is excelling in captaincy, but his batting is concern.

What was too heartening to see was only 5 bowlers were used and everybody took 2 wkts each. Zahee was little bit off color, but he was made up by super Nehra and surprisingly Munaf.  Ashvin;s dropping was a debatable issue, but I still feel he will be a key man in the final and he should replace Munaf in the XI. Nehra got his rythm back in the 2nd spell and at helped him in the super final spell when he just gave few and got Riaz.

It was a day when the bowling and fielding excelled yet again and the batting was iffy.

In the end Younis and Misbah combined together to stall the stanis chase and its likely that this guys wont be part of the LoI set up in the future.  Misbah is test captain, but then who knows what happen in Pak cricket. The others — Shafiq, Hafeez and UKumal didnt quite turnup to play long innings that could have won their team this game. Yet they came this far and thats applaudable.

For a change there was no sledging this time and there was no “war cry” on the ground at least.  Expecting Pak to react to this loss graciously back their home and not call for the people’s head who featured in this tournament. They’ve got some very good positives in form of Riaz, Shafiq etc and once they are given chances they could come up as well finished product.

But for now lets savior the superb Indian victory and rally behind them to trounce the cheats of the world to avenge the painful defeats of 2007 and 1996. Lets burn the Lanka this time in Mumbai 8 months before the Dusshera festival.

India vs Pakistan Preview

Finally, the big day is here.

India vs Pakistan in a World Cup semi final.

Doesnt get bigger than this.  All talks of pressure, mind games, history, cricket diplomacy, Punjabiyat, bhaichara and all would vanish in the thin air once the 2 captains walk out for the toss and the national anthems are played. After that all and sundry shall pave the way for 22 players who shall slug it out in the middle for the glory moment of the day.

Doesnt matter what Misbah said or what Rehman Malik said and backtracked. Doesnt matter what MMS and Gilani shall eat or drink or pee after the game or during the game. WHat shall matter is the battle between the bat and the ball.

4 previous wins are good to hold the psychological edge but only till the start of the game. The chaos, reputations, processes, areas, pre match talks, campaigns thus far would all cease to be important for the heroes of the 2 countries.

India’s batting vs Pakistan bowling. Its a contest that has been billed as such.

Its more of the team which handles the pressure the BEST, the team which holds the NERVE BEST, the team which wins small chunks of plays in the entire 100 overs of the day shall prevail in the end. And its going to be INDIA who shall be expected to do this in Mohali, their best modern day ground.

Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh are the key men for Indian batting. Kohli, Raina and MS shall look to carry forth the work done by the top 4.  Zaheer Khan would be the key for the bowling. But it shall depend more on who is the support  cast for Zak. Will Harbhajan turn up? Would Ashvin fox the stanis ? Especially Kamran, Hafeez and Shafiq ?

Who shall tbe the 2nd seamer? Munaf or Neehra ?

Neehara should the one who should get a look in before Munaf now.

What shall Pakistan do ? Will they get in Shoaib or continue to operate with Umar Gul and Riaz? How many catches would Kakkumal drop? How shall Afridi, the bowler do? He has got pretty ordinary record against India and so has Umar Gul. Would they field Junaid Khan who had a word or 2 to say on Sachin?

Its all about who handles the pressure on Wednesday better. But before that the skies should remain clear.

The predictions are:

 

Wed Mar 30
09:00 GMT | 14:30 Local           05:00 EDT | 04:00 CDT | 02:00 PDT	India v Pakistan at Mohali, ICC Cricket World Cup, 2nd Semi-Final	17 – 30° C Forecast Sunny Click here for 10-day-Forecast

Not sure how ToI or NDTV has reported rain showers.

But here could be the possible lineups:

India :

1. Tendulkar

2. Sehwag

3. Gambhir

4. Yuvraj

5. Dhoni

6. Kohli

7. Raina

8. Ashvin

9. Harbhajan

10. Neehra

11. Zaheer

Pakistan:

1. Kakmal

2. Hafeez

3. Shafiq

4. Younis

5. Umarkamal

6. Misbah

7. Afridi

8. Rehman

9. Razzaq

10. Gul

11. Riaz / Akhtar

Will Gambhir raise his game against Pakistan?  Will MS find form against Pakistan and will Yuvraj continue his golden run in this world cup ?

And moreover shall we avenge 2007 and 1996 ? All answered tomorrow in PCA ground @ 230 PM IST

Dear Shahid Afridi

Shahid Afridi, welcome to Mohali. The super ground in Indian Punjab. You shall be playing semi final against India on 30th March, 2011 in that ground. 

We heard that you’ve said that you wont be short of support in Mohali? Are you banking on few Pakistanis who shall travel to India on visas and then disappear and never return? Or are you talking of few fools who cheered for Pakistan in those dark Sharjah days? Or do you feel India is still under pressure when it comes to play Pakistan ? 

I am not sure if you have arrived in Punjab or are yet to arrive or will not arrive. You are arriving in a country which has blown hot and cold over the diplomatic relations for different reasons. So given that backdrop, shall you arrive? Shall your board let you arrive without the drama and idiotic statements? Shall you keep quiet and let your play do the talk? 

I am curious to know when you say you would not be lacking support. Who shall support your team? Thats troubling me. India has gone past those days when there were few, very few who blew crackers on a Pakistani win in Sharjah. Gone are those days, that mindset and moreover  those set of players from your country. Now the players you’ve got are mad, idiots, clowns and jokers. Lunatic as Ian Chappell and Intikhan Alam calls them.

Do you think you are gonna stop Indians with the bowlers like Abdul Razzaq, Abdul Rehman and Wahab Riaz ? And yes Hafeez too? Do you think K Akamal would be able to pouch anything in his butery gloves  that day? You are most welcome in India after 2007. But come and play. Dont give mad statements. There is no pressure on India. Pressure is on Pakistan. They shall play before a crowd who shall want the men in blue to steamroll them and go through to the finals.

Are you ready to handle it ?

India’s through to the semifinals

Australia’s World cup run has ended. And in what a style. India was the team who did it. They have twice ended their run of 17 tests wins and now 12 years of unbeaten World cup run has been ended by the team called India. 

None gave India the chance to beat Australia today given the way they played in the league games. League games saw India taking few games easy and most of the experts called India a undeserving favorites. 

India has never thumped minnows. Thats Lankan speciality. India is known to beat big teams. Australia to be precise. The quality that two teams produce is of highest order. No half measures. Emotions run high, banters and everybody gives more than 100%. 

Everybody within the 2 teams want to win and not give an inch to the other team. And probably thats the reason why Tests or ODIs between this 2 teams are sparkling and intense. 

Today’s game was no different. It saw Ricky Ponting ending his century draught. It saw Indians fielding the best in the entire tournament. It saw MSD handling his bowlers too well and rarely earning plaudits from the pundits in the commentary box. 

Tendulkar was at his imperious best before walking yet again. Gambhir was furious when he was out run out in the 3rd attempt, but that was his fault. Yuvraj replied to his anger saying he is not Viru and  they havent batted together that much. Point taken. 

India committed harakiri but then Yuvraj the man came to the fore yet again. What a world cup he is having. 341 runs and 12 wickets with 4 MoM awards. He is India’s man of the moment. Not too long ago his commitment was questioned and so was his place and attitude. He’s replied to every one those who questioned him. 

Virat Kohli continues to be an ass finding newer ways to get out. MSD continued his wretched run and when he departed at 187 the match was boiling towards Aussies but then in came Raina and the next 2 overs that got us 27 runs changing the equation dramatically in India’s favor. 

Think about the commitment of Bret Lee. He was injured on head just above left / right eye and yet he bowled last 2 overs. He wanted to win it. But India had some other plans.  India are through to their 5th semifinal and 3rd one at home. This time they should go one step better. Beat Pakistan and go through to the finals. 

Today was that day when everything went right for India — the fielding, bowling and batting. Ashvin took 2 wickets. How many runs did he give ? 52. Did he turn the ball square? How many wickets he got with peach of a ball ? Wild slogs both time to get Ponting and Watson.  He has not done any better than Chawla.

India have to think about Munaf what to do about this guy. He is listless, needless and useless. Anybody can hit him for runs. He doesnt take wickets, he cant field and he is even lax on the field.  Either play Nehra or get in Sreesanth. 

Today’s win provides an deep feeling of satisfaction. India has come to full elements. And it would take huge effort from Pakistan to stop India from playing finals.  But thats for another day. 

Ponting has had his moments under sun for 12 years in World cups  but now its time for new champion. New team to take the reins. And hopefully it would be India, for the consistent run it has shown in ODIs post 2008.

Wooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo we are in semis. 

Negative media coverage

The kind of reaction Indian media has given to the India’s performance in the 5 games so far is at best called knee – jerk. They are out to highlight negative stuff. Open any newspaper or watchout its website, you’d find negative reprotage on India’s chances. Views of players who are a bit negative on India’s chances are put in high prominence. If there was a mini-break to the players in between 8 days of the 2 games, then thats highlighted as well. And then immature, fool fans react in the comments section that the players do not play for country.

And then there are idiotic articles on the web which say that Tendulkar is not lucky for India in the world cups. They also go onto compare that sans Sachin, India won the T20 world cup in 2007.

At best this kind of reporting and coverage is detrimental. How much players read this is not known, but this is very disgusting to read and even open up the sites like ndtv.com or timesofindia.com or cricketnext.com.

http://cricketnext.in.com/news/team-india-skips-practice-session/55441-13.html

http://cricketnext.in.com/blogs/vivekatray/2813/62280/quick-fix-for-team-india.html

Few more.

Every ex-cricketer is an expert in India be it the likes of Vinod Kambli or Saba Karim or Atul Wasan. Every body offers 2 cents of advice to the skipper on the team combo, powerplay strategies and what not. Just that they failed miserably when they turned up to play in their playing days. And having just one or 2 caps in the belt, they are advicing to men who have on average 100 caps in their belt.

Rant

9 for 29 in 9 overs. … Amazing batting performance. 

Nehra standing as if batsmen like him got out for a duck. The so called star batsmen just could not get 33 more runs to hit the 300 mark. Shameful. Go fag yourself guys. Kick out the lads who are high on IPL, zero on India. Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan are such creatures. 

Take Viru, Gambhir and Tendulkar out. This team struggles to make runs or the impact that it should. 

None showed the willingness or “character” to stay and improvise. Everyone holed out. Everyone just wanted to get to the pavillion. Meek paper tigers. 

If a man 22 years old in international cricket has to make a 100 to bail the team out to a safe score then what good are the hyped heroes for? Especially Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan — the idiots who just dont know how to play. Pathan — riding high on those once in blue moon 100s and what has he done?

Kohli played too well before world cup but when it mattered he has been a bigot with the bat. Run out, bowled, caught n bowled. 

Freaking stuff. Scoreline that looked good to touch 400 once didnt even touch 300. Now we cannot even say we ‘ve got good batting lineup. All we would say is be scared of top 3 or may be 4. Not rest. The rest are pussies. They play well only for their franchisees. Chennai Super Kinks or Royal Challengers or Rajasthan Royals.  Kick their contracts out and let the reality dawn on them.  Assholes.

The rest just froze today. No boundary was scored after that Yuvraj 6. Inept. And what the hell was MS doing? Giving strike to Nehra and Munaf? Mind bogling skipper. Get your thinking right.

This was worst batting display ever by the starry batsmen. We have seen the lesser mortals like Bossadeshwar, Vijayeshwar choke, but the likes of Kohli and Pathan were always expected to shine. But they are not lightining crackers, but just  a “foos fooljhadi”.

India through to Quarter finals.

India made a hard weather of a decent target of 190 against Netherlands. And it huffed and puffed to finally end up victorious and become first team to qualify for Quarters.  Not a dominating performance, not intensive performance, but good enough to win with 14 overs to go.

A target that should have been overcome with 7 or 8 or 9 wickets in hand instead of 5. But in the end India lost its batting lineup in the pursuit to wind up the match soon thus raising concerns to the critics to question mark its favorite status.

India had to wait for 16 overs to get its first wicket and then for another 8 to get the next.  Dutch middle order collapsed and the fielding improved a touch better than the previous games. Harbhajan continued to end wicketless and economical, Ashish Nehra had a good comeback on his homeground and Chawla put an improved show except last one where he leaked out 17 runs.

Yuvraj got 2 and Zaheer sprang up to 3rd spot in the top wicket takers. 

Sehwag and Sachin started off superbly racing to 70 in 8 overs before the urge to deposit one more in stands got better of Sehwag and he was out to Seelar. Sachin, Pathan soon followed and one Borren delivery crashed Virat’s stumps. Ditto for Gambhir who has now been bowled 3 out of 4 times in peculiar fashion.  Frustrating for him to get the starts and not convert them to big ones.

Fortunately for India, the rejuvenated Yuvraj is coming to rescue every time they find themselves in spot of bother. 3 out of 3 he has crossed 50s, the last 2 being NO and man of the match efforts. A massive turnaround from the waterboy and benched days of 2010. Thats the  singlemost biggest achievement of the league stage for India.

The trends emerging are not worrisome or concerning. The batsmen who got out forcing the run rate wouldnt have gone for wild dismissals against stronger teams. Even if India has huffed and puffed in chasing 2 small targets against European associates, the team should be back to blasting batting in the next 2 games. They are yet to beat SA in a world cup and they are yet to lose to WI in a world cup after that 1992 defeat.

Sachin Tendulkar raced to 2000 world cup runs and Seelar scalped him. He along with Dockrell would never forget this wickets for life.

But this is cup of the life and we dont care how India races to win it. We need the cup. Thats it.

And thumping victories against minnows has never been India’s forte. Thats a Sri Lankan thing and India are better off not imitating that.

A victory is a victory in the end and dont care what critics or those TV anchors / experts blabber.

India win but Irish get respect enhanced

An escape from the jail and a self inflicted trouble waned away by the typical Pathan act and a subdued but solid welcome Yuvaj innings in the end. A target of 208 in 50 overs for a famed batting lineup of India should have been a cakewalk, but the Irish with their gumption, fight and positive attitude made Indians work hard for every run and in the end had the respect quadrupuled many times.

After restricting Irish to 207 and getting the Wednesday hero cheaply Sehwag and Tendulkar should have cakewalked the target instead they chose to inflict themselves a trouble which was not needed.

Gambhir, Sehwag fell to irresponsible shots. Sachin Tendulkar had no business playing that sweep shot to another unfamed spinner. And Virat Kohli fell to another awful mixup. It took the pair of Dhoni and Yuvraj to finally settle the nerves and see off a win that should have been more easy than it appeared.

The bowling was improvement from the England game and Zaheer Khan was as usual best in the lot. Harbhajan was restrictive and Chawla not belonging to where he is.

Its timeup for Chawla in the world cup and either he should make way for Nehra or Ashwin in the next games. 

India play Netherlands next in Delhi and it should be another low, slow wicket there.  May be India should look forward to few changes — resting Kohli and getting in Raina and dumping Chawla for a pacer or IPL spinner Ashvin.

Irish have proved they are the best associate nation and they would need to continue to participate in the future world cups even when the no of teams are trimmed.

Stand out players:

1. William Porterfield

2. Niall OBrien

3. George Dockrell for claiming MS and Tendulkar.

4. Trent Johnson for claiming Sehwag and bringing back Ireland in the game. If Sehwag was around the match woud have been over by 30th over.

5. Yuvraj Singh for his superb 5/31.

India are now on the top of table and should remain there comfortably until the South African game.

India play Holland next and they would win it. So they would have 7 points. Expectedly the NRR would also go up good enough to go past the England’s when they would beat BD on Friday easily.

So when India would play South Africa over the weekend, that should pretty much decide who shall be on the top of the table.  Its over for Bangladesh unless they dont beat SA and England both.

They shall get past Netherlands, but so shall Ireland. West Indies are due to play Ireland and if they beat the Irish they would be all but in the quarters.

May be a lesson for Shakib: Talk less, play big. Play well more. That shall take care of every other question raised on their status. Beating Kiwis and Zimbabwe doesnt mean they would automatically get to the quarters….

India vs England : Dont give up on the bowlers..Not now

And now the biggest game of the group B, the marquee game and much hyped game of the tournament which was in the news all way around since Jan end. The build up to this game was awesome. It came to the limelight when the game got shifted to Bangalore after Eden Gardens was not ready. Then a couple of days before the spectators got a police baton hit in the lineup to the tickets. And then it was the ICC displeasure over the tickets fiasco and the typical English media rambling on how failing is the world cup organization.

But what to follow was nobody’s guess. India were expected to stream roll the opposition on basis of form and history in the country and abroad.

Sehwag living dangerously to a slow start by Tendulkar to missed 3 chances in the first over — it all happened in the first few overs of the game. What followed was a superb batting display by India until 46th over when the scoreline read 3 / 305.

India looked set to go till 350 or even more. Tendulkar made record 5th World cup 100, Gambhir showed form, more importantly Yuvraj played a free flowing innings and the myth about Swann and Anderson was busted.

All till Tim Bresnan came back in the attack. What seemed like routine dismissals trying to hit the ball into the stands turned alarming when the rest of batting collapsed to 338 from 3/305. To add injury to the salt, the last run Zaheer and Munfa ran was short and in the end that was the difference between the tie and an Indian victory. Full credit to Tim Bresnan to take 5-for on a flat docile wicket.

Indians were confident of a victory when they came out to bowl because no other team had chased 338 in a world cup and in India. What transpired was shocking and something that exposed Indian bowling. Fielding of course. The bowling was bad no doubt, but English batsmen were lucky too. The balls when they were beaten, raced to 4s. When Strauss failed to pickup a Chwala googly, it ran to boundary.

What to say of the shocker UDRS decision which in the end was match turning one. What if Bell was ruled out LBW in that review when he was on 17? Would still England have come close to a win? Still a match winning almost partnership would have ensured later? None knows, but for sure one fact is clear UDRS is flawed and India have been on the recieiving end of it most times, so they are right in reluctance to use and oppose it the way they have been doing.

The bowling was ridiculously inept, the ball showed no signs of turn the way it did on that warmup game evening vs Australia. The same lad who took 4 that day was pastered yesterday.

It took a Zaheer master class to take 2 on 2 to bring India back into the game when the match looked well lost and people had started leaving.  And then the English collapse started. We were singing the songs of English being the new chokers and the fact that England dont know how to win a ODI as they are content with the Ashes.

Collingwood, Bell, Strauss, Prior and Yardy were dismissed soon and it seemed formality for an Indian victory. But Swann and Bresnan had other plans. They hit 2 sixes in that Chawla over and then Ajmal Shehzad hit Munfa for a 6 off 3rd ball. That brought Eng back to the game.

Strauss played  a untypical English ODI innings, they had forgotten to play ODIs off late but yesterday’s Strauss 100 was their best and that outclassed Tendulkar’s 120. How many days does it happen?

India got out of the jail and are still undefeated. They have 3 points and are on the top of the table. England are due to play Ireland next and then South Africa.  I’d bet England win both games and India play Holland and Ireland next. So it would be a touch and go between this 2 teams to occupy the top slot and play NZ in the QF.

India has to get its bowling attack worked up and the fielding improved. Agree with Dhoni that bowling can be improved. India has not got the worst bowling attack like it showed up on that night, yes there is a scope of improvement and easy 2 games should give the bowlers some confidence ahead of key clash with South Africa and West Indies.  Munaf Patel is certainly not the right man to bowl the last overs. But unless India doesnt play 3rd seamer in Nehra, the options available for the skipper is limited.

Harbhajan Singh needs to find that belief as a strike bowler. Zaheer was awesome in last spell, but he has to be the same through out the game. Munaf has to be completed bowling before the end overs and Chawala if he plays again, he needs to be confident.

India needs a bowler who has pace and consistency to take wickets. Sreesanth has pace, but he has a lot of flair for drama, leaking runs and antics something we dont want. Nehra is unfit and Ashwin is good to play for IPL.  Ishant Sharma has not yet come good in the ODIs, so the options for India in One days in fast bowling are very narrow and deplete. Praveen Kumar is out injured.

No point in pessimism and abusing the team. The same team has got us victories in away conditions, home conditions. And there is no reason why they cannot. They need some good games with the ball and they need wickets. They need some luck which would ensure that when they beat the batsman, the balls dont run to the boundaries or they dont get bad deals from the umpire or the UDRS.

The batting has to be on top and it is actually. Given the easy nature of games ahead, Pathan can be replaced with Raina at 7 to give him some confidence and ensure he is match fit for crucial games ahead. He is a better bowler than Pathan and of course a better fielder. Given the flexibility Indian batting lineup has below 3 or 4, Raina can be accomodated in the batting lineup at the expense of Pathan or resting some crucial player in the next 2 games.

This game has setup a good advert for the 50 over game and set up fascinating contest later this year in England in both tests and ODIs.  One of the best ODI games in recent times even though the wicket was horribly flat and useless.