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[schumi]

Openforum - There you go.....

[gouravk]

50-50 session. 2 wickets to 2 great catches pulled things back for India.

Bell looked extremely vulnerable early in his innings, a trait he has shown throughout his career - it is in India's interests to try and get him out early all series just like we did here. Getting a #3 early really opens up the middle order. I wouldnt be surprised if Bell's career graph shows a lot of low scores.

Will keep adding points as and when I note them.

[openforum]

Thanks Schumi
     This was my pre-match analysis on the final eleven posted in the match thread (In the end I was offset by one change: kaif for suresh raina):

               
           Toss: Who ever wins first will bat first without hesistation

           Indian think tank:
                        Playing XI :   Gauranteed: VS, VJ, Laxman, SRT, RD, MSD, IP, AK, HS
                                       One Pacer: Sreesanth msut be picked ahead of VRV/RPS
                                       
                                       One Batsman/Bowler: Choice among MK, Raina, PC
                                              This is the only dilemma...
             Strategy says, keep you surprise bowler for the crucial encounter (2nd and 3rd tests)
             Another line of thinking(dust bowl) may favor PC who can bat a bit. If we turn the

same thinking inside out Raina can bowl a bit of spin on a turner and can be handy and we can hold

PC until the 2nd test. Also I don't think they'll blood more than 1 youngster in any match at a

time. So Raina may get the nod and PC in the second test. On a dustbowl we don't need 3 spinners,

HS and AK can finish the job. also given our record of collapses in the first match of the tour, we

probably should not opt for a 5+1+5 combo and go with 6 +1+4

 So final eleven : VS, VJ, VVS, SRT, RD, SR, MSD, IP, AK, HS, Santh


           England Think tank:
                     Playing Eleven:
                         Certainties : Strauss, Cook, Bell, KP,  Colwood,AF,jones, Harmison
                     
                          One among: Hoggard,Anderson (Hoggard can do well on bare strips)
                          Two among: Monty Panesar, Udal, Blackwell (Blackwell might be a certainty due to his batting, Difficult choice between panesar and udal... but I'll go for monty as I think he is a better spinner than udal. England might lose some variation there(picking both left arm bowlers) but I guess it is worth it)

So final eleven: Strauss, Cook, Bell, KP, PColwodd, AF, Jones, SH, MH, Monty, Blackwell


 

[openforum]

Pre Lunch Session:
                Persisting with kaif is not a bad idea. The guy is in good form in domestic though he got 2 straight ducks. Now he is bound to perform well as he knows a failure here will take him out of the eleven for the next two matches (with raina and PC waiting).
Rahul Dravid had not had too many options early on when Pathan and santh kept bowling short and on both sides of the wicket. Most of the runs came sqare of the wicket on both sides. But he did well in bringing back sreesanth early after a brief break. Sreesanth got us the first wicket and bowled very well in his second spell.
Captaincy wise, not a great deal to be said in terms of field placements or another other bowling changes. I think everything was pretty much according to the template as we are playing just 4 bowlers. Not much scope for innovation given the way england started their innings...

Off to bed now... will try to report early morning....

[openforum]

Day 2: Pre lunch session:

              The delay in taking the new ball might have cost india on hindsight. Sreesanth was bowling spledidly but Pathan sprayed the ball all over with the new and old ball. Sreesanth's brilliant over to hoggard/harmison was followed by a mediocre one in which Harmison scored 2 fours which took england past 300. Had the new ball been taken earlier santh might have cleaned up the tail quickly. Dravid also missed a trick in the feild placements for harmison who scored most of his runs in the cover and fineleg region. See the wagon wheel below.
http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/NEW/LIVE/frames/ENG_IND_T1_01-05MAR2006.html

The runs he scored behind on the off side are edges (2 of them) and the staright boundary was scored over the top. His innings made it possible for england to cross 350 and for panesar to come late and survive.
Clearly, not enough homework was done as to the batting abilities of harmision (he got full deliveries like he wanted) and resulted in india typically aiding another tail wag.

I did not watch the 2nd session so I hope someone can post their viws here....

[gouravk]

OK .. I will hop to Freddie - I think he was too negative ... bowled a line well outside off and a length very short - and I don just mean Freddie the bowler but England in general - so trying to judge Freddie as captain here - Hoggard alone was looking dangerous. On a wicket that was slow and occasionally kept low it made sense to bowl wicket to wicket but it seemed the English were too afraid of the strokeplay of the Indians on the on side. India played well, really the way england bowled it would not have been possible to score much quicker without taking some risks.