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Old Trafford has been described as "one of the fastest pitches in the country", and England will be strengthened by the return of Flintoff. I am also assuming that Collingwood will play. Tremlett is their weak link and has been leaking runs, but he picked up wickets in the previoius game. England are obviously stronger in bowling and fielding.

India will have to be very aggressive in their strategy and performance. If they resort to defensive tactics like playing an extra batsman and batting slowly at the top of the order, they will get thrashed. Don't know how effective our spinners will be on this supposedly fast pitch.

Nobody knows what will happen, but going by the book England should win.

NO WAY .... u in for a surprise coz the final scoreline is gonna be different !!!

By your strong words, I am sure you have insider information about the final series scoreline. My friend was telling the series is 4-3 to India and he has some money on this score. What are you into?

Toss: India
Decision: Bat

Ajit instead of Munaf. Flintoff replaced Tremlett (collingwood declared fit)

India won the toss and elected to bat. Hope our openers score at reasoable SR without losing any early wickets

Ganguly gone ! Done in by his perennial weakness !!
Short ball, weak pull and caught inside circle on leg side !!!

Ganguly will go done in the history of cricket as great batsmen with weakest pull shot. The problem is he attempts his weakest shot !!

At the end of 10 0vers IND were 31/2. Again a poor start & worst of the lot.

Indians will start to repair the innings. Hope we make Eng sweat, if could not beat them
Edit: Oops Ind were 3 down. With Dravid got out for 1. Excellent atmosphere for little master to eat as much as deliveries he could and score his 42nd

Karthik gone ! Poor guy out of form. Dravid has the knack of pushing out of form batsmen into limelight and when they fail, its big news !!

Karthik was doing well down the order. He failed at no 3. But again he was sent at no 3. Dravid did the same to Sehwag. When Sehwag was out of form, instead of letting him correct the flaws, he pushed into matches and when he failed, it made big news and now he is out of team.

Will Karthik go Sehwag way?

Now, lone Fab standing !

After seeing Ganguly drive through backward point I was expecting a lot more from him in this innings. Sadly, the ball seemed to have hurried him up a bit causing him to play a nothing shot. Funny part is Karthik played worse than Sachin, Ganguly put together have in this innings. Coming with a tab of being a "fast scorer" he took 22 ***** to score 4 runs. His SLOW batting surely put Dravid into a lot of thinking to get the score board moving like he did in the previous two games which ultimately lead to his downfall.

Sachin is looking good with his shots. And is playing a really sensible game not sparing the slightest of the errors from bowlers while Yuvi is being made to look like an idiot. Ducking to a ball that didn't rise above his waist, flinging his bat after having missed a easy cut to a boundary of Monty. Freddy is having fun teasing, prodding Yuvi. Last I checked he had scored 3 runs of some close 30 odd *****.

Haha. First we have all the gyan on how Karthik should be sent up the order. Once he fails, you are bound to give him an extra chance to prove himself. Sadly, Karthik doesn't seem to deserve going up the order. Atleast the other batsmen wasted ***** but stuck to their wickets for a much longer time. Had he been sent down the order and had someone else failed instead of him we would still given the stick saying why India were persistent on sending the senior players up the order and not give the youngsters a chance.

Diabloo, Sehwag is a different kind of a player all together. All he needs is one or two good strikes on the bat to get going besides you never know when you strike form. This is what Dravid might have been banking on and expecting to happen. Sadly it wasn't to be. Like Ganguly I guess its high time Sehwag went back, sat and thought it out how to play better. When he comes back I am sure he will be a much more responsible player.

Just saw that Sachin is gone. And with him the hopes of India putting up a good score? I bet everyone will blame it on the senior players once again than asking the youngsters to better themselves and prove that they are in the team due to their own accord and can do well when the other fail.Or at this rate we need to drop the entire team and send rks, nc, khaadu, surprise, el, diabloo and myself to replace them :D .

I can guarantee you one thing .. A lot of my match fees will go for sledging ;) !!! Before I get termed as rascist .. i better shut up lol: !!

Cheers

PS -- I hope the dots are not one too many ---- I have one Mod after my behind , guess I sledged him too much somewhere !!

mclaren, dont lose hope man, plenty of batting to come. Let Yuyi & Dhoni bat another 60 deliveries, with the only all-rounder Agarkar (fastest 50) to follow, still we can cross the psychological 200 barrier. Then we have a fight.

I love playing with aggressive players. Its about time we show the world that we wont be sledged around. But can be good at it as well rl: . Khaadu we need to appoint you as the coach to the Indian team to teach them this tact.

Honestly speaking though, I loved the way England bowled. Clever, well thought and accurate bowling. Hats off to them for making use of the condition so wisely. They clearly seem to have the edge with the extra pace their 3 seamers are able to produce.

Edit: Diabloo, I have not lost hope man. Like I have been mentioning all this while to me it doesn't matter who wins. Be it the test series, 20 20 Cup, ODI series or the WC. What I love is a good game irrespective of who wins. And that is what I enjoy. Right now I am thoroughly enjoying looking at the England bowlers bowl superbly.

Though the only thing that bothers me is that if Yuvi and Dhoni do well and manage to pull India to a win we will still continue to blame our seniors for poor play. If they fail to score and put up a decent target yet we will blame the seniors for not hanging around. Which is kind of sad.

Why not?
Why Ganguly had to attempt his weakest stroke, when the condition was tough?
Sachin was cautious till he reached the magic score. Then we suddenly became adventurous. With still 20 overs left, why?
Seniors should assume more responsibility and assess the condition better.

And let our youngsters hang up their boots everytime taking this as an excuse? I do hope that you realize that they too have a role to play. Whether the seniors fail or play well. If you can praise them for taking India to a decent winning score from here (since we believe that they can do it), be prepared to criticize them from failing to do so too (for disappointing us just like the way our seniors are). This one sided favourism will not change anything. Not the way either of the players play. But it only shows our lack of maturity to appreciate a good play by the opposition.