[msdivy]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

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, be prepared to criticize them from failing to do so too. 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.

I never said we should not point out faults in youngsters. Find scope for improvements in seniors & also juniors. I know its a game & can't expect everybody to perform their best in every match. But we can expect them to try 100% in all matches and never make any tactical mistake.
Seniors or juniors, they should show more grit while batting. 1st priority is to bat full 50 overs and I don't find any juniors or seniors attempting that. I am sure England would have played better than Indians, if they has batted first. I was pointing to this.

I was commenting on India. England is the host. They know the conditions better and importantly they bowled to suit the conditions. Flintoff bowled his best since his comeback. Nothing more to comment on England.

PS: If we lack maturity to appreciate the game, then why do we watch games where India is not involved? Isn't it because we appreciate the game?

[normally_crazy]

Pathetic batting display !! Ganguly , kartick, Dravid and even Sachin. An absolute loose shot off a non bowler. Well he made his record na - 50 hogaya so bajao and if get out nothing to worry, have 50 runs to my name. Dhoni got a peach of a delivery. Yuvraj struggled. All batsmen struggled against the short pitched stuff.

Dravid played a brave move - Agarkar for Munaf, nice. Now lets hope our bowlers do not try and bowl short pitched stuff @ 125 kmph and get hammered everywhere.

The fact is - India looked flat from the moment they took the field while England looked purposeful.

[mclaren1885]

Yuvi just replayed Ganguly's innings from the other one-day and as expected didn't carry on till the end either. While Sachin was holding fort at one end he could have sped up. But because of his inability to score quickly other batsmen had to be pressurized to score quickly (and I feel he was partly responsible for Sachin's dismissal too) thus leading to a fall of quick wickets. Brilliant batting by Zaheer though. Makes me wonder why we are not like the Aussies. They inspite of loosing 4 wickets for under 50 always manage to keep a healthy run rate of over 4 or 5 and end up with generally big scores.

But we can expect them to try 100% in all matches and never make any tactical mistake.

I agree with you on that one. I don't care what others think but some fail to notice the joy on Sachin's face everytime he snips a catch at slips or gets a wicket. Selfish or not he certainly seems to behave like a kid who gets his first wicket and that certainly doesn't seem so fake (or else we could give him an Oscar).

Also, it is impossible not to make a tactical mistake. With situations, your tactics will change too. Its how quickly and how well you can adapt to the change in strategy.

So how many players do we drop for the next match? Ganguly, Sachin, Dravid, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Karthik, Powar? IS that enough or shall we pull out some more names?

[normally_crazy]

Eng 14-2 , KP and Bell in now. Going to be a nice battle.

EDIT - A catch goes down. Oh No !!

[khaadu75]

4 down ... just another 6 to go !!! Anyone wanna bet - I say India wins ;-)

[abhibh]

GO Agarkar GO. woot wooot.. 5 down 5 to go

[normally_crazy]

Flintoff is off now !! Go India GO !

[khaadu75]

for all you selectors out there -- the best combo this team needs is Agarkar one match and Munaf in the next !!!!

Wakey wakey .......

[khaadu75]

Now u know why I luv the men in BLUE .... Coz they can do the unthinkable !!! 7 down -- 3 to go ... We need to get Bopara as soon as possible .

[khaadu75]

DAMN IT .... after 7 quick ones they get stuck on the 8th !!! Chance are that we gonna go down 3-1 unless we get a wicket in the next 5 runs .

[shuvc]

What a fantastic display of sensible batting by Bopara & Broad.

[abhibh]

WOW England won!!!

Great batting by Bopara & Broad. Indian Spinners and Fielding let them down. Agarkar did a good job but not good enough to make India.

[mclaren1885]

England top order made of mockery of chasing a small target. But a big round of applause to the English youngsters. What a courageous batting display by Bopara and Broad. Now, there is something to learn for our youngsters. Something to learn for us here too. Ever wondered why only India lacks such displays? I say lets stop criticizing our players and hand out some appreciation to the way these two played. Fabulous.

[iraghava]

Fantastic, absolutely fantastic. We can't even get no.8 no. 9 batsmen out. Can some of these cricketers please kill themselves to save us the trouble.

Bloody pathetic to see we can lose from such a situation. And the less said about our fielding the better.

Spoilt the whole bloody mood.

[khaadu75]

And in come the critics .... I love the way people pop in when India lose but vanish when india wins !!! Good show by the 2 of them ..... now all we have to do is win 3 in a trot and the series shall be ours ;-) !!