England vs India Test & ODI Series *SPOILERS*

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The Tests against India are less than week away from starting and India are current playing England's B side (aka the Lions?!). Strauss has clearly benefited from a break from the full side as today he managed to score 1 of 17 balls before being clean bowled. I don't understand how such a quality player can end up on such a bad run of form, I can't remember the last time he put together 2 or 3 innings in a row. No wonder Tres is looking like making a comeback sometime soon.

Predictions for the series? I'm going for a 1-1.

 

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I knew India's bowling was bad but come on. It's just a question of whether England's limited attack can do the job, they should have plenty of runs to play with.

 

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I'm taking the moral victory as the only person on the first page to predict a 1-1 in the series. That first test was good as ours.

 

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I'll take the pessimists prediction prize then

I was going to quote that one as well but I didn't want to ruin my moment. Pessimism comes with the territory I think.

 

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Same old England. What is the point of having Bell in at 3 if he can't score at a run a ball? Seems obvious to me to have Pietersen in at 3 and Bell at 4 or 5, though KP doesn't appear in the best form at the moment I think the side would benefit immensely from it.

 

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How many did Bell get for how many balls in the first ODI?

He had to play a bit more conservatively today to protect his wicket with all the other batsmen falling around him.

Don't get me wrong, I think Bell is a quality player however he is too easily bogged down and struggles to find the boundary (especially aerially) when eh needs to. Far too often he nurdles his way to 50 and then when he tries to pick it up he loses his wicket- it's hardly a coincidence that he has 11 50s and only that 1 hundred which is a pretty poor conversion rate. Also, after Pietersen lost his wicket Bell really ought to have taken charge; instead the run rate increased to the point where England lost key wickets trying to chase the game after an excellent start. However, Bell was not the only player guilty of trying to nudge his way out of trouble when more direct action was needed.

Same old England what game were you watching & bell atm is in his best form so why not let him play at 3

Up until Bopara started hitting after India let off the gas we'd hit the usual England situation; run rate increasing beyond our control and the only solution being the sweep shop or nudging for a single when a better side would be looking to hit down the ground for boundaries, something we seem incapable of.

 

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Has anyone else noticed KP always comes in at nightmare situations recently? Been ages since he's been able to play freely, most of the time he's trying to save an innings after a top order collapse or (more rarely must be said) runs out of overs to have an effect.

 

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Tremlett does his best to take the impetus away from England.

 

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Quality result, great comeback from Tremlett to take the game from India.

 

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I've been a big doubter of Anderson over the last couple of years but he's certainly coming of age now, I wonder if Donald has anything to do with it?

He certainly has come back this summer looking more and more like a senior bowler, and he's been consistent as well which is very impressive and great news for England. He's taken Tendulkar's wicket as well more times than not which is always a good sign. Stuart Broad's consistency is right up there too, so Donald looks like he's doing a good job alright. He needs to take a look at Tremlett though, I think raw is the word for his ODI game.

 

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Come on England! Let's finish this one off sharpish so I can see the result before I go out on the lash.

 

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I'd still say India are a few runs short bearing in mind that average will be mainly first class games and not Test, definitely England are favourites here.

 

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Cracking performances from Bopara and especially Broad, with the ability he has shown so far in ODI and his first class games there is every chance he'd make a good all-rounder for England yet.

 

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Bit of a gutting loss that but it was hardly a good performance by England, more a product of some brilliant individual efforts but that's what you need sometimes and it came so close. The matches so far have swung on knocking over Ganguly and Tendulkar quickly, and when we've failed they've had a good enough start to take the game.

 

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England put themselves in a great position with that bowling, worth noting that in all the games we've won we've done it by bowling India out. Just a question of getting a good start in the powerplays and going from there now.

 

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England take the game and the series! We've got the makings of a good one day side now as long as we can keep Flintoff fit. Easier said than done, but we're a different gravy with him in the side.

 

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The decisions balanced really, Dravid was out, Tendulkar wasn't but then Uthappa nicked one and then claimed it hit his shoulder so India got one decision for and one against.