Archive for ‘February 20th, 2009’

2 results.
Feb20

Windies make a great escape

by wasim on February 20th, 2009 at 6:14 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket England

West Indian last pair, Fidel Edwards and Darren Powell clung on for the last 10 overs in fading light and saved the test match for their team. It was a great escape for the Windies, they managed to maintain their 1-0 lead and regained the momentum in their favor after trailing behind England through out the test.

English team must be demoralized and shattered as they had the victory in site but failed to finish off the West Indian tail in time and just stopped short of a great victory, the hip injury to Andrew Flintoff and the illness of Harmison didn’t helped their cause and in the end they were short handed. Had Flintoff been fully fit England would have won this match comfortably.

Questions are being raised about Strauss’s decisions of not enforcing the follow on and  declaring a bit too late in the afternoon, I think the fitness problem of his two main strike bowlers must have been on the back of his mind which made him take these decisions, I still believe that England had enough time to get the West Indian team out, the pitch didn’t helped the English bowlers on the last day, Graeme Swann the hero of the first innings tried hard but couldn’t get his team a break through earlier in the day as Sarwan and ChanderPaul dug in their partnership of 148 runs was a key in setting up the draw, Sarwan batted with supreme confidence and was in no mood of making the same mistake of first innings he was finally bowled by Broad on 106, Broad used the second ball effectively and removed both Sarwan and Chanderpaul  in quick succession and provided his team a chance to level off the series, but despite a great effort by the English bowlers the West Indian tailenders saved the match for their team.

Both teams will have to fix a few problems before the next match, England will have to ensure that they only play bowlers who are fit, they cannot play half fit Harmison and Flintoff.  West Indies will have to find a replacement for Powell although his batting saved the match for the Windies but he has failed to support Edwards and Taylor, Devon Smith and Hinds failed to establish themselves at their respective positions they need to be replaced.

West Indies after a spectecular victory in the first match they have become complacent while the English team has improved and they worked really hard in this match, West Indies will have to look for more professionalism and more consistency from some of its players.

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Feb20

John may be Wright

by wasim on February 20th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket India

Former Indian coach John wright says:

New Zealand’s best shot was to probe India’s top order with the new ball. “If you can get early wickets, then it will be interesting. It is probably the same with most sides that come here, but they [India] won’t have forgotten the last experience here,” he said. “Sometimes those ghosts are hard to hide, so the key is putting them under pressure early and just bowling in a very tight area.”

Given the extreme seaming conditions in NewZealand John may be right, but in my opinion he is focusing too much on the Indian team he will have to give ideas to fix the weaknesses in the Newzealand team, in my opinion their batting revolves around two or three players if they score Newzealand usually survives if they don’t then they lose, their bowling is getting better but more consistency is required.

In his role as New Zealand selector, Wright said he had “a few ideas” of how to help the home team. “I’m on the other side now and that may be helpful,” he said. “I have a few ideas but it always boils down to what happens on the park, the accuracy and quality of the cricket our blokes play. They’ve [India] not won [a series] here for 41 years and they’ll definitely want to put that right but I don’t think they’re thinking about settling old scores.”

India is not the same team anymore so I think their past record would be the last thing on their mind, their pace attack will be a handful on seaming tracks enabling them to defend low scores on difficult tracks this is something which past Indian teams lacked.

India begin their tour on February 25 with the first of two Twenty20 internationals. They also play five ODIs and three Tests.

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