The season couldn’t have started any better with a home win against one of last years title contenders, and that win was followed up with four more on the bounce. The fifth game was called off due to bad weather and we then proceeded to lose 3 games back to back. Normal service was resumed after our third defeat and we quickly won 2 games in 5 days to go joint top of the league.

So, with three games to go, things looked good and we had emerged as genuine title contenders. Sadly in our game this week we were hit by the holiday season and many of our better players were unavailable for selection. To make thing worse are very pacey opening bowler was out with mumps The situation was so bad that only 4 of our regulars took to the field on Tuesday night. Unfortunately our regular captain was one of the absentees and I was informed mid morning on Monday I would need to captain the side as well as find 6 more players asap. Countless text messages later I was up to nine players with two more possible players promising to get back to me Tuesday morning. Further dramas ensued throughout Tuesday afternoon as one of our new recruits who was going to open the batting cried off with only a couple of hours ago. Thankfully I managed to draft in a replacement who was one of the youngest players ever to play for the team being just 13 years of age.

Having got to the ground suitably early to access the wicket and conditions I was still feeling fairly confident that we could beat the opposition who were lying third in the league. Yes our batting line-up wasn’t quite as strong or long as usual and yes we only really had four/five bowlers but the team was unusually packed full of young athletic players which would hopefully dramatically improve our fielding which had been our Achilles heal throughout the season.

With only 15 minutes to go before the start of the game one of opening bowlers called to say he had had a puncture en-route and was still waiting for the AA to arrive. I have to admit I was a little surprised an able bodied man in his late twenties couldn’t change the tyre himself but he assured me he would be at the ground as soon as was physically possible.

So we took to the field with only 10 men. Things looked promising as we took 2 quick wickets in the first over. The opening bowlers, both on their team debut, did themselves great credit and the opposition were only 61 for 3 at the ten over mark. The fielding, as predicted, had been superb without exception and things were looking good despite still only having 10 players.

Yours truly and another team regular took over the bowling for the second half of the innings and that was when things started to go wrong. Thankfully the pitch was taking spin and even I turned the ball on it so I ended up with respectable figures of 3 for 25 from my five overs. The other team regular did not have such a good day and was expensive in his five overs, including an 18 run over right at the death. In the end our opposition ended up on 145 for 6 off their twenty overs and I still thought we stood a chance of winning.

I had managed to draft in a talented opening batsmen and a good power hitter from the local school’s 1st XI. In conjunction with two regular top order batsmen I thought it was entirely possible we could get off to a very good start and never look back. How wrong I was. It is worth mentioning at this point our number 5 batsmen was still at this point apparently waiting for the AA. His excuse was becoming less and less believable with every minute.

Unfortunately I had to umpire the first half of our innings so I was able to witness our humiliating demise close up. The school’s opening batsmen I had called up was unsighted by the sun which was setting over the bowlers arm and missed a delivery whilst out of his crease. The wicketkeeper, also unsighted by the sun, missed the ball but it fell onto his boot and then into the stumps while the batsmen was still out of his crease. Their opening bowlers then put on a devastating display, ripping through our top order, which left us 18 for 4 after 10 overs. At this stage I was seriously worried that I would go down in club history as the captain who threw away our title hopes and suffered the club’s largest defeat ever in my first game in charge. I almost texted my resignation letter to the club chairman while umpiring at Square Leg but I decided to see the game through.

At the end of the match we had struggled to 97 for 5, which was far more than I thought possible halfway through the innings but we had still been dealt a heavy defeat, albeit not a record breaking one.

With only two games to play we are now joint second in the league, only two points off top. The good news is the top team and the teamed tied with us on points still need to play each other on the final day of the season so we still have a chance to lift the title. Thankfully our team captain is back next week so my captaincy skills will not be called upon for the rest of the season.

I’m sure some of you will be wondering about the guy with the puncture. Well as far as I know he is still waiting for the AA- they must be very busy at the moment.

We had them exactly where we wanted them and then Cook got a good one and departed for 95. From that point onwards the wheels started to slowly but surely fall off. Obviously no one had told Bopara it was a five day game and he immediately started playing expansive shots which would have been better suited to a 20/20 game. When he perished KP came to the crease and again looked out of sorts. He scratched around for a bit, looking uncharacteristically nervous, and just when he started to play some authentic strokes which were very easy on the eye he got out. The two most inexcusable wickets of the day however were Collingwood and Prior. Collingwood and Strauss were batting fairly well together. They had steadied the ship to a certain extent and England were still scoring at well over 3.5 runs an over for the innings so I have no idea why Collingwood decided to play that ugly heave straight to mid on when there were so many 1s and 2s available. His dismissal was made that much worse because I had literally just stopped defending him to my dad who has never rated him. Shane Warne said that he thought that Prior had been surprised to receive a decent ball from Johnson but in fairness it wasn’t that good a ball, Prior just made it look like a jaffa. With the departure of Prior the much talked about Flintoff came to the crease. He received a tremendous reception from the crowd when he came in with lots of people standing and applauding (personally I thought that was a little over the top considering he will probably bat again it this test match). Almost predictably he was out cheaply and it was left to Strauss and Broad to see out the rest of the day.

As regular readers (if there are any) will know I am a die hard Strauss fan and I can only imagine what he was thinking at the non strikers end as wicket after wicket fell and England conspired to throw away a truly superb start to the innings. Thankfully he kept his nerve and his unbeaten 161 at the end of the day was almost faultless.

All in all I had a great day at Lord’s, despite England’s poor last session and a half, thanks largely to the company of my father and Grandfather. It was nice to have three generations of avid cricket fans experience that record breaking opening partnership. I’m sure we will talk about it for many years to come. I also got to shake hands with Shane Warne, a true legend of the game, who appears to have been enjoying many a corporate lunch since his retirement, maybe too many, and also rather randomly I was served a rum cocktail by the Aussie 1 day specialist Ian Harvey-Bizarre.

So with conditions likely to change on day 2 it will be very interesting to see how long the English tail wags for and if the English bowlers can take full advantage when they take to the field. They will have no excuses if the predicted cloud cover arrives, but I have confidence in them.

England were completely out-played in the first test for probably 90% of the game and were incredibly fortunate in many respects to get away with a draw. There were several players in the English dressing room before the first test who hadn’t had any experience in Ashes cricket before and it certainly showed. As professional sportsman all members of the squad have been exposed to the media attention that goes with playing cricket for England but the Ashes media attention is something quite different. By announcing his retirement from test cricket at the end of the series Flintoff has, for a short period of time at least, taken virtually all of that attention away from the rest of the squad. If Flintoff hadn’t made his decision public today the media would have surely focused in on England’s poor performance in Cardiff and in turn yet more pressure would have been heaped on the players who hadn’t play well. We all know Flintoff has a tremendous character and “will to win” and I think he should be able to handle this additional pressure and media hype. Worse case scenario he doesn’t play or doesn’t perform well, but even then the rest of the team will have been able to go about their work without quite so much pressure on their shoulders. Hopefully this will enable them to play significantly better than they did in the first test (shouldn’t be too hard to achieve, particulary with regards to England’s top order).

It is well known that the Australians deeply respect Flintoff as a player and they will definitely be hoping he doesn’t have any more match winning performances left in him in test cricket, but since this will be his last summer of five day cricket I am sure he will want to retire with a bang. It is true that Freddie is certainly past his best in this format of the game and this is backed up by his official test rankings, namely 16th in the world for bowling, and a lowly 48th for batting, but he still has the ability to fire up and motivate the other players in the team.

Now I have dealt with the Freddie issue I can concentrate on the most important thing, namely the second test. The Lord’s test is always a great event, especially in an Ashes summer, and I feel very privileged to be attending the first day. (Thanks Bro!) Any of you who read my last blog posting will probably remember I made a very bold prediction with regards to the series result, namely England to win by two clear matches. I did say I was mad at the time but I still stand by the vast majority of the points I made in that posting. Unfortunately England were not able to carry out the plan and put pressure on the Aussies. Too many of the Aussie Ashes virgins were allowed to get off to a good start, particularly North, Hadden and Hughes. They will therefore go into the Lord’s Test with increased confidence thus making England’s task that little bit stiffer. I have vowed to be as optimistic as possible this Summer, hence my crazy series prediction, but despite this I can only take one or two positives from Cardiff.

I was asked by a good cricketing friend during the first session of the 5th day at Cardiff what my thoughts were and if memory serves my response was “I would take the whole team into a field and then instruct them to dig their own mass grave”. Harsh I admit but I was bitterly disappointed at the time. Thankfully Collngwood, supported by the lower order, managed to show the necessary grit in the final two sessions to salvage a draw. There’s my first positive and the second is closely linked. I still don’t think the Aussie bowling attack is anywhere near as strong as it was in 2005 without the likes of McGrath and Warne. If Australia had been in the same position at lunch on day 5 with McGrath and Warne in the team England would not have been able to hold out for a draw. The Aussie bowlers seemed to lack the killer instinct and this could prove crucial again later in the series.

As a spin bowler myself I was delighted to see England play two spinners in the Cardiff test but sadly that experiment did not work and one of them will definitely be dropped for Lord’s. If I was Strauss I would keep Swann even though he didn’t bowl well at Cardiff. He offers more variation with the ball, and despite Monty’s heroic batting at the death last week Swann is a far superior batsmen. Onions and the enigma that is Harmison are Monty’s possible replacements and I wouldn’t be surprised if Strauss and Co selected Onions simple because it looks like the Lord’s track will better suit Onions style of bowling. I am not ignoring Harmison’s impressive form recently I just feel that other tracks later in the series will be more suitable to his natural pace and bounce.

In conclusion I am thoroughly looking forward to another gripping match tomorrow and I just hope England can put on a display which better demonstrates the abilities they possess. With that said though my prediction for the Lord’s test is another draw.

Anyone who underestimates an Australian cricket team needs their head examining, but not even the purist die hard Aussie fan could argue that this touring team is stronger than their 2005 team, and we all know what happened in that series. Granted the England team has changed quite a lot since then but without Gilchrist, Langer, Warne and Mcgrath Australia have lost 4 world class players with bundles of experience and match winning potential.

Gilchrist was always a very capable keeper but his real strength lay in his batting abilities. With him in the team Australia batted a long way down and I can think of nothing more soul destroying for a bowling attack than taking 5 wickets and then realising Gilchrist is in next. With him batting at 7 it meant that the lower order always had the possibility to pile up crucial runs towards the end of an innings and I question if their current team has the middle to lower order to achieve this feet as regularly. On the other hand England will probably go into the first test with Flintoff Swann and Broad occupying their 7,8, and 9 spots which should mean we have the upper hand over Australia in that department.

It goes without saying the retirements of Warne and Mcgrath will also seriously weaken the Aussie bowling attack. For so many years Ponting and Australia knew they had two truly world class bowlers who could turn any match in their favour in a very short period of time. On some many occasions Ponting was able to be really aggressive in a match because of the bowling he had available to him. He will not be afforded that privilege in this series and again England seem to have the edge in this department. Broad Anderson and Flintoff are all excellent exponents of reverse swing which is essential in English conditions whilst Swann is currently the highest test wicket taker in the world for 2009 so spin looks like it will have a massive role to play this summer. It also looks likely that Monty will be brought in for the first test to bolster England’s spin attack, particularly to left-handers, whereas Australia look decidedly weak on the spin front. The only spinner in their 16 man touring squad is Hauritz and so far on tour in the two warm-up matches he has returned combined figures of 2-260.

Another area in which I think England have the upper hand is their batting at the top of the order. Strauss and Cook have established a good opening partnership which has gone from strength to strength in recent times and they seem to add real stability to the rest of the innings. It should also be noted that Strauss was the only player in either team in the 2005 Ashes series to score 2 centuries. On the other side of things Australia’s openers will be Katich and Hughes. Katich seems to have improved significantly in the last couple of years but he has a terrible record against England and this will surely play on his mind if he doesn’t get a good start to the series. A lot of positive stuff has been written about Philip Hughes already this summer and he certainly has the makings of a fine opening batsmen but his lack of experience at the highest level is a concern, and despite not being in the English side for the first test Steve Harmison has certainly given his fellow pace bowlers the blueprint of how to get him out.

KP is clearly England’s best batsmen and so they will be expecting a typically strong showing from him and I’m sure he’ll not disappoint. He is a player who thrives on the big occasions and there is no bigger stage than an Ashes series. In turn Ponting is Australia’s stand out batsmen and despite his age and poor start to the tour he is still a man to be feared, especially when he gets into double figures. In my opinion these two heavy weights will largely cancel each other out and for that reason I don’t think either team’s middle order has the edge over the other.

With regards to captaincy Ponting clearly has far more experience in the role than Strauss does but Ponting has been heavily criticised in Oz in the build up to this series and his captaincy skills will be under increased scrutiny this summer which will certainly put more pressure on his shoulders. Although only 6 months into the job Strauss seems to have relished the added responsibility the captaincy brings with it. He took over as captain at a very difficult time in English cricket, but despite that he has unified the dressing room and there seems to be a good camaraderie among the players who look to be enjoying themselves. I admit that I am a huge fan of Strauss but even I would concede that he was fairly cautious on a couple of occasions in the West Indies and he will need to be more aggressive against Australia in order to gain the win and I am confident he will do exactly that.

In conclusion I think we are in store for a thrilling summer of Ashes cricket and despite everything I have said Australia will still be very tough to beat, but overall I think England have the edge in some critical areas and for that reason I am predicting a English win by 2 clear test matches. I must be mad.

Whenever your team is knocked out of any competition it is only natural to discuss where they went wrong and what could have been done differently. I have been having this debate with Glen who left a comment on one of my posts a couple of days ago, and although we seem to share some common ground we are clearly divided on the subject of “ability”. I concede in my response to his initial comment I may have overstated England’s abilities, and even said we could have won the tournament if certain things had been done differently which in all honesty I don’t believe. I have touted Sri Lanka from the beginning of the tournament and their bowling in particular has been a cut above the rest-it also helps when you have the most in form batsmen in the whole tournament in your side, namely Dilshan,

I do however believe England have plenty of ability and if it had been harnessed in right way then the semi finals should have been achievable, and as proven by Pakistan once you get to the straight knockout stages anything can happen from that point onwards. In my eyes England were doomed from the start in this tournament due to team selection. The selectors still didn’t totally grasp the fact that they needed to select a team of Twenty20 specialists and as a result they picked players such as Shah and Rashid simply because they had been in or around the England setup in the longer formats of the game. This kind of thinking was seriously flawed in my opinion.

I admit it is all too easy to criticise people and their decisions without coming up with a practical solution of your own which would have improved the situation so in a desperate attempt to make sure I don’t fall into this category I have come up with the team I would have played in the tournament. Here goes:

1. Bopara
2. Prior
3. KP
4. Napier
5. Morgan
6. Mascarenhas
7. Foster
8. Broad (if Flintoff had been fit he would have been my no 7 and foster would drop down to 8)
9. Swann
10. Schofield
11. Anderson

Now I’m sure a lot of you will be thinking “well that team isn’t very different from the team England put out”, and those people are obviously right. Only Prior and Schofield weren’t in the actual T20 squad, but the subtle differences I have suggested would have made a bit difference.

Firstly let me explain my rationale behind two keepers. I have not come up with an ingenious way of combating Dilshan’s “frying pan shot”, but rather I have picked Prior simply as a batsmen. His record as a batsmen stands up to the closest of scrutiny and his style of batting would be perfect in the powerplay overs. The “Forgotten Man” Napier is another explosive batsmen capable of great things in Twenty20 cricket and I genuinely believe he could have provided England with the power hitting that was so obviously missing during the tournament. It is also often forgotten that he is good quick bowler who can get up to 85-90 mph. His boundary fielding could also have improved England’s intensity in the field. I don’t understand why England selected him to the squad and then ignored him totally. Although Morgan did play in the tournament he was discarded in a “knee jerk” way very early on then never got a look in after being dropped. He has a fantastic number of innovative shots at his disposal and he would have offered a happy balance to the large number of big hitters in my side. Mascarenhas was also badly treated during the tournament and he received a lot of flack after the India game for his low strike rate, but the reason for that was his elevation up the order for that game which meant he came into bat in the 11th over. He is a last five over specialist and by putting him into bat so early his strengths were seriously weakened. The only other change I have made is the introduction of Schofield who, in my humble opinion, is a far better bowler in T20 cricket than Rashid. Since signing for Surrey he has taken a hat full of wickets every season in T20 with a low average and economy rate. If nothing else he has had a lot more T20 experience than Rashid, and the success of the Sri Lankans, who have plenty of players who have played an awful lot of T20 cricket, should have shown us experience in this format is vitally important.

The rest of the team is pretty much the same as the actual side. Bopara and KP are both very talented batsmen who should be in anybody’s side, whilst Foster is a truly world class keeper who has the ability to stand up to all but the very quickest of bowlers which means he can put real pressure on the batsmen and keep them in the crease. Swann would be in my team because I think two front line spinners are essential in a T20 team, and he would offer a good contrast to the leg spin of Schofield. Finally the constantly improving Broad and Anderson would be my new ball bowlers as they both offer up good pace and swing. Both are strong fielders and Broad has the added advantage of being able, in time at least, to become a genuine all rounder.

So there we go. My proposed side has plenty of ability, and it has a strong and long batting line-up which has plenty of power hitting complimented by intelligent and innovative touch players. The bowling line-up offers plenty of variation and flexibility thanks to 8 of the team being able to turn there arm over, and finally their fielding abilities should be more than adequate. Since I have dropped Collingwood the only think left to do is to pick a captain. KP would probably be people’s first choice out of the players in my side, but I would rather not give our best batsmen the added pressure of the captaincy so I would side with Mascarenhas. He has the experience of captaining Hampshire, and he is clearly a good thinking cricketer. So in conclusion ability is not an issue with the side I have selected and the problem this world cup was the team selection and the mentality of the captain and coach.

Your thoughts are, as always, very welcome.

Before the competition my two tips for the final were South Africa and Sri Lanka, but unfortunately I did not start blogging until after the tournament began so I have no way of proving it to you guys- you’ll just have to take my word for it. South Africa were always a very safe choice as they were the joint favourites with the bookies along with India, and they looked in good form during the warm up matches. Sri Lanka on the other hand had a terrible time in the warm up matches, and their explosive batting talisman, Jayasuriya, hadn’t got many runs in the recent IPL and looked seriously out of form. Pre tournament it was their bowling attack which in my eyes really stood out, boasting 2 world class spin bowlers in Mendis and Muralitharan, and the best death bowler in the business, Malinga.

However having watched the vast majority of the games so far in the competition I think a strong case could be made for any of the four remaining teams winning the trophy, and it could even be argued that South Africa are the least likely team to win.

South Africa are currently undefeated with a perfect 5 out of 5 record, and they have shown strength in all areas of the game. Typically their fielding performances have been streets ahead of everyone else with de Villiers and Gibbs proving yet again they are masters of the art. Their bowling attack has a good balance to it with Steyn, Kallis and Parnell all offering up generous pace while Botha and Van der Merwe are both progressive spinners who have been able to take wickets and remain fairly economical. The Batting line-up has also looked strong with all four of their top 4 having consistently put up runs, especially Kallis and de Villiers. They also appear to bat deep which is a big advantage in all formats of the game. Bearing all of that in mind you are probably wondering why on earth I think they are probably the least likely team to win the whole thing. Well let me explain.

South Africa, unlike the other three teams left in the tournament, are predictable in their performances. You know exactly what you are going to get from them before the game starts. As a result it will be much easier for their opponents to plan how to combat their strengths rather than the other way round. Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the West Indies on the other hand are full of flair orientated matchwinners which makes them unpredictable and thus hard to plan against before a game. South Africa are a very well organized side but if they are not able to plan properly this could take them out of their comfort zone and thus unsettle them.

Pakistan are always a dangerous side to play against and they are to be commended for reaching the semi finals but their record in the competition so far reads played 5, won 3, lost 2. If you look back at their opponents so far you soon discover the three teams they have beaten are Netherlands, Ireland and New Zealand, and it must be pointed out that the Kiwis were seriously weakened by numerous big name injuries when the two teams met. The two bigger sides Pakistan have played against, namely Sri Lanka and England, have beaten them. In order for Pakistan to triump in the tournament they will need to improve on the performances they have given so far and hope that their star men, Younis Khan, Gul, Akmal and Afridi all fire in tandem. However Pakistan can beat anyone on their day and now they have made it into the straight knockout stages they could still provide an upset.

Exactly the same comment can be made about the West Indies. They are another flair team who can beat anyone and will be tricky opponents now they have reached the knockout stages. People often make the mistake of thinking the West Indies could and should be re-named Gayle and Co in this format of the game but he has had a very quiet tournament since his 88 (off 50) against Australia in the first round and yet they have still made it to the semi finals. Bravo is the best all rounder in the tournament, just piping Kallis to that title in my opninion, Simmons has been a revelation so far with both bat and ball, and Edwards has the ability to ignite the whole bowling attack with his performances. The two veterans Chanderpaul and Sarwan also showed their worth down the order against England and their abilities should not be overlooked. Although both of the West Indian defeats have come against teams still in the tournament, i.e South Africa and Sri Lanka, both of those games were fairly tight, and they have already beaten England, Australia, and India, so a couple more wins against top sides certainly seems possible.

The final flair contenders for the trophy are Sri Lanka and in my opinion they are the team to beat. Like South Africa they remain unbeaten in the tournament and although their fielding is somewhat suspect on occasions I think they can make up for that with their batting and bowling. Dilshan has been in superb form in every game so far and his “frying pan” shots over the keeper will be one of the lasting memories of the tournament in my eyes. Jayasuriya has got better with each innings so far and on his day he can still be as destructive as Gayle at the top of the order. Sangakkara and Jayawardene are also two vastly experienced batsmen who also have the ability to be matchwinners.

Bowlers have been far more influential in this World Twenty20 compared with 2 years ago, and in particular spin bowlers. It is no coincidence that the 4 teams left all have at least two spinners in their attack. With that said Mendis and Muralitharan have been scintillating to watch, and in my opinion have been by far the best spin duo on display so far. Their ability to tie the opposition up in the middle overs has been a joy to behold and has certainly proved decisive in several games already. On top of that Sri Lanka can also call upon the services of Udana, who is well versed in Twenty20, as well as Malinga whose variations often seem to baffle the opposition which makes him an extremely dangerous bowler at the beginning and end of an innings.

As the saying goes “you never see a poor bookie” but on this occasion I think there is a possibility they may be caught out. South Africa have proved in the past they can get through the early stages in big tournaments without incident but “bottle it” when it gets down to the crunch games in the later stages. They haven’t been put under much pressure so far and I think they is a strong chance one of the flair teams left will be able to apply the pressure and produce a big performance to knock them out.

I was discussing this very subject with my brother a few days ago, and he remembered something very interesting. He was sure that when he was 7 or 8 he got a very similar pair free when he bought a Happy Meal from Macdonalds. I am always a sucker for conspiracy theories and I started to wonder. Could it be possible that Macdonalds recently discovered a large stockpile of these glasses which had been completely forgotten about in some warehouse and came up with an ingenious way of getting rid of them? By sponsoring a well liked and cool cricket celebrity such as Chris Gayle who always gets plenty of media attention their chances of starting a craze would be fairly high, particularly during the World Cup. If the craze took off then they would be able to free up warehouse space, get rid of the forgotten shades, and make money selling the glasses to shop retailers. I know in the grand scheme of things this conspiracy is very small fry, but I just needed to focus on something else other than England’s exit before the semi finals. Having said that the more I think about it, the more convinced I become.

Once again, thank you for humouring me, and I promise to get back to the serious stuff in my next blog posting.

If we look at the West Indies team they probably have 4 match winners which once again England will have to keep in check if they are to be victorious. Their strength is undoubtedly in the batting department with their 3 explosive power players being Gayle, Simmonds, and Bravo. Simmonds has been a revelation in this tournament since being drafted in and has played with great freedom, which has allowed his natural ability to shine through. He has even managed to pick up several important wickets along the way. Bravo in my opinion is one of the world’s best all rounders in Twenty20 cricket and his inclusion in the side has made the West Indies realise what they missed in the two test match series against England. He has everything- a good tactical bowler, power hitter, and the best fielder in the side by a mile. Gayle has been kept unnaturally quiet in the competition since a typical 88 against Australia. He is a truly destructive batsman at the top of the order who can take the game away from the opposition in the first five overs. He is due another big innings any day now and I’m just hoping and praying that tonight isn’t the night. Another bad bit of news for England is that he seems to love the Oval, and once again the pavilion will be under serious attack if he has his way.

The last West Indian match winner is their opening bowler Fidel Edwards. We saw earlier in the year he was the natural talisman for the bowling attack, and if he gets them off to a good start with a couple of early wickets the rest of bowlers will have a lot of pressure taken off them, which will allow them to bowl at their optimum. He has however been very expensive in some of the tournament games so far which has left the rest of the attack exposed. His performance will once again be critical.

Against India England managed to build a strong platform to their innings after the loss of the now out of form Wright, thanks to Bopara and KP. This was something which had been sorely missing in their encounter with South Africa and something they must achieve again if they are to win today. The biggest difference however was their intensity. Messrs Broad, Anderson, and Sidebottom all bowled well up front and at the death of the West Indies innings, bowling with pace, accuracy and intelligence. Their efforts were backed up superbly by every single player in the field, with particular praise going to Luke Wright’s boundary rope exploits. The whole team looked like they weren’t prepared to give India a sniff of optimism when they were batting and this was perfectly demonstrated by James Foster’s sublime stumping of Yuvraj, which was without doubt the final turning point in the match. He has been criticised so far in the tournament for not batting as well as we all know he can, but if he doesn’t do anything with the bat in the rest of the tournament his place will have been justified in my opinion. A world class gloveman is worth his weight in gold.

So, with the English coach refusing to pick the “Forgotten Man” (AKA Napier) instead of Shah, who has scored some runs but at no point has given the impression he is in control of the situation, the team will probably remain unchanged. Regular readers (if there are any!!!) will know that I am a big fan of Dimi Mascarenhas and although he had a low par performance with the bat against India I think that can be explained by him being promoted up the order, and thus coming to the crease in the 11th over. He is a last 5 over specialist and he looked like he thought he had to play in a more cultured fashion because he went in so early. If England don’t mess around with the batting line up again and let him play to his strengths he could have a big game tonight.

In conclusion England need to start off well again with the bat, build a platform, replicate the intensity they had against India in every facet of game, and subdue the Windie’s 4 dangermen. Simple really, but if England’s Jekyll and Hyde personality returns we could be in line for a thrashing.
Once again, GOOD LUCK BOYS.

England on the other hand continued their Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde behaviour by capitulating to South Africa days after their critical, and very encouraging, win against Pakistan. It is hard to overemphasise quite how bad they were against South Africa, and the only positive that can be taken from that game is that their net run rate wasn’t totally destroyed thanks to South Africa dawdling in their run chance. In a group where net run rate can still play a pivotal role this could be a crucial factor.

So, with both teams looking to bounce back, and both needing the win, we should be in for a thriller this afternoon. Since their win in the last Twenty20 World Cup India have continued on an upward spiral defeating Australia, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka in their own backyards in the Twenty20 format of the game. You don’t become a bad team overnight and India have plenty of match winners which England need to stifle in order to secure the win. In the batting department the in-form Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, and the “floating” MS Dhoni are all danger players, while Harbhjan Singh and Zaheer Khan are the stars of their bowling attack. Having said that, no player in the Indian side should be underestimated as they are all extremely well versed in this format of the game.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again England have so much ability and numerous individual match winners in their side it is incredible that they have not been far more consistent in the tournament so far. England’s problem is that either every player plays to their potential and get plenty of runs or wickets, or no one steps up and does the job – they are all or nothing. We don’t seem to be able to put in a performance where 3 or 4 players play superbly, win the game, and thus make up for the poor performances of others in the team that day.

In order for England to win it is essential we manage to get a good start to our innings. At least one of the openers needs to get a good number of runs in a good amount of time by capitalising on the power play overs. By doing this some of the pressure will be removed from the lower and middle orders which hopefully will enable them to play their natural game rather than playing catch up. I really thing we also need to look at getting Napier into the side. I am a big fan of Dimitri Mascarehnas but he looks too high at six in the batting line-up. He is a very good death batsmen who has the all important six hitting ability but in the South Africa game he got to the crease too early and his strengths were diminished as a result. He would be better suited to batting at 7. The Indians are very good players of spin so I would not look to play two spinners against them. Cases could be made for either of them staying in the team but I would probably look to drop Swann. I would replace him with the forgotten man of the squad, Mr Napier. He is a proven power hitter who would greatly strengthen the middle order, and he bowls between 85 and 90 mph so we wouldn’t necessarily be weakening our bowling attack.

Whatever the line up is we will have to see later if England decide to have a Doctor Jekyll or a Mr Hyde day.
GOOD LUCK BOYS.