Life is a Rollercoaster - England Story

[Chasjs]

Series Reaction
Series drawn 1-1

It's disappointing to lose the last Test the way we did. To be bowled out for so little and lose the series is a bit of a kick in the teeth. Still, we were competitive against a good side which is encouraging. Woakes an Finn did okay with the ball although maybe Finn was a little expensive. Woakes meanwhile performed really well with the bat with a top score of 61 in only this 6th Test. Cook and Cobb were a little disappointing but so were all the other batsmen in the final two Tests with Ambrose the exception. He did no harm to his hold on the gloves with some impressive batting. The drawn series means another rankings point but anything but a win against Pakistan will make it meaningless.

Man of the Series - Swann, 18 wickets at 17.67, 2 5 wicket hauls, best of 7-121, by far the pick of the bowlers.


Magic moment - Swann halts India in the second Test.

[Chasjs]

The ECB Selection Committee has announced the 15 man squad for the ODI Series at home to India:

ECB Selection Committee
A Cook*
J Anderson
I Bell
R Bopara
J Clare
S Davies
S Finn
A Flintoff
E Morgan
K Pietersen
A Rashid
G Swann
C Woakes
L Wright
M Yardy

Four changes from the World Cup squad. Perhaps suprisingly Strauss misses out, despite good form with Cook replacing him in the squad. Collingwood missing out, Vaughan's retirement and Broad's injury give oppertunities to Clare, Morgan and Finn.

The committee also named Cook as the ODI captain. This, though, is no huge suprise as he was rumoured to be the favourite as soon as Strauss confirmed he would be stepping down.

It is also thought that Cook will be opening the batting with wicket-keeper Davies as England look for a long term opening partnership in the shorter form of the game. Davies when recently asked on the subject said he was open to the idea of opening in the shorter formats and commented that he would look to emulate other wicket-keepers like Gilchrist who have done so successfully in the past.

[Chasjs]

First T20

The team selected for the two games was the same.


England won the toss and batted first.
Lost quick wickets early, Flintoff, Morgan and Yardy did a good job to help produce a competitive total.

The bowlers were a little expensive but Tendulkar and Patel played really well, Anderson did well, taking 4 wickets.

India win by 5 wickets
Man of the Match - Sharma
England Man of the Match - Flintoff, good batting display, pretty decent with the ball aswell.
Other Notable Mentions - Morgan, Yardy, Woakes, Anderson
Poor Game - Rashid, Davies, Wright, Bopara

[Frosty10]

how come this has not been updated in a while

[Chasjs]

how come this has not been updated in a while

Been busy, I'll get round to it soon though.

[Chasjs]

First ODI

Cook opens with Davies. After a good innings in the T20 Morgan starts at 6. Yardy retains his place in the squad, favoured over Clare and Rashid. Woakes beats off competition from Finn and replaces the injured Broad.

India win the toss and choose to bat.
England bowl well early on allowing Swann and Yardy to again get on top of the opposition in the middle overs. Vijay bats well but is kept under control, as is Patel early on. But Englands pace bowlers take some punishment in the late overs from Patel and Jadeja pushing India up to 251/7.

After losing Davies England get off to a good start. Cook plays well but doesn't go on to a big score. Bopara gets a start and fails, Morgan does equally well as England started to look like they would cruise to victory. Wright never gets going and is eventually run out by Pietersen. As the run rate starts to climb Pietersen swings and misses next over and finds himself bowled.

After that England put up little resistance as the final 3 wickets fall next over and lose by 40 runs.

India win by 40 runs
Man of the Match - Patel
England Man of the Match - Pietersen
Other Notable Mentions - Swann, Yardy, Cook
Poor Game - Flintoff, Woakes, Davies

[CyberCricketer]

A disappointing result, considering your England team bat all the way down to 9.

[Chasjs]

A disappointing result, considering your England team bat all the way down to 9.

Yeah... I've done the next 3, just need to find time to type them (Pad, Pen, Aus vs Pak on TV, ICC09 on laptop, ). Don't get your hopes up.

EDIT: And I'm sure Woakes would say 10... Anderson would say 11 though but... nah...

[Frosty10]

how come this hasn't been updated for a while

[Chasjs]

ICC10, holidays, general busyness, lack of access to my desktop among other things..

Considering an ICC10 story but that might have to wait.

Believe it or not I still play ICC09 occasionally, I've got a cracking Lancs game.

[Chasjs]

Second ODI

England are unchanged for the second match of the series.

India win the toss and bat.
THey start well only losing Vijay early. Gambhir and Tendulker bat well but the spinners tie them down in the middle overs. Gambhir is bowled by Flintoff in the first ball of the batting powerplay for 74 after a partnership of 122 and the score on 163. Tendulker survives a run out appeal but slices to the slips 2 balls later. Anderson picks up Tiwary in the next over.

Sehwag gets a golden duck with Flintoff replicating his dismissal of Tendulker. The two Lancs bowlers continue to take wickets cleaning up the tail for 213.

England lose both openers early and it's left to Pietersen and Bopara rebuild. Pietersen makes 50 but can't progress. Flintoff and Morgan follow him. Wright makes a decent contribution but after he, Bopara and Yardy fall in quick succession it's left for the last 3 to make 77. THey put up a good fight, batting till the end of the innings but can't score quickly enough.

India win by 28 runs
Man of the Match - I Pathan
England Man of the Match - Anderson
Other Notable Mentions - Pietersen, Flintoff Swann
Poor Game - Davies, Morgan

[Chasjs]

Third ODI

England are again unchanged.

India win the toss but this time put England in.
England start slowly making 75 before losing Davies at the end of the 20th over for 39. Cook makes 51. Pietersen bats well at the other end and looks to accelerate the innings. But he only makes 45 and with few other sizeable contributions England stumble to 248.

India make a solid start with wickets hard to come by for the England bowlers. Gambhir plays exceptionally well smashing 153 not out off 151 balls.

Partnerships of 115 and 99 with Vijay(44) and Tendulker(33) respectively help India to a comfortable victory in the penultimate over.

India win by 7 wickets
Man of the Match - Gambhir
England Man of the Match - Pietersen
Other Notable Mentions - Cook, Anderson
Poor Game - Bopara, Morgan

[Chasjs]

Fourth ODI

England make a couple of changes for the fourth match. The out of form WOakes is dropped in favour of Finn, who makes his debut. Bell also comes into the side for regular Wright as England look to solidify their batting lineup.

England win the toss and elect to bat.
The England innings follows a similar pattern to the last with no batsman able to contribute with a big score. England this time are bowled out for just 209.

India have no problems chasing down the required runs with a Gambhir(70) and Tendulkar(90*) scoring the bulk of the runs sharing a 113 partnership.

Tendulker finishes the job in the 41st over with India taking their fourth ODI win in four games vs England.

India win by 7 wickets
Man of the Match - Tendulker
England Man of the Match - Swann
Other Notable Mentions - Cook, Bopara
Poor Game - Flintoff, Davies, Pietersen, Bell, Morgan

[Chasjs]

Fifth ODI

Clare and Woakes come into the side for the final ODI of the series replacing Yardy and Morgan.

England win the toss and choose to bat.
Englands lose early wickets yet again. Cook makes a painful 19 but can't go on. Bell and Flintoff look to stop the rot but Bell can only manage 27 and Flintoff 17.

Clare is the only England batsman that looks comfortable but India wrap up the tail with ease for 145 leaving Clare on a well player 44 off 67 not out.

India batsman face yet another easy chase and they don't disappoint. They start slowly with Woakes taking a good catch at short leg to dismiss Vijay off Finn for 10. Further wickets from Woakes himself and two from Anderson only dent Indias hopes with Sehwag striking Anderson for 2 fours in the 34th over to complete a whitewash for India.

India win by 6 wickets
Man of the Match - M Patel
England Man of the Match - Clare, the only batsman to make anything substantial. Unfortunate in that he didn't get a chance to bowl.
Other Notable Mentions - Finn, Anderson, Swann
Poor Game - Flintoff, Davies, Pietersen, Bopara

[Chasjs]

Series Reaction
India win the Series 5-0

A disappointing ODI series where we were outclassed in all departments. The major problems being in the batting where only 4 50s were scored, 2 apiece by Pietersen and Cook and batsmen not scoring quickly enough.

Man of the Series - Anderson

Bowled quite well throughout, averaging 18.18 and taking 11 wickets, most of which coming in the second ODI taking career best figures. His performances see him move up to second in the world ODI rankings.

Magic Moment - Anderson 6-38 in the second game

The Lancashire swing bowler ripped through Indias batting order showing he can bowl well with the white ball with a performance that should've set up an England victory.

Pakistan up next.