0

Surprising everyone, Strauss won the toss and elected to bowl first. James Anderson started off well and Bresnan leaked runs. By the end of over 9, Australia were 45/0, Anderson had given 11 in 5 overs, Bressie 34 in 4 overs! I don't know a lot about bowling but I know a few ways of taking wickets. If you keep it tight from both ends, the batsmen will get frustated and they will try to hit you, giving you a chance to get them out. Yardy got the breakthrough. A sharp stumping by Kieswetter off Swann, got rid of Punter. It took England a while to take the third wicket of Watson for 61. Watson rarely gets past 50s so this must be an achievement. Then England kept taking wickets at regular wickets and the Australians never seemed to get out of trouble. Anderson and Broad wrapped the Australian innings for 212 by taking 4 wickets in 3 overs. Awesome stuff from Anderson.
                                                       Kieswetter was bowled by Tait in the first over of the innings. Young lad gone but we have a long batting to come. England would chase this modest total easily. I didn't watch much of England's batting thinking that they would chase it comfortably and slowly. During this time, I watched a bit of a movie, England vs Germany, surfed the net with an eye on the score. I only took interest in the match when England were 7 down. And I left the computer for tv when Swann got out. When Broad got out, I really thought Australia would take it from here and whitewashing plans would be over. But Bressie, the Yorky took us home in Lanky. We've better bowlers than him but he is gonna play some matches now. What a win. The first close match of the series. 3-0. Swann got the Man Of The Match award with his 4 wickets. The ever smiling Strauss is happy with the win and his 87. Cheers!

England On The Way To Winning 5-0!

Posted: Saturday, June 26, 2010 by Sanya Michelangelo in Labels: , , , , , , , ,
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In the first match, the first 8 batsmen of the Australian team and the first 7 batsmen of the English team got starts. The difference between the two teams were the highest run scorers- Michael Clarke (87* from 97 deliveries) and Eoin Morgan (103* from 85 deliveries). Morgan isn't one of those hitters who had a lucky day, he was 10 from 18 deliveries and later, 27 from 31 deliveries. I doubt Morgan's place in Tests but he can play according to the situation in One dayers. He can do whatever the team needs, without showing any expressions. You can never tell if he is nervous, anxious or panicking. You can't even tell if he has missed the last delivery or struck a boundary on it.
                                                         The 2nd ODI was what it was expected to be. I've always liked Cardiff. Cardiff is where Stuart Broad made his debut. It's where Bangladesh defeated Australia. It's where the 1st Ashes Test was played last year, in which Johnson kept bowling crap to tail-enders and Australia couldn't get Jimmy or Monty out. Oh, by the way, Stuart Broad took his 100th wicket on Thursday and he is the 14th fastest to take 100 wickets in the world.
                                  
                      Fastest to take 100 Wickets
                  Player                Opposition      Ground         Matches                         



Saqlain Mushtaq (Pak) v Sri Lanka Gwalior


53
SE Bond (NZ) v England Adelaide


54
B Lee (Aus) v England Melbourne


55
Waqar Younis (Pak) v Zimbabwe Sharjah


59
IK Pathan (India) v Pakistan Abu Dhabi


59
DK Lillee (Aus) v Zimbabwe Nottingham


60
SK Warne (Aus) v West Indies Melbourne


60
Shoaib Akhtar (Pak) v New Zealand Karachi


60
NW Bracken (Aus) v South Africa Basseterre


60
CEL Ambrose (WI) v India Melbourne


61
IR Bishop (WI) v Sri Lanka Adelaide


61
C Pringle (NZ) v Sri Lanka Christchurch


62
D Gough (Eng) v Kenya Canterbury


62
SCJ Broad (Eng) v Australia Cardiff


62
AA Donald (SA) v Kenya Nairobi (Gym)


64

















This is the best time for English cricket. I've never seen them








winning so much. Given Australia's attitude in this series,










England may go on to win this series 5-0. Australia's approach 
      is similar to England's approach in the 6-1 series last year.
       Coming back to the 2nd ODI, among the England bowlers,
    everyone ended up with good figures, except James Anderson. Bresnan hasn't taken any wicket in this series yet. Looks like
     Luke is developing into an all-rounder for the England team. He has done well with the ball for Sussex already. Broady bagged
  4 wickets and got the Man Of The Match award. Morgan scored
  52 and he is at the top for the Man Of The Series award.
  Don't miss the live action on Sunday at Old Trafford, Manchester, Jimmy's home ground, at 9:45 GMT. Until then, goodbye. Cheers!

Centurian Morgan guides England to victory against Australia!

Posted: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 by Sanya Michelangelo in Labels: , , , , ,
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Australia won the toss and decided to bat first at Rose Bowl in the 1st One Day International against rivals England. The memories of ICC World T20 2010 final must be fresh. Their decision was obvious as batting under lights is never easy. Anderson, who had commentated that he probably would not play unless England plays only one spinner, played despite England opting for 2 spinners. Sidebottom is injured, yet again. Given how much he gets injured, people should not be notified when he gets injured, the real news is when he is not injured. Anderson and Bresnan started things off. They did bowl well in the start but could not produce any wicket. There were two expensive overs in the first 8 overs, one each by Anderson and Bresnan. In both of those overs, Watson struck two boundaries. Broad bowled the 9th over and after being smacked for two boundaries, he got the man. Watson was gone, which brought Ponting in. After Ponting's longest break in his career (10 weeks), he hit 17 against Middlesex and 33 against Ireland. On the last bowl of the 13th over, Anderson missed the chance of taking a spectacular catch. It wasn't that easy but we've seen JJimmy taking catches like those. Paine was relieved while Broady sighed.

                                           Surprisingly, Strauss brought Wright in the 14th over. Not like I mind Wright being brought on, it's just that it felt like Wright is in the team to field, to chatter around with everyone and have champagne after each win. Anyways, Wright bowled Paine in his first over and got rid of Ponting in the 18th over. Time for spin, Yardy brought on. Anderson was brought back in the 22nd over, not disappointing, he got White. At this stage, Australia were struggling at 98/4. Now Australia would be all out for less than 200, England would win comfortably, another one sided victory.....or so I thought. Now was the time for quick bowling changes- Yardy bowled the 23rd over, Anderson 24th, Wright 25th, Swann 26th. Good strategy by Strauss. I'm sure no one would have felt left out. Okay, may be KP and Colly. But KP did enough while fielding to get attention as usual. Australia did well to reach 168/4 until the Michael-Michael partnership was broken by Yardy. Strauss just had too many options. The bowler for every over remained a mystery throughout the innings. Australia finished their innings on 267/7 with Michael Clarke not out at 87. Wright had the best figures- 2/34. Broad and Anderson too picked up two wickets each but Broad was slightly expensive. Broad's figures are similar in most matches. I would be surprised if he ever goes wicket less in an ODI. Yardy was the only bowler who bowled 10 overs, he took one wicket for 41 but he bowled better than that. Swann too bowled better than 0/44. Bresnan finished with 0/49. Personally, I have never wanted him in the team. I'm always surprised at seeing his name in the team because given that we have an awful lot of world class fast bowlers, I don't understand why he is playing. But, he hasn't really disappointed England much in One dayers. Stuart Broad now has 99 wickets in 61 matches, watch out for his 100th in the next match.
                                      As compared to Australia's 98/4, England reached 97/4 when Collingwood got out.Yardy's name was written above Wright in the scorecard but I wanted Straussy to send Wright when England were struggling at 97/4. True, Wright isn't that kind of player that you would send when you are in trouble, but he must have gained some confidence by scoring runs with Morgan in the ICC World Twenty20. Wright and Morgan did pretty well to take England to 192/5 until Harris got Wright. By now, I had got used to watching England win so I never felt like they would lose. Pie eating Yorkshireman came in next, I must find out who is such a big fan of him in the England staff. Michael Holding kept saying that when you have Stuart Broad coming in at No.10, then you obviously have a long batting. Swann must have smiled at that. I've only seen him bat before Broad once, when Cooky was captain in Bangladesh. Oh, that reminds me, he has been named as the captain of England Lions for matches against A sides of India and West Indies. On the tour of Bangladesh, Cooky had said that Kieswetter has made a place for himself in England One Day side. Did Cooky think about his own place? I don't think so. How often does it happen that a stand-in captain is dropped and no one is surprised? Coming back to yesterday's match, Bresnan fell when England needed 5 to win, Morgan needed 1 to reach score his 3rd ODI ton. Yardy came in and took a single. Morgan finished the game with a boundary. Both his centuries for England have been memorable and at least this time he knew he hit a century. The pitch was pretty fast today. Wright reached 86 mph, Anderson and Broad 90.9 mph while Harris reached  96.5 mph. Josh Hazelwood became the youngest player to star in a One Day International for Australia. Don't miss the 2nd ODI on Thursday. Cheers!

ICC World Twenty20 2010

Posted: Thursday, June 17, 2010 by Sanya Michelangelo in Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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So, England have won an ICC event finally. Now, no one can say that my team have never won an ICC event during banters. Sorry for the late post, didn't have internet. And I could only watch a bit of the semi-final and final live. Watched the earlier games though. I really enjoyed watching them this time, Morgan, Wright, KP and Kieswetter were awesome. Others played well too and Lumb and Kieswetter scored almost the same in some matches but I really enjoyed Kieswetter's reactions while stumping. The victory is rather unbelievable and pleasant. I got to know about it through a news channel the next morning. I've seen England play superbly and lost many times. Referring to the post, "England vs Bangladesh 2nd ODI" I would like to say that Bangladesh wasn't the better side in that match, Morgan proved that England is the better side. No one wants their team to lose but the truth is that the love for your team increases when your team plays well and loses. Now I know why I love England so much. Bangladesh has moments of awesome play in many matches but they fail to win, except against Zimbabwe off course. Bangladesh had the highest percentage of winning ODIs last year. They played mostly against Zimbabwe. Looking forward to the game against Scotland. Cheers for the World Twenty20 win. Until next time, take care.