I see trees in green, red roses too and England in blue! Yeah, after playing seven ODIs in red, England are back in blue. England and Pakistan started the Champions Trophy in perfect style by winning two matches. England lost their third to New Zealand while Pakistan too lost their third match to unbeaten Australia. England were the underdogs going into the tournament, now they are the favourites! England played their first match at Wanderers, where the pitch helps the bowlers. Winning the toss at Wanderers almost wins you the match. James Anderson and Graham Onions striked early with Sri Lanka struggling at 17/4. England then let Sri Lanka recover a bit. The fifth wicket fell at 81 and England should have brought jimmy back to bowl them out quickly. It was clear that England came out with plans and they wanted to stick to their plans. Collingwood and Wright bowled some overs. They were bowling well but they are not wicket takers. Broad and Anderson then finished the Sri Lankan innings for 212. England lost two early wickets and that scared me a bit because the only England batsman who looked reliable throughout the summer was gone. But Colly, Shah, Morgan and Prior finished the job with the bat. Strauss must not be happy that England lost 4 wickets but nevertheless, at least they chased it. This match was held at Wanderers, where the ball swung. And when the ball swings, there is no one better than James Anderson. I thought he deserved the Man Of The Match with figured of 3-20 in 9.3 overs. But Collingwood it, must be happy. Colly and Shah were very keen to make their mark in this tournament, didn't do well in the one day series against Australia where Shah got the starts but got out hit wicket once, run out a few times.
England did much better in their 2nd match. Winning the toss and choosing to bat first at Centurion, England scored 323! Unbelievable! Strauss can now trust his batsmen a bit. England scored most of their tuns in the middle overs. Shah and Collingwood shared a partnership of 163. Shah fell at 98, Collingwood 82. Morgan made 67 in just 34 deliveries! England smacked South Africa for 12 sixes. I had heard Kepler Wessels saying that England don't have power players. What does he think now? Most commentators had completely written off England, especially their batting. True, it's hard to expect England to score 323 but I had always thought that England have power players, even without KP and Freddie. England have proved that winning is not about 2-3 players, it's about the team effort, the fielding, the confidence and the spirit. Nick Knight had said that England have the potential but so they have the confidence to be a good one day side? They are not as bad in one day as people suggest. They defeated South Africa 4-0 last year and West Indies 3-2 earlier this year. West Indies are not as good as they used to be but this series was played before their top players had feud with their Board. Even then, West Indies wasn't among top teams but most teams lose when they play in the Caribbean, England didn't. Back to the match against South Africa, Smith played a crappy innings of 141. Crappy because his shots didn't impress me, he was dropped, he was out lbw, wasn't given. England had plans for Gibbs, which worked. Anderson took the first wicket. When teams are chasing 300+, they should try to keep the wickets in hand rather than trying to score at a high run rate. When Swanny bowled Duminy, I thought England should win it from here and when Anderson bowled Boucher, it was over for South Africa. South Africa had to score 313 to keep their chances of going into the semi final alive but they didn't. Anderson finished with figures of 3-42. He took one of his wickets with cross seam, which was a bit surprising and he also bowled an in-swinger in the last ten overs, which was awesome. He does swing the ball both ways consistently.
England lost the toss at Wanderers. New Zealand decided to bowl first as expected. England were strauggling at 18/3 when Collingwood came in, who showed some resistance. Collinwood scored 40, Bopara 30. England were 117/9 when James Anderson cameo out to bat and England took the batting powerplay! As if jimmy is a hitter. England do all the funny things so why not take the batting powerplay when Sidebottom and Anderson are batting? Jimmy may not be a hitter but Sidebottom did hit a few boundaries and jimmy hit a shot which cleared the fielders in the circle! It was a weird shot and it was the first time I have seen jimmy play a shot like that. I think he should just stick to his natural style of batting. We now how stubborn he can be. He showed that at Cardiff. New Zealand let the last pair add 29 to the total. England were bowled out for 146. Though they did well to bat for 43.1 overs. After two fantastic matches, England gave us a horrible show of batting. But we forgive them for it, we are too busy celebrating the two wins. They cannot be blamed for this. They were victims of a deadly pitch. The pitch helped the Kiwi bowlers in the whole innings. Even M S Dhoni took a wicket here in India's last match against West Indies. He hasn't take any wicket in first class matches. New Zealand started their run chase pretty well McCullum's slogs and edges, which went for fours. Lady luck was with them. May be because England players weren't looking as good as they usually do. The first wicket fell at 84. New Zealand were 113/2 and 118/4. They chased the target with the loss of 6 wickets so the momentum is still with England going into the semi final. Broad took 4, Anderson 1, Sidebottom 1.