A Charity Match

[amiret]

England will win this match it's just a matter of when. They will bat until after lunch and then get stuck in to India batters. It's not England's fault but the cricket has been uninteresting. It is not a contest. It is quite obvious that England can win the match whenever they want. They are dominating that much. If you are looking for competitive cricket you are not going to find it in this Test match. England are delivering good stuff with intensity and good professionalism but they are playing an Indian side that I do not recognise. The question everybody keeps asking is how the hell did India get to number one in the world playing like this? They look a shadow of even an average team. The bowlers try hard but are military medium and the fielding at times is so unathletic it beggars belief. There are players walking around just waiting for the close of play and expecting England to win the game. Rahul Dravid put down two straightforward catches at first slip and Sreesanth dropped a sitter at point. The bowlers must feel demoralised bowling to this excellent England side on a good pitch and with no help whatsoever from their colleagues in the team. Cook was the star of the show having to work quite hard early on against little seamers where he has to hunt for the ball on the front foot. His confidence was obviously down after four failures and you could see the relief when he celebrated his half-century. After that he relaxed and it was plain sailing. Occasionally Kumar bowled a few good balls and so did Sharma but they were so out of luck that whenever England batsmen got a good ball they played and missed or nicked it short of the fielders. Andrew StraussÃÔ innings was nicely put together until he got himself out sweeping. Ian BellÃÔ was a funny innings. It looked to me as if he was over confident attempting outrageous shots too early and I never felt he would last long. Kevin Pietersen played almost disdainfully taking runs wherever he wanted until he got too far over and misjudged where his off stump was. By the end of play we had Raina and Tendulkar bowling and it looked like a charity match.

Geoffrey Boycott

[amiret]

The telegraph is asking this question from it's readers . Even our opponents feel sorry for us.

Does India’s pitiful show take the gloss off England’s efforts? Michael Holding reckoned that “England’s achievement [of being on the cusp of number one] has been devalued by the performance of this India team”. Only the English could feel a bit downhearted when hammering the best team in the world, but we are what we are, and for every fan glorying in England’s superb cricket, there must be one who is sorry to see such a mismatched contest.

[Fontaine]

Boycott is right. We've got Sehwag out there who can barely throw the ball over his shoulder. He's just rolling the ball back when he fields. That says it all. The entire cricketing world is laughing at us because the BCCI/management were stupid/arrogant enough to think this team could just walk into England a few days before the first test with almost no preperation and get the job done.

[Sooda]

To answer Geoff, they DID NOT get to no 1 playing like this. Hence why they are unrecognisable. Its all too embarassing.

[Pagalpanti]

This Indian team has truly embarrassed India and Indians. The show they've put up is nothing short of pathetic, but it has been only this series. India got to no.1 by winning matches they couldn't have. India deserved no.1 spot while it was there, and rightly will lose it after this pathetic show.