Andrew Strauss
A moment of silence, and then scream! This is what the match between India and England deserves. If you are weak hearted this was not a match you should have seen.
Everyone thought that the match would be India’s after making a total like 338, then when Captain Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell were in the middle everyone thought it would be England’s game; then again Zaheer Khan struck taking three out of no where and suddenly the momentum was on India’s side, but two sixes in Piyush Chawla’s over put this match where it should have been, as a tie.
Catching back your breath, this match is something nobody will ever get over; on one hand it should have been India’s match after making such a total but then again England fought tooth and nail and deserved a win as well.
This match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore in India was electric with no seat empty in sight, India won the toss and elected to bat first, it was a brilliant toss to win.
Virender Sehwag had a shaky start with his first delivery almost getting edged and caught behind but went on to the boundary instead, a horrible day for James Anderson, Sehwag made 35 runs of 26 balls and was dismissed by Tim Bresnan.
What can be said about Sachin Tendulkar that has already not been said over and over again? He is simply indescribable making his 5th World Cup century a record; it seems everything this man seems to be doing now is setting some record or another.
But he will be disappointed as another century of his goes to waste with India managing a tie. Sachin made 120 runs of 115 balls and his wicket was claimed by the very unlucky James Anderson.
Gautam Gambhir along with Sachin made a very healthy partnership; individually he made 51 runs of 61 balls before his wicket was taken by Graeme Swann.
Yuvraj Singh regained some of his form in this match making 58 runs of 50 balls but he was dismissed ultimately by Michel Yardy.
Bresnan was the bowler for England; he took 5 wickets of 48 runs. He took the wickets in quick succession that of Yusuf Pathan who made 14 runs of 8 balls we all know how dangerous he can be but today couldn’t do much. Virat Kohli another man who we know can tilt a match in your favour but even he didn’t do anything worth while today making just 8 runs of 5 balls and Harbhajan Singh was dismissed on a duck. The last 7 batsman fell like a pack of cards, one can’t help but think they were over confident with the total and didn’t put in that extra bit of effort to make the total truly unbeatable.
India made 338 runs all out in 49.5 overs which England would be required to chase in 6.78 runs per over.
England began their innings in style as well scoring a boundary much like Sehwag did.
Captain Andrew Strauss led his team from the front, quite literally, making 158 runs of 145 balls and Kevin Pietersen made 31 runs of 22 balls. KP was dismissed by Munaf Patel in a strange caught and bowled. Jonathan Trott made only 16 runs of 19 balls a rarity from him as he is always a high run scorer; he was dismissed by Piyush Chawla.
Ian Bell along with the captain took the match out of Indians hands making 69 runs of 71 balls but in the end started cramping and fell to Zaheer Khan who came back with a bang in his second spell. Zaheer also dismissed Andrew Strauss a delivery later along with Paul Collingwood in his next over. So new batsmen on the crease and suddenly India was given a new life, eventually Grame Swann and Ajmal Shahzad lead England to the tie when everything thought the match was with India, Piyush Chawla’s last over did the damage for India getting hit for two 6’s.
Truly a match that will make you feel like you are on a see-saw that just wont stop.
The man of the match award went to Andrew Strauss for his 158 runs of 145 balls, well deserved, but you can’t help but think that if this match is a tie then even Sachin Tendulkar deserved the award, why not make it a full fledged tie?
Both teams have to do some serious thinking, especially with respect to the bowling. A match which had 676 runs and 17 wickets must have had drastic mistakes from both sides.
Both teams played like champions, both deserved to win, so a tie it is!
For the fans sake, this match went down to the wire and the prayers and touching of wood went to both sides not knowing whether to laugh or cry. As Harsha Bhogle said “This match was like a film, you didn’t want either side to loss so they both won”.
The World Cup is suddenly alive and has shown us that India is not unbeatable and England cannot be dismissed just yet.
Tags: Andrew Strauss, Bangalore, Cricket, ENG, England, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, IND, India, M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Man Of The Match, Sachin Tendulkar, World Cup
