India v England - Official seventh ODI match thread

[Vrock]

The final match of the series will take place at Indore. After bring some respect back to the series score at 4-1 England will be again going for a consolation second victory of this long series bring them back to 4-2 or will India steal the final game from England for a 5-1 series victory.

Will India decide to stick with the same line up of players in a mixture of youth and experience? Again going for an opening pair of inexperienced bowlers backed up by the mystery of Harbhajan Singh.

With a fragile batting unit in the abscence of captain Rahul Dravid could we see an extra batsmen brought into the side?

England's batting line up has seen a lot of changes this series: Owais Shah started and has been dropped after a poor run of scores; Vikram Solanki has been up and down the order when other players have been out and has also struggled; Ian Bell has played one game opening and did well, will he be opening again? Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood have had the order in which they appear change most games, placing Collingwood between the Pietersen and Flintoff seems to work well, will this continue?

England's bowlers seem to pick themselves with the level of injuries to the squad. If the pitch is more spin friendly than it was in Jamshedpur will England choose to play Gareth Batty as the second spinning option? If so, who is most likely to be dropped for him?

There are many things for the teams to consider, all of your pre-match thoughts are welcome here.

[Mr Hutt]

England 257/5 with 5 overs to go..... after KP bashed indian bowlers to all corners of the park... Collingwood and GO jones thank god he fnally started playing took on the fight to the indians... Jones just got out for a well played 56 while collingwood is still at the crease for 63 england showing definate and ominous signs of life in tis last ODI alas if they could only do this a couple of matches earlier!!!!

[Crunchy]

Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood have had the order in which they appear change most games, placing Collingwood between the Pietersen and Flintoff seems to work well, will this continue?

I dont think it really matters Flintoff is finished as a top line one day player imo. flintoff is a shadow of his former self. With 2 fifties in 25 innings and a mediocre bowling record in that time. He should retire from the mickey mouse games before burnout does irreversible damage.

[Alison]

Why are both keepers playing again? I really don't understand this policy.

[Vrock]

We'd have hoped that England would have learned their lesson by now at playing two wicket keepers, certainly GO Jones has completely out classed Prior by scoring 50 more runs than Prior did, and he had a very clever piece of deception to out gun Uthappa (debutant) to a run out.

India have batted very well and kept wickets in hand till the end, currently require 36 runs from 30. Nice tense finish hopefully.

[Vrock]

India win the game by seven wickets, congratulations to the Indian batting order who played very well with all batsmen getting half centuries apart from Pathan who didn't get the chance to reach it. A very good series win at 5-1, well done.

[Rifat]

A one-sided ODI series

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Crunchy

flintoff is a shadow of his former self.

Flintoff had the best England batting average in the ODIs in Pakistan - 46.75. He had a bad series in India - 18.25.

ODI
Career avarage dropped from 34.87 to 34.28 in last 25 matches. Average in last 25 matches is 32.66.
In India: 18.25. In Pakistan: 46.75

Test
Career avarage improved from 32.98 to 33.47 in last 19 matches. Average in last 19 matches is 34.45.
In India: 52.80. In Pakistan: 20.83

ICC ODI Rankings for batting:
18/09/2004 (7) - 07/07/2005 (23) - 21/12/2005 (11) - 25th March 2006 (14)
This ranking will drop even further after the results in India are included in the next update.

It's fair to say that his ODI batting is on a gradual decline but that could be due to the amount of cricket he has played and his extra bowling duties. Botham suffered a more pronounced decline in his twilight years. I think Flintoff should be completely rested from Test and ODIs against Sri Lanka so he is refreshed for the Pakistan series otherwise he will end up a shadow of his former self.

[Collyisamackem]

I agree Mike, I suggested as much recently which brought up issues of "rotation". However, Flintoff needs a prolonged rest - not just for two ODIs. We are capable of beating Sri Lanka without him, though I hope that does not come across as arrogance. I just feel we have enough in us to beat them, for instance if we selected the following team with a largely strengthened batting line-up and a number of part-timers (Colly, Bell, even KP not that he has an international wicket to his name!) to carry the work of a fifth bowler:

Tresco
Strauss
Vaughan
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
G Jones
Hoggard (or Giles at 8 if fit)
S Jones
Harmison
Panesar (unless Giles is fit)

Cook and Shah would come into contention for batting spots, but in the interests of continuity I'd go for that line-up because we must rest Freddie. Plunkett and Anderson would also come into contention with the ball, added to Plunkett's potential as an all-rounder.

I'm disappointed we let such a big total be overhauled, but India are masters at that right now and we must not underestimate the sides they have successfully chased similar totals against recently with more experienced and streetwise attacks.

[greg]

Well Colly you will have make a minimum of 1 change to that team as Vaughan won't be fit for the Sri Lanka series so i hear,that will mean that Flintoff will have to play as he will be captain.I think we are more likely to see Flintoff rested for one day matches than tests as we need to find a couple of bowlers for the world cup we don't need to find anyone for the ashes.

As for today,well played India they have been by far the better side in this series and i am glad that the annihilation is now over and we are coming home.