I reckon you're being a bit harsh PC. I've always found Nostro to be one of the most knowledgable and fair minded posters on here and if he says it looked out I'm sure he's right. I didn't see the incident he is mentioning so can't comment at this stage. Like all of us he is a committed supporter of his country and thats fair enough. He must be pulling his hair out at this stage though so his anxst is understandable.

The Indian commentator on TMS certainly was not prepared to complain or blame the umpire. Apparently he was well forward and even though the ball in question did not turn much, the preceding few had and the umpire might well have expected the subject ball to have done so. That's how it looked on the radio.

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Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

In the end, probably a deserved win for England: certainly some great work by Bopara and Broad, and Broad must be man of the match. And with that, I'm off to bed. Good night all.

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Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

I wasnt having a go at Nostromo - I fully believe him if he says it was out (i havnt seen it though). The standard of umpiring IMO is not the highest at the moment. It was more of a bit of lighthearted banter (which can sometimes be taken the wrong way on a forum).

I can understand Nostromo being upset at India throwing the game away, but lets face it being an England fan for the past 20 years hasnt been a bed of roses either!

A good win for England in the end, with both Broad and Bopara showing promise and good temprement. Could this knock enhance Broads test claims for the no.8 spot?.

I also think India will rue their batting collapse in the middle of their innings, another 25 runs and it could have been a much tighter game.

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Mark.

I would agree to that. It was a good fight to the end and under pressure. For a fresh faced youngster, Broad looks impressive as a bowling all rounder. I think England should consider him for a regular place in both forms of the game. He can be a regular No:8.

I didn't see it, too busy typing, but it is one of those decisions that turn games, England got a bit lucky there maybe. But still, England flipping escaped the death penalty still attached to the electric chair. I am pretty happy, there will be drunked dances in Northants pubs tonight

Still, what about Powar's apparent "pitch tampering"? I know the game is over, and it probably had no effect on the pitch but he ran down delibratly on many occasions and even got warned. i'm sorry, but that isn't in the spirit of the game to me and I'm not happy about it.

What's impressed me about both Bopara and Broad is the calmness under pressure exuded by both on this occasion (excepting the Bopara/Collingwood run out debacle). These two players would have been under tremendous pressure with the Indian players run of wickets buoying them up in the field. Runs were tough to come by at the start, but they didn't try to hit out; just steadily accumulated and won the game for England.

Broad looks a very, very good prospect to be a 'Shaun Pollock' style all-rounder in the future. I just hope he can keep injury free and keep building on this solid start.

I agree that it looked very dodgy. He might have done it accidentally once, but certainly not 3 or 4 times and after being warned. That was very unsporting of Powar and I am surprised that Umpire Dhar took a relatively lenient view of the incidents. I won't be surprised if there is an official reprimand and a penalty. IMO, Powar should be sat out for a match and fined.

Which is where their more experienced team mates failed. The top 6 panicked and tried to hit their way out of trouble and consequently almost cost England the game.

If thats the case then he was very, very foolish. If its a first time offence then he will probably just get a fine. Although i havnt seen the incident, was it as blatent as, say, when Afridi decided to carry out some pitch maintenance.

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Mark.

Blimey, I missed that as well.

I think the blame must be at Dravid's door. Surely he had to bring his "strikers" back earlier. Tough job for India now; I still believe they have the goods to turn it round but the batting has to fire and they must sort their selection out; surely they can get 10 if not 20 overs from Sachin, Ganguly and Yuvraj and get the extra batsman in.