one day woes

Three down, four to go. I actually think we're finally moving towards the right one day line up for India following today's slightly improved performance.

The re-jigged batting line up seems to make more sense. I'm all for Ravi Bopara at the top of the order - he was being wasted down at eight, and I really hope he gets an extended spell as opener. Ravi's certainly got the power to succeed in the enforcer role during the powerplays - I just hope Moores / Pietersen can instill the necessary belief in him.

It also makes sense to have our best player, the captain, at three, and Shah seems more at home as a finisher from number six. As a personal preference I'd rather see Samit Patel get a bigger chance up the order than Paul Collingwood but the batting looks close.

...which leaves the thorny issue of the keeper. Frankly Prior doesn't seem to understand what his role is in the side. His run rate as a opener on the subcontinent has been shocking. Either Moores hasn't been explaining his role to score at a minimum of 90/100, or he's incapable of delivering it. With a such a deep batting order I'd rather see Prior hit 20 from 20, than 40 from 60.

Now he's down at eight in the order, I think Prior's place really comes into question. The number of all rounders in this current line up means we're batting to nine at the moment... which indicates we can afford the luxury of employing our best keeper. To me, naturally ,that's Chris Read, but that ship might have sailed. I can't imagine any of Foster, Davies from Worcester, or even Ben Scott at Middlesex doing any worse than scratching around for 5 from 13 balls as Prior did when we needed to put the foot down today... and they'd all be a better pair of hands behind the sticks.


Moving on, the bowling looks much more balanced, Swann made a mockery of his non-selection to date and the only real worry now is Anderson who was lacking form and confidence and seemed to be targeted by the Indians today. That said I'm not sure Harminson would have done much better. Fingers crossed Sideshow Bob gets back to fitness soon.

Overall I'm feeling a lot more positive after today. Given a fair wind I'll back England to win 2 out of the remaining four games.

One final word about the end of the game today. Pure farce. Turning the floodlights on just after the game's called off for bad light was mindboggling. Let's make the move to trusting umpires to get the most play out of games, making the most of the facilities available.