England 2-1 Up and Indians on Fire

Over in South Africa the tour continues and after a heavy loss last Friday England bounced back in top fashion with a comfortable win in the 4th One Day International to lead the series 2-1 (1 game having been rained out) and now they cannot lose the series and only have to avoid defeat in the final game this Friday to ensure a series win in South Africa which will be very good especially as we won on home soil last time we played them as well.

The hero of the piece this time was James Anderson who took a fantastic 5-23 off his 10 overs and still insisted that he had bowled better before, but whether or not that was true England seemed to take heart in losing the toss and being asked to bowl on what was definitely a flat pitch and one where a good total should have been 240 or 260 runs whereas South Africa could only manage a pitiful 119, although credit must go to Alvaro Petersen who made his third half century in a row and was the only batsmen in green that could deal with the conditions.

Elsewhere out in India the hosts showed just how good test cricket should be played by racking up a score of 642 and then bowling Sri Lanka out for 229 and 269 to win by an innings and 144 runs, in an extraordinary match where the Indians were in total control with hundreds from Ghambir, Sehwag and Dravid added to with half centuries from Laxman and Yuvraj before a brilliant spell of 5-75 from Sreesanth really forced home the advantage before the Indian spinners came into their own on a pitch that was taking quite a bit of turn by the end of it and finished it off.

Out in Australia the hosts easily won their first test match against the West Indies where a team effort and 5 half centuries saw the team claw their way up to 480-8 declared including a maiden half century for spinner Nathan Hauritz before they bowled out their opponents for just 228 and 187 to win the test with an innings and 2 days to spare. The only good note for the West Indies was the emergence of opening batsmen Adrian Barath who at the age of 19 and on his debut managed to score 104 of his teams 187 runs and definitely offers hope for the future for the West Indies a team that is still trying to get back to their best after a strange few years.