India vs England, 5th ODI Debate

So the final ODI is about to start shortly.
Changes for both sides. India have opted for Manoj Tiwary in place of the out of form Parthiv Patel. That should mean Gambhir will open, at last.
Graeme Swann is back for England, but the not so happy news is that Kevin Pietersen is out injured, their by opening up a place for Ian Bell.
England have won the toss, and they have opted to chase.
Will India complete the whitewash? Will England manage to salvage something from this series?
Lets debate.

India to win by 60 runs.

i prefer england bowling first , they never seem to know what a good score is when they bat first

batting 2nd you might have some pressure on if india make a good total but at least they know what they gotta do

Gambhir indeed is opening.
Would be interesting to see India's lineup. I would like to have Kohli in at 3, then Tiwary and then Raina.

Pitch is slow...not easy to play strokes...certainly not on the rise.

bowling side needs to take the pace off the ball....bring in spinners early and use a lot of Bopara...will make stroking dificult esepcially for the not very powerful hitters.

Raina and Dhoni are the only power hitters in this line-up for India

Bresnan is simply too expensive.

By that I mean too many four balls. He bowls dots but then undoes his good work with something loose.

thats where finn has impressed me most , my biggest concern about him in ODIs was the amount of "four balls" he would serve up , its something he was very guilty of in tests

he really has bowled a much more consistent line and length since hes got into this ODI team and that will hopefully serve him well when he gets back into the test team

Finn has been my standout for this tour, followed by Pietersen and Trott.

Finn has been a class above everyone, then patel for me.

5-0 then we can go home

Patel? Are you serious? One good knock and some pathetic bowling.

One very good knock. Trott probably lost us one match by not scoring quicker.

India need to up the rate now. As the bowling powerplay is coming up, they should take the atack a bit more to the bowlers.

Graeme Swann certainly is a class act, but I don't think bowling him during the powerplay is the best way to make full use of his abilities. Spinners like R Ashwin are proven powerplay performers, But Swann's not among those.
He still can surprise though.

Finny strikes! Similar to last game, Gambhir looking to run the ball to third man and playing on. Finny really has been outstanding in this series.

80 without loss after 17. I can see shadows of the Fletcher way of playing ODIs. He tried with England, and it never really worked. The Indians are doing a better job of executing it, but I am not convinced this is the right approach to go about it, particularly if you are playing in the sub-continent.

Gambhir gone, a deserved wicket for Steven Finn. He has been the real standout for England in this series.

Three quick wickets.

Not that it helps. They were never going anywhere with this tour scheduled like this.

from 80-0 India have collapsed to 80-3. This is my precise point on the 'Fletcher Way'. Now India have lost wickets, and they haven't got the runs either. They can't go for runs now, as the wickets means rebuilding time now.
This was a familiar situation for England under Fletch.
Missing Sehwag big time.

Indeed Finn has bowled well in this series.
He didn't have much luck in the early matches but he has knocked over some good batsmen in the last couple.
Unfortunately for England he has lacked good back up. Maybe today?

Series long gone but a consolation win would be nice...

Incredible catch from Kieswetter I'm hearing.

swanny drops raina, and its a sitter

Swann drops a dolly, fielding has been pretty woeful in this series, kind of shows the player's attitude towards it I think.

Swann drops a sitter from Finn to Raina. Big drop, and may be costly.

could be a really bad drop there from swann , raina has been in good form and to get him early and get dhoni to the crease this early could have set us up

Feel so sorry for Finn, he has bowled so so well on this tour and had pretty much no back up from anyone else (batsmen or bowlers) apart from the batting in 1 match.

Guess I spoke too soon about Finn's luck changing

Swann would catch that 9 times out of ten.

Heck, I would catch that 9 times out of ten

Raina will probably make 100 now ...

The most Finn lacked in tirms of backup is fielding. Not the first catch to have gone down of his bowling in the series. In fact, England fielding in the series reminds me of India in the 1990s. It was all about Robin Singh and Ajay Jadeja, with some good catching from Azhar, Dravid, and Tendulkar. Everyone else, just didn't bother!!.

Finn was in the middle of a fine spel, but has Cook forgotten that he can only bowl 10? Think they should keep at least 1 from him for the batting powerplay or the end overs. Bresnan hasn't done all that great during the end overs, and Meaker might just be too much of a risk.

shoddy fielding...totally unexpected from the standards they had set for themselves....is the single BIGGEST reason why they find themselves to uncompetitive in this series.

Lets see how much Raina makes them pay for this drop.

Meaker among the wickets, Tiwary gone after looking good for his 24. All up to Raina and the skipper from now on.

Interesting stage now after Meaker's wicket. India could still make 270 or so If the skipper gets going and it will all be over again...but another wicket now and we have a match...

Is it worth burning Finn's last two overs in an attempt to get the breakthrough?

At the end of the innings sometimes it doesn't matter who is bowling if well set hitters are in...

I'd bowl Finn through when India take the batting PP. On a side note, has Finn done enough to bowl himself into England's test side? Harsh on Bres and Tremlett maybe, but Finn looks the better bowler to me...

if Dhoni and Raina can take India till the 40over without losing a wkt...then we are safe i.e won't collapse

one of dhoni ro raina with a rather competent lower order can see us till 50th over.

we are looking at something between 240-280 now depending on how wkts fall ( or are retianed)

Well yes , mfc , they probably will bowl Finn in the power play , and I can see why. But this may be too late - if Raina and Dhoni are still together the game may have gone.
Were I Cook , I'd have used him at Dhoni pretty well straight away - the conservative approach has got England nowhere on this trip.

...ah well , the PP is here now , and so is Finn...

Big moment - but where is the slip? PP or not , we need a wicket...

gah, edge just past the stumps for two is followed by edge through the slips for four, Finny still not getting any luck on this tour.

...but there weren't any slips...

There should have been one : a wide slip might have had that.

Yes, Finn should be in the Test side. He offers something which Broad and Anderson don't, which is raw pace which can get wickets when the wicket is doing anything.

Run out ! Surely it's out?

Raina's gone I think, bat bounced up as he dived in

yep, well done Ravi, and how England needed that!

well match swings Eng's favour now India can be bowled out for under 200 also now, that raina goes

Yes. Good work from Bopara !

Needed that. Now put a slip in please Cookie - have to bowl India out here to have a real chance...

decent work from Finny then, 2-47 for his day's work with the ball.

End of a good spell from Finn.

Need some good stuff from Swann as well as the two other quicks in these later overs ...unless Bopara is going to bowl a few more ?

Jadeja driving upposhly JUST past Bopara at shot cover. In fact Ravi may have got his fingertips to that, but can't count it as a drop really...

Finn has been man of the tour by a mile. If England can get Dhoni here, they have a great chance. If he bats to the end though, it could be game over.

ind should aim for 240...and safley make it
rather than aiming 270 and falling oof at 225

this is not an easy pitch to bat on.....ball is stopping after pitching and occassionaly keeping low

Dhoni straight away trying to hit Swann out of the attack but Swann equal to it there.

England has never allowed India to get away and build any momentum. Even when the openers were building that good partnership, the Runrate was kept pretty much under control. And then they picked up wickets regularly.
Ashwin can bat, and PK, and even young Varun Aaron can swing their bat to good effect, but India need Dhoni and Jadeja to bat at least another 5 overs.