Batting Powerplay England's undoing
England and India played the match of the tournament in Bangalore but Mike Selvey, writing for the Guardian , identifies severe shortcomings on both sides
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
England and India played the match of the tournament in Bangalore but Mike Selvey, writing for the Guardian, identifies severe shortcomings on both sides. "My view is rather different," he says, "for however thrilling the match was taken in isolation, all I saw were two teams, neither of which possesses the range of requisite skills to challenge the best in subcontinental conditions."
In India, I saw a side whose undeniably stellar batting, particularly on familiar pitches, ought to be able to bat other teams into oblivion but whose generally mediocre bowling and pedestrian fielding was unable to defend 338 against a batting side as lacking in depth as England's.
In England, I saw a thin bowling attack, shallow batting, and fielding that has yet to come up to scratch. Thus far at any rate, neither look a patch on South Africa, for whom Imran Tahir is a huge bonus, or even Sri Lanka, or Pakistan or Australia.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo