Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Gambhir,Tendulkar target Swann
Strauss,Bell toy with fifth bowler
England s third-wicket pair of Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell highlighted India s traditional one-day weakness,its reliance on part-timers to complete the fifth bowler quota. This is the flipside of India s awesome batting strength,and will worry MS Dhoni through the rest of the tournament,especially on true wickets such as the one at Bangalore .
The ten overs that Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan bowled between them cost India 67 runs without anything in the wickets column (though Bell was extremely lucky to stay there after his LBW referral). On the surface,67 might seem like a par effort in a match this high-scoring,but what hurt India was how easily Strauss and Bell scored those runs,without any help from powerplays. The England pair calmly picked off a boundary nearly every over seven fours and a six in the ten overs the two Ys shared employing low-risk shots like the sweep and the slog with the turn into the gap between long on and deep midwicket.
