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mcgillianaire270 runs, 10 wickets. England should win and India only have themselves to blame. Our only hope is to bat better and salvage a draw, while the Poms should score 275 runs tomorrow and then declare. [SCORECARD]
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Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's infamous spin doctor, was the guest on TMS at tea time. Fascinating stuff as usual. Big cricket fan. Was at the match today by invitation of Beefy Botham's son and future daughter-in-law and hence sat in their private box. He grew up in Yorkshire so he was a big fan of Geoffrey Boycott. Even set up one of the earliest fan clubs for the great opening batsman and was at Headingley in 1977 when Boycs scored his 100th first-class century at his home ground. Then Aggers mentioned Ed Miliband as another chap who hero worshipped GB and was also present at Headingley in 1977. So I did the natural thing and googled this golden nugget of news. Turns out Ed Milibean even skipped a day at school to watch Geoffrey's final innings at Lord's. Still not endeared to his politics but he's definitely gone up in my estimation. Aggers then nudged the Sultan of Spin to use his "professional skills" (or words to that effect) to market Test cricket in the modern-age. Campbell played a straight bat and offered some interesting suggestions none of which I can remember right now but they seemed sensible at the time. As angry as I am with him vis-a-vis the Iraq War dossier/Dr David Kelly etc, I am intrigued as to his ability in promoting the longer-form of the game using his undeniable talents.
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Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's infamous spin doctor, was the guest on TMS at tea time. Fascinating stuff as usual. Big cricket fan. Was at the match today by invitation of Beefy Botham's son and future daughter-in-law and hence sat in their private box. He grew up in Yorkshire so he was a big fan of Geoffrey Boycott. Even set up one of the earliest fan clubs for the great opening batsman and was at Headingley in 1977 when Boycs scored his 100th first-class century at his home ground. Then Aggers mentioned Ed Miliband as another chap who hero worshipped GB and was also present at Headingley in 1977. So I did the natural thing and googled this golden nugget of news. Turns out Ed Milibean even skipped a day at school to watch Geoffrey's final innings at Lord's. Still not endeared to his politics but he's definitely gone up in my estimation. Aggers then nudged the Sultan of Spin to use his "professional skills" (or words to that effect) to market Test cricket in the modern-age. Campbell played a straight bat and offered some interesting suggestions none of which I can remember right now but they seemed sensible at the time. As angry as I am with him vis-a-vis the Iraq War dossier/Dr David Kelly etc, I am intrigued as to his ability in promoting the longer-form of the game using his undeniable talents.
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Date: 2011-07-24 12:30 pm (UTC)...or not, as the case may be! That felt like a 1990s collapse; India are right back in this unless Morgan and Prior can steady the ship after lunch.
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Date: 2011-07-24 01:55 pm (UTC)As you pointed out elsewhere,our biggest fault in the series so far is the lack of preparation. I'm sure it's no coincidence that our best batsman in the two away series so far is a guy who didn't play the World Cup but has got some first-class cricket down since the series in South Africa. He's relatively more fresh than the bunch of undercooked yet supremely talented teammates who've made the trip with him.
That's the problem with Indian cricket. If only we'd respect the longer format just that much more and prepare a bit better for every series, especially the ones away. Just because we can recover quickly is no excuse to simply turn up a week before the first Test! Otherwise I can't see why we should be taken seriously as the world's top ranked team, even if we've held the position longer than anybody else except Australia.
Gone are the days when we made the long trip away from home, played a dozen first-class games before the first Test, got hammered when it mattered even when we tried and went back empty-handed. In fact these boys can more than compete. If only they and especially our board decided to earn just a little less money (yet still fill their respective coffers to the rafters), the world would be an infinitely better place.
Any ways... I'll end that rant there. Even if we don't win it from here I'm proud of our depleted attack showing some mettle today.
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Date: 2011-07-24 02:17 pm (UTC)