WIndies come to the party

So, when Freddie was single handedly raising the status of his team, WI did that through, as it seems, more regular method of planning. Chanderpaul opened the innings, something which he should have done from match 1. He anyway faced the opening bowlers in almost all matches !

And the pitch at Colombo seems more genial, atleast not much assistance to spin. Does seem to have more runs in it. I hope Indian team have noticed that. And I hope the lessons learnt from Dambulla do not translate to non-suitable actions here ! Ind should still have atleast 3 seamers (and 1 spinner if playing with 4 bowlers only). But more importantly, they should revise the mode in which they approach their innings, especially if batting first. This pitch may not require the same caution in the opening spell. I myself was thinking that maybe moving Sehwag down the order can be one option. But on this pitch, maybe not.

And before this match, almost everyone was taking it for granted that WI will not win any matches. That Ind facing SL in finals is a given fact. This includes all players, coaches, critics, analysts, bloggers etc ! No-one realised that WI are really bowling well, and all they need is to get their batting act together, that too just slightly. Which they did. And its not going to be easy for India as well, especially if chasing. Because I don't believe this WI side has enough batting to chase a decent total.

Anyway, all this means that tomorrow is an interesting day of cricket. For Indian fans as well as any fan of good cricket. I would be torn between following Eng and Indian progress.

As I write this, Eng are one step away from victory at stumps. Aus surely have shown signs of nerves in tough situations. Lets see how Eng can use this to their advantage in the rest of the series.