England in India
England recorded their first Test victory in India for 21 years today and I'm absolutely over the moon about it.
The Guardian has a weekly email bulletin called The Spin, which is a pretty funny — and very-well informed — bit of journalism. It had this to say about Freddie Flintoff and Kevin Pieterson respectively:
Freddie Flintoff — Four half-centuries, 11 wickets and plenty of intuitive, imaginative captaincy. It's too early to say whether he can turn into Vaughan's long-term successor, but if a fast-bowling all-rounder can cope with the captaincy in India, then the portents are good. The only weakness in his game is his less-than-effusive post-match interview technique. Then again, who cares?Which all seems very fair to me. Of the other players: did Collingwood, Cook and Shah do enough for guaranteed places this summer? The possibilities — and the competition — make the England cricket team a bona fide mouth-watering prospect.Kevin Pietersen — It would help if he didn't preach patience, as he did before Mumbai, and then continue to play his natural game regardless. But that's the deal with KP: if you accept his 87 at Nagpur and his 64 at Mohali, when others couldn't get it off the square, then you accept the leading edges and the loose drives.
(Speaking of competition, a good friend and I had a competition to see who could get mentioned on the Guardian's over-by-over coverage. I'm disappointed to have to report that I lost that particular series 1 – 0. My competitor's contribution is in over 81 of this session's play.)
Filed in Sport