Tag: england

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NZ NET WIN

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The England Cricket team has been defeated by New Zealand in the first ODI played at Seddon Park, Hamilton. New Zealand won the match by 3 wickets. With this victory, New Zealand has gone up by 1-0 in the 5-match ODI series.

The New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum won the toss and invited the English team to bat first. New Zealand got the first breakthrough pretty early. Alastair Cook was knocked over by Mitchell McClenaghan in the 4th over of the match when the score of England was 11.

Jonathan Trott came to bat at his usual first down position and he put up a good partnership with Ian Bell for the second wicket. Both of them added 84 runs for the second wicket. When the score was 95, Bell got out after playing a fluent knock of 64.

Joe Root was promoted in the batting order and he came to bat ahead of Eoin Morgan. The young Yorkshire batsman played another impressive knock. He scored a half century and added 89 runs with Jonathan Trott for the third wicket. Trott also completed his half century in the meantime.

The English batsmen didn’t manage to score too many runs in the slog overs. Only 68 runs were scored in the last 10 overs of the England innings.

The England team got all out in 49.3 overs at the score of 258. McClenaghan was the most successful bowler for New Zealand. He took 4 wickets.

New Zealand also had a poor start. BJ Watling was clean bowled off the bowling of James Anderson when only a couple of runs were on the board. When the score was 18, another opening batsman, Martin Guptill, had to go out of the field because of a hamstring injury.

Kane Williamson was playing solidly at one end, but, the wickets kept falling at the other end and towards the end, it seemed that New Zealand would fall short of the target. But, Martin Guptill returned back and along with his skipper Brendon McCullum, he saw his team home.

McCullum and Guptill remained unbeaten on 69 and 27 respectively.

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COOK HAPPY WITH PERFORMANCE

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The captain of the England test and ODI team, Alastair Cook, has said that he is happy with the way his team played in the second innings, but, he is really disappointed with the shot selection of quite a few batsmen in the first innings.

Cook was talking to Ravi Shastri in the post match presentation ceremony and when he was asked about his thoughts on his team’s performance, Cook said, “It’s obviously disappointing to lose, but, the efforts of a few players in the second half of the match was appreciable. It was nice to see the debutant Compton showing determination. Matt Prior was superb again. He is really a great no. 7 to have in your team. He can bat either way. He can up the ante and he can also play steadily.”

“As far as the bowling is concerned, I think Swann was fantastic in the first innings He got the ball to turn a great deal and barring Pujara, none of the Indian batsmen played him with conviction and that’s a great achievement for a spin bowler because the Indian batsmen are supposed to be very good in facing the spinners.”

When asked whether he missed the second spinner, Cook said, “We already had a couple of spinners in the XI. Samit is an all rounder and he was the second spinner for us. I wouldn’t say that I made a mistake by not including Monty in the XI. These three quicks have done wonderfully well for us in the past and that’s why we decided to stick with them.”

“I think the pitch probably got a bit slower in the second innings which helped us. There was turn for sure, but, it was slow turn which was allowing the batsmen to play off the back foot.”

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Monty Panesar Better than Swann

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Emerging Pakistan spinning talent Raza Hasan believes that Monty Panesar is a far better bowler when compared to Graeme Swann. The 19 year old prodigy also hailed the performances put in by the Pakistani spinning duo of Abdur Rehman and Saeed Ajmal, but it is his comments about Panesar and Swann that has been hogging the limelight and courting controversy. Swann is considered to be one of the pioneering spinners in the world of international cricket at this time and has made immense contributions to the success that England has achieved over the last couple of years. He was even a part of the side when it became the number one side in Test cricket after thrashing India 4-0 at home.

On the other hand, Panesar has failed to nail down a regular place in the side and has been in and out of the side ever since Swann re-emerged in the international scene. However, the left handed Monty Panesar, who burst onto the scene almost 5 years back now, is still the trump card for his team when it is on tour of the subcontinent because the conditions there suit his style of bowling.

But Raza, who is yet to make his name in international cricket but has starred in the domestic cricket circuit spoke to a local newspaper where he stated that Monty was his personal favorite and the best thing about him is that he hardly gives away anything to batsmen. He also added that just loved the way he bowled to the Pakistani batsman during the Test series between England and Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in 2011.

Hasan said that Monty Panesar has a quick bowling action and better grip and that is what makes him a more dangerous opponent that Graeme Swann in international cricket.