India's Lower Order Deny England

The first test match between England and India will mostly be remembered for the incredibly flat pitch and the huge amount of runs both team's lower orders made in a stalemate between the two. Numerous records were broken including Joe Root and Jimmy Anderson’s partnership of 198 being the highest 10th wicket partnership in the history of test match cricket. Jimmy Anderson’s 81 was the third highest score by a number 11 batsman and Bhuvneshwar Kumar became only the second number 9 to score two 50s in a test match, after Peter Siddle achieved this feat in 2013. These extraordinary records highlight both teams’ struggles to dismiss the tail and ultimately fall short of victory.

The first day started with India winning the toss and electing to bat first on a seemingly flat track. England brought about an early breakthrough when Anderson dismissed opener Shikhar Dhawan for 12 but India safely negotiated to lunch on 106-1. England then made two quick breakthroughs to leave India 107-3 and India were wobbling a touch when Rahane was out to Plunkett for 32 to leave the tourists 178-4. Murali Vijay scored a sublime hundred before the end of play, his first outside the subcontinent before captain Dhoni added a stylish 50 to leave India 259-4 at the end of day 1.

Day two started with India comfortably crossing 300 before the first wicket of the day fell with the score on 304 and it was Vijay who departed for a very well made 146 to Anderson, in a dubious LBW decision. India reached lunch on 342-5 before a typical Indian collapse started. They lost 4 wickets for 2 runs to leave them with a seemingly below par score at 346-9. But to England’s dismay, Kumar and Mohammed Shami added 111 with both batsmen scoring their first half centuries in their Indian career. Kumar was eventually out for 58 as India were bowled out for 457. There was however still time for England’s captain Alistair Cook to be dismissed for 5, prolonging his dismal form. England ended day 2 at 43-1.

England began day three brightly moving past a hundred with both Robson and Ballance passing 50. Both batsmen were then out in a relatively short time with Ian Bell following soon after to leave the hosts 172-4 after being 134-1. England then followed India’s example in the first innings to collapse to 202-7 putting themselves in all sorts of trouble. But just like England struggled to dismiss India’s tail, India followed suit as Stuart Broad added a quick fire 47 of just 42 balls before being adjudged LBW to Kumar to leave England 280-8. Kumar then added his fourth wicket to leave England 298-9, still over 150 behind India. However it was India who left the field feeling frustrated as Root and Anderson added 50 runs for the last wicket to end the day not out.

The fourth day arrived with India hoping to get the elusive wicket quickly with a lead of around 80-90 but things soon started going pear-shaped rather quickly. Joe Root brought up his hundred as England blasted 50 runs in the opening 10 overs of the day. Thanks to India’s rather defensive tactics, Jimmy Anderson and Joe Root put on easy runs as Anderson scored his first ever 50 in any form of cricket as England rapidly approached India’s first innings score. Joe Root brought up his 150 before Anderson fell to Kumar, who claimed his 5 wicket haul to leave England with 496 after that mammoth last wicket stand of 198, which gave England a slender but priceless lead of 39. India’s openers looked untroubled before Dhawan fell cheaply to Ali but Vijay and Pujara cruised to take India to 130-1. Both passed 50 and looked in little trouble before like Dhawan, they gave away their wickets cheaply to leave India 167-3 and the close of play, 128 ahead.

The fifth and final day began with England in search of quick wickets to put India under pressure to try and force an unlikely victory. Their plans worked as India lost 3 wickets for 17 runs to leave themselves 184-6, just 145 ahead. Binny and Jadeja came to the crease and looked assured early on. They added a vital 65 before Jadeja fell to Anderson to put India on 249-7, just over 200 ahead. Binny then made his maiden 50 on test debut as India crawled ever close to safety. He then fell for 78 to Ali to leave India 340-8, with a draw all put confirmed. There was still time for Kumar to add his second 50 of the match before England’s captain Alistair Cook brought himself into the attack and took his first ever test wicket dismissing Ishant Sharma for 13 before India declared at 391-9, which confirmed the draw.

Overall both teams would agree that a draw was a fair result but both sides had chances to win the match. The final consensus will be that the pitch was ultimately too flat to force a result and both teams move on to Lords for the second test match, starting later this week.  

Greece Pay The Penalty Despite Domination

Greece paid the ultimate penalty last night as they crashed out of the World Cup at the last 16 stage to a determined and a fighting Costa Rica side. After 120 minutes of near total domination, Greece must wonder how they did not manage to win this tie against a side lacking any real quality but had true spirit as shown in the group stage. Despite this, Costa Rica progress to the quarter-finals for the first time in their history following a 5-3 penalty shoot out victory, after it finished 1-1 after extra time.

The first half was certainly a slow and dull encounter with neither side creating many chances and the majority of the play in the middle third. Greece did however have the majority of the possession but their build up play took far too long to pose any real danger. Dimitris Salpingidis did have the best chance for the Greeks but his effort was well saved by the Costa Rica keeper Navas- the first save of many. 

Greece again started the second half dominating possession but it was Costa Rica who made the breakthrough with one of their first efforts on goal. Bryan Ruiz converted his effort from the edge of the area into the corner of the goal, a very weak finish that somehow found its way in. Certainly all too easy as far as Costa Rica were concerned.

Costa Rica then should have been awarded a penalty shortly after when an apparent hand ball from Torosidis went unnoticed by the referee. Duarte was then sent off for a second bookable offence on 65 minutes, reducing Costa Rica to 10 men and certainly allowing them to focus on defending for the rest of the match. 

As the second half wore on, it looked like Greece were never going to find the all elusive equaliser. Again, their build up play was extremely long and mostly broken down by a dogged Costa Rican defence. Gekas and Fulham’s record singing Mitroglou went close before eventually in the 91st minute, defender Papastathopoulos fired home his first international goal. Greece then almost won it with the last kick of the 90 but Navas pulled off a tremendous save to deny Mitroglou.

Greece looked like the most likely side to progress in extra time but Navas made two more saves denying the Greeks once again. Greece’s best chance came with two minutes left of extra time as Christodoulopoulos found himself through on goal but was stopped by the excellent Navas to take the tie into the dreaded penalty shootout.  

The first seven penalty kicks were put away with ease before Navas made his most decisive save denying Gekas which left Umana to put Costa Rica through to their first ever World Cup Quarter-Final, with a 5-3 penalty win.

Greece will only have themselves to blame that they did not make it through. Poor build up play and a lack of real quality on the wings cost them dear in a match where they had 23 shots with 8 on target to Costa Rica’s 7 attempts all match. It is clear then that the true hero was the Costa Rica and Levante goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

England Crash Out Of World Cup

After just two matches, England’s World Cup dreams have ended perhaps even earlier than the most pessimistic of England fan would have expected. Back to back defeats mean for the first time since 1958, England have failed to make it out of the group stages of the World Cup. With their chances all but over following a 2-1 defeat to Uruguay, Costa Rica’s surprising win over Italy consigned England to their fate. Another World Cup, another failure.

The match against Uruguay was a must win encounter for both sides with defeat not being an option. England started with the same team that lost against Italy and failed to find any finishing touches despite much possession early on. Rooney did come close on a couple of occasions in the first half with his closest effort heading against the bar from close range, where perhaps an inform Rooney would have done better.

England’s frailties in defence were evident in the first half especially when Cristian Rodriguez went close after a Jagielka mistake. Uruguay inevitably took the lead on 39 minutes after Cavani’s inch perfect cross met the head of Suarez after he left his marker to head into the back of the net. The second half started with Uruguay dominating play. They could have so easily scored two or three times in the opening second half minutes but England rode their luck and managed to equalise. Wayne Rooney stuck his first World Cup goal with just 15 minutes left on the clock, following some great work by Johnson out on the right which left Rooney to tap home.

But just as it looked like England had been gaining momentum and looked the most likely team to win, it was that man Suarez who broke England hearts with five minutes remaining. A root one goal began with a punt from the Uruguay goalkeeper which caught out England captain Gerrard who could only flick the ball backwards to Suarez who finished home to seal the win for the South American outfit. 

The defeat left England needing a miracle to qualify but that was soon dashed as Ruiz scored the only goal of the game to give Costa Rica victory over Italy, sending themselves through and England packing.

Greg Dyke's B League Plan to Ruin English Football

FA chairman Greg Dyke’s proposed plan to help boost English football by increasing the level of English players in the Premier League, will do nothing but tear apart the football league.

Dyke’s proposed plan is to create a new tier in English football between League Two and the Conference. This tier will be named ‘League Three’ and will be made up of 10 Premier League B teams and 10 Conference sides. B teams would be able to be promoted up until League One but will be barred from domestic cup competitions. Most of these B teams would have 20 players from the squad qualifying for the home grown rule and 19 would be under 21.

The whole idea of this extremely controversial idea is to increase the ability level of youngsters who are unable to play first team football in the Premier League, by getting them game time in competitive Football League matches. The first obvious problem is this is exactly what the loan system does. Young English players who find themselves out of the picture in the Premier League, sign for Football League clubs helping them to get game time and competitive football. The most recent example of this working is Chelsea’s Patrick Bamford who scored nearly 30 goals playing on loan at MK Dons and Derby this season. With this system clearly working for many years, why fix it if it isn’t broken? 

The main issue with this proposal is the damage it will have on the Football League. First of all, Conference sides will find it much harder to play in the Football League, which is extremely unfair on clubs with limited resources whose only dream is to play in the top 4 leagues. And with this introduction of B teams in ‘League 3’, Dyke clearly has not thought about the consequences this could lead to in the coming years. Potentially, in 3 or 4 years time League One could be made up of these 10 B teams who could all finish in the top 10 and because they are not allowed to be promoted to the Championship, we could find ourselves in the situation where clubs all the way down to 16th would be getting promoted and be in the play-off picture. That in itself is a reason why this ludicrous idea will surely never work and do nothing but destroy the heart and fabric of the English game. 

With these squads being made up of mostly under 21 players, these players are going to find it hard to develop their game. 21 years olds are not really going to learn much playing with each other, which is why the old reserve league system and the loan system are perfect ways in which young English players can learn and improve their skills. The reserve leagues where more experienced players who find themselves on the fringes of the first team would be playing reserve football, along with the youngsters meaning they are able to learn from playing alongside quality, older players. The B league is just a reserve League anyway, but put into the Football League system.

The loan system is a perfect way for youngsters to play in the Football League without this frankly stupid idea from a man who clearly does not know what he is doing.

No Sky Blue Miracle As Arsenal Emphasize Greater Class

It was always going to be tough for Coventry City away at the Premier League leaders Arsenal, but it was safe to say they made the club proud in this FA Cup 4th Round tie, despite the 4-0 scoreline.

Over 5,000 Sky Blue fans made the trip to London on a cold Friday night but it was Arsenal who started the first half steaming out of the blocks and took the lead on 15 minutes when Podolski rounded keeper Joe Murphy to put the home side one up. The lead however was almost short lived as Coventry captain Carl Baker almost levelled things up with a terrific effort outside the box after a 50 yard run, only for Fabianski to make a very good save. 

Podolski doubled Arsenal's lead on 27 minutes with a close range header to put the game a little out of Coventry's reach. Soon after, the Coventry fans took part in a peaceful protest by holding up signs with the question to the owners of 'Why?' in relation to the ground move to Northampton. The Arsenal fans too applauded the Coventry fans effort in a great display of football unity. This again took place on the 61 minute mark with the sign 'When?' being hold up by thousands of Sky Blues who want answers and want them fast. 

Back to the fooball, and Coventry came out in the second half a much improved team. Leon Clark went through on goal but had his shot saved from a difficult angle. Just a few minutes later, that man Clark again came close as he hit the post from an effort just inside the box that was unlucky to miss. Coventry were terrific for most the second half but just couldn't take their chances.

 Arsenal killed the game off on 84 minutes when substitute and top scorer Giroud shot into the bottom left hand corner. Cazorla made it 4-0 in the last minute, which was harsh on the Sky Blues who more than matched them in the second half. Leon Clark almost pulled one back but his shot was easily saved in the end. So despite a 4-0 defeat, Coventry can hold their heads up high as they were by no means disgraced by a near full strength Arsenal team in this 4th Round Cup tie.

Groundshare New Low For Sky Blues

Who would have thought it? A club the size of Coventry's being made to groundshare with lowly Northampton Town. The whole situation with Coventry City has become a complete joke and they now find themselves without a permanent stadium and having to share a 7,500 capacity Sixfields over 40 miles away from the City. Add on top of that the club still being in administration and hit with a transfer embargo with owners who are utterly useless, then it is extremely difficult to see a way out.

The fact that the owners SISU were unwilling to do any sort of sensible deal to play in the Ricoh, how some of the SISU board members managed to buy the other part of the club through acceptance from the administrator and how the Football League could ratify the ground share really opens up a numerous amount of questions. Some of these questions include how on earth have SISU managed to get away with all this. Usually when a club gets bought after going into administration, it means new owners, the club coming out of administration and a fresh start. But in this case, the club got completely bought by the existing owners, are still in administration and the gloom continues. It is a mystery to how they have been able to do this without the Football League or the administrator getting involved.

It seems like SISU are a cancer trying to kill Coventy City Football Club and won't stop until they do. It is clear they don't care about the club or football as they would have left by now if they did. They are just in it for the money side of things in terms of not being willing to leave until they have made some sort of profit and gain some sort of percentage in the Ricoh, much like a hedge fund.

With this ground share, it is hard to see too many Coventry fans turning up and who can blame them. 40 odd miles is a long way to travel just to watch your home side play and it turns out most of the matches will be played on a Friday night due to fixture clashes with Northampton. They will do well to get 1,000 in all honesty. A truly ridiculous state of affairs with a perfectly good 32,500 capacity stadium now just sitting there in Coventry. This is well and truly a new low for Coventy City and if things carry on the way they are, it is hard to see a prolonged future for the club.

India's Young Guns Pick Up More Silverware

MS Dhoni's men won the Champions Trophy just last week and what a performance by Team India it was. It was 2 years ago when they lifted the World Cup in Mumbai but the difference this time was most of that squad had been dropped in the subsequent  years. No longer do India rely on the class and aggression of Virender Sehwag, the genius of Sachin Tendulkar, the all round prowess of Yuvraj Singh or the craftmanship of Zaheer Khan. In fact, only 4 members of that World Cup winning squad remained for the Champions Trophy which is another reason why this victory was oh so sweet.

Leading into the final against England, there was no doubt that India were the best team of the tournament. They blew away every team that stepped in their way and they had got the balance between their bowlers and their batsmen just right. But England were always going to be a handful in home conditions, especially with the type of seam attack they have. In a rain affected final which was reduced to 20 overs a side, England won the toss and decided to bowl first which took place 5 hours before play finally got under way. Conditions were tough early on and after a solid start of 38-1 from 6 overs, the rain further delayed proceeding destroying any momentum India might have had. On a slow pitch, part timer Ravi Bopara struck 3 times with his slow medium pacers to restrict India to 66-5 off 13 overs. Kohli played a useful hand of 43 before he was dismissed in the 19th over and it was only until Jadeja struck a quickfire 33 that India got to 130-7 which seemed like at least 20 runs off a par score.

England lost Cook early and quickly slumped to 46-4 on a turning track after a debatable third umpire decision which saw the demise of Ian Bell. Dhoni decided against bowling spin in the middle overs and seemingly relieved the pressure off of England with some hapless bowling from Ishant Sharma. This saw England to a comfortable position of 110-4, needing just 20 from 16 balls. That was until that man Sharma picked up 2 wickets in just 2 balls to turn the final on its head. England then lost a further 2 wickets to collapse to 113-8 and fall 5 runs short of what should have been a certain victory. England once again fell short in a final and India once again win a major ODI trophy.

This young Indian side were very impressive throughout the Champions Trophy. Shikhar Dhawan won player of the tournament and most runs whilst Ravindra Jadeja took the most wickets. These two players were the stand out performers for India with Dhawan scoring back to back centuries in the group stage after a two year absence from the side. Jadeja proved to be a very useful all rounder with his spin proving his worth to the team. He hasn't always had the praise he might have deserved from the Indian media but surely now that will change. MS Dhoni proved why he is probably the best captain in World cricket. Bold moves were made throughout which went a long way to him lifting the title. So this new, young Indian side looks like it could be around for years to come and with one eye on the 2015 World Cup, they could well be the team to beat.