The English cricket team were saved their blushes today by two players that really shouldn’t have been batting at that stage of the game. England were looking good to take victory in the fourth one day international at Old Trafford when they bowled out India for 212 with two balls to spare. Things started to go immediately wrong for England losing Alistair Cook for a duck after facing five deliveries. Matt Prior was first to fall victim to Agarkar, getting a top edge skying the ball for an easy catch for Powar on 4 runs. Next to fall was the in-form Ian Bell leaving a ball that went on to hit his off stump while on 24 runs. Kevin Pietersen was next and failed to make an impact clobbering Agarkar’s delivery straight to Chawla for 18 runs. Andrew Flintoff was next in and again didn’t make any impact with the bat and was walking back to the pavilion after facing only 8 deliveries for 5 runs. Then Came Owais Shah who only lasted 20 deliveries and scored 8 runs. Skipper Paul Collingwood hesitated in his run and that proved costly as that slight hesitation cost him his wicket being run out three runs short of his half century. At this point things are looking grim, two new batsmen at the crease with only three wickets remaining and all the recognised batsmen out with only 114 runs on the board. At this point I thought that India was going to level the series, but as the overs passed, I am starting to think that the two youngest players in the squad could actually do this and save the game. Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad played much more mature cricket than their age would suggest, picking their shots carefully and rode their luck a few times. The pair managed a partnership of 99 to take England past the winning post with 12 balls to spare. Bopara finished his innings on 43 not out and Broad finished the match on 45 not out. So England won the fourth one day international by 3 wickets and take a commanding 3 – 1 in the series, India now need to win the remaining three games, but the advantage is with England as they only need 1 win from 3 games. It’s definitely a case of MUST DO BETTER for the top order batsmen, if you take Collingwood’s 47 out of the equation, 51 runs is abysmal for your top six batsmen. It’s lucky we have players in the lower order that can bat well enough to get England out of a hole, I think Bopara and Broad have made excellent cases to be permanent inclusions in the team. Maybe it’s time to get rid of some of the dead wood in at the top of the order, the only players I would keep from the top six would be Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood. I think our bowling attack is very good and nothing needs to be changed there, but the top order need to be able to put decent runs on the board to back up our excellent bowling attack.
Alternation went reasonably well again, busier than I expected considering it was just before pay day for most people and Reading and Leeds Festivals weekend has just gone. The Bar took £400 again, which is good for our jobs, I can’t wait for when the students arrive back, that should boost the numbers considerably. Steve was back this week DJ’ing with me, which made the task less tedious, we feed off each other and it allows us to take a wander around as it’s something that can’t be done when alone in the DJ box. I was a little peaved with Simon who came up demanding we turn the music off exactly at 2am despite not being supervisor for the night. The final song was started off before 2am and only had 90 seconds left to run, would it really have hurt to let the song play out? Anyway, it’s not important, I was not going to let that little thing ruin my night. I know that I shouldn’t have done this but I went out afterwards to the Scholar with Teri, Paul, and Al and got even more drunken and actually had a really good night. It made a nice change to go out with some different people. I had been drinking since 7:30pm and I basically cancelled out any money I earned from Wednesday night with my excessive drinking, but you only live once; right? I eventually got home at about 4:15am after making sure Teri got in a taxi home safely. I need to cut back on my drinking even further as I find myself about £15 short to pay the rent, I will just give the landlord a cheque for £300 and date it for the 4th as I know I have enough money in my account by then. Guess I need to find some friends that aren’t drinking buddies, I need to do more stuff away from pubs and clubs, although I haven’t been to a club for more than a month now apart from Alternation of course, but that’s work so doesn’t count!