Ok, I’ll be the first to admit it. I struggled with the hangover all weekend. And tried to regain the positive frame of mind and all that. But nope. I didn’t manage it. I could not identify with everyone else’s “the better side won” and “our weaknesses finally showed up” bit. I can’t understand the difference that one game made to six. Call me a bad loser if you will but I know that I’d probably have said the same thing if the result had been the other way around but been marred by the same thing.
Given the standards of umpiring right through the series and the way the whole technology-in-umpiring debate has resurfaced / been shoved under the carpet , my verdict is this :
We were the overwhelming favourites going into the one day series. The fact that we reached Lords 3 all is a huge victory to England and shows that they are a vastly improved side. Credit to Collingwood and the guys.
4-3 is the official result. I’m going with 3 all and 1 to the umpires. They influenced the series enough to get at least that much credit.
Just another Silly Point 
And to think KP had the audacity to question Uthappa. Aargh.
hi srinath
Its probably because the press haven’t managed their hands on them – but either way, I haven’t understood the stand that the match referees have taken towards players this series. Shoulder barges, dissent, the works….
guys lets be unbiased here.. “in the end everything evens out” – isn’t that the hindu philosophy used by every one.. mostly the Brits when luck favors them..
Atherton has surpassed Ravi Shastri in making opportunistic statements this summer.. the earlier one was about ST becoming ‘a decent bat’ from ‘a great bat’, he doesn’t seem to have written anything more about it of late and people have already forgotten about that statement.. Now he goes on to make another classic.. India are one of the worst ODI teams around.. on the basis of 1 match, its a bit rich.. If india won the series 4-3 would he say that about England.. because in that case England would have lost from being 3-1 up..
I agree that we haven’t moved forward over the last 6 months but from a 3 all situation, as sfx will understand, its not a digital situation.. If you win, you are not one of the greats, if you don’t you are not the worst..
India did beat SA in Ireland, and losing to Bangla on that one fateful day may speak a lot about our inconsistency but not our ability.. 3 out of the 7 matches we showed that even with shoddy fielding, poor running between the wickets and bad umpiring, we could still win.. If we had lost 6-1, we could be called a horrendous team but 4-3 is not a disgrace for god’s sake.. Botham before the tour had said that England would be beaten by the Eskimos in ODIs. The same team after a series cant be called a “fabulous”team, nor can India be called a ‘weak’ team. England played better, granted.. they are a far superior side – I disagree..
Believe me I was never one of the guys who thought India had talent enough to win the last world cup so I will never say we are the BEST or even come close to being decent.. But do we deserve to be derided by one of the foremost ODI players for his country (MA i.e.) as a ‘write off’ team.. NO SIR
http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/odi/
These are the ODI rankings for your perusal.. after we lost to England..
and these are the Test rankings after we won against england
http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/test/
so is the first one wrong and the 2nd one right.. Ask Atherton, don’t ask me
Rahul,
I assume, this is the Atherton piece that you are referring to. And specifically this portion of it.
“The brutal truth is that India, far from being a powerhouse in one-day cricket, are a poor one-day outfit themselves – as the last World Cup proved. They haven’t changed key personnel since then, apart from the coach Greg Chappell, and, given their age profile they are a team whose best days are behind them.
They are completely lacking in athleticism and agility, weak in pace bowling and so badly balanced that England should have beaten them comprehensively. With three matches to go, India were on their knees. That they were somehow able to take this series to the wire says much about how far England still have to travel”
….Just as a reference to those reading ….
Also, scrolling through the comments section of thr article, obviously the really contentious one is the “Flintoff underlined his central importance to the team again in his first spell yesterday, sending back Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. The legitimacy of each decision was questioned by the Indian segment of the crowd, but surely the only question should be why such contentious decisions are continually displayed on the big screen. It cannot do much for an umpire’s confidence to hear the crowd booing time and again.” ….
Anyhow, will try and do a post on India and one day cricket one of these days, but as far as this entire series and summer goes, I just think that the umpiring has been poor. Consistently so. And thats a shame.