"It wasn't the highest quality of cricket"

The Cricinfo report on the India v West Indies ODI yesterday suggests that "it wasn't the highest quality of cricket". I didn't watch the whole thing but the last portion of the match from when India were 6 down was worse than that. Very ordinary field placing from Sammy, who gifted India runs with a deep set field at a time all the Indian batsmen were doing was looking to knock risk-free singles given an asking rate of not much more than 3 an over.

Having said that, Sharma almost through his wicket away with a slog when he was seeing India home, only for Darren Bravo to either not see the skied ball at 3rd man, or perhaps just not been keen to dive forwards for the ball in case of injury. Ashwin showed that his poor running wasn't just a Test match issue, this time moving far too late when Sharma was running to the danger end and calling Ashwin through for a relatively easy 2nd run.

Duncan Fletcher has some work to do with Ashwin's out cricket - in his autobiography he lamented how certain England cricketers weren't taught the basics bu their Counties (I always assumed, rightly or wrongly, he was referring to Northants and Panesar) and he must feel the same about Ashwin. With Ashwin doing well his coach and mentor of course came forward to take the praise, but Sunil Subramaniam clearly didn't worry about out cricket during his sessions with Ashwin. Fletcher will no doubt be on the case.

With India desperately trying to throw the match away, West Indies returned the compliment with Sammy bowling a wide long-hop to India's number 10 Varun Aaron (which he hit for 4). And to make their task harder for himself, Aaron turned down a single off the 5th ball of the 47th over on the basis that he wanted to face the 48th over. Dim-witted tactics from both sides.

Poor cricket, but edge of the seat stuff. I imagine Fletcher is amazed at the impact he could have on some of the Indian players who've joined the side after the World Cup. Unlike England though, India's reserves can still beat West Indies....just.