Bopara breaks Essex ODI record

Did you really think that I wouldn't post about this?!? Cricket Burble readers will know that I'm a Ravi Bopara fan, and I think he was very shoddily treated by England over the winter. He played 3 Tests against the best spinner in the world, suffered a wrong decision, a run out and was out 3 other times. That's not enough of a run to take a decision on whether a guy can play Test cricket and I'm still confident he'll be an important part of England's future despite the knock his confidence must have taken.

So I was particularly pleased that he won Essex's match for them almost single-handed in front of England selector Geoff Miller yesterday. Coming in with Essex in big trouble he scored 201 not out with a strike rate of getting on for 150. His last 50 came off 16 balls which is a pretty handy effort.

I'd love to see Bopara and Pietersen fill the number 3 and 4 spots for the ODIs coming up, in whichever order they prefer. But I assume Bopara will be stuck back down at 7, if he gets in the side at all - what a waste.