Sachin smashes 98th century !

What a beginning ! Sehwag slashes the first ball, Swann gets a finger to it and then it flies for four. Next ball gets the top of Sehwag's bat and it flies over the fielder's head. Next ball Sehag chips one and it goes over Anderson's head. Three chances which could have been taken.

Anderson swung the ball in the first over and Sehwag was lucky !

The first ball of the next over - Sehwag hits it through the covers for four ! Ajmal Shehzad is the bowler bowling at 83 mph ! He is generating fairly good pace, but is not known as a swing bowler like Anderson. The swing bowlers may get some help, as it was overcast conditions for the last two days.

Chawla is playing. India will take advantage of the English weakness against spin on spin tracks ! Swann will of course be dangerous. Yardy also will be dangerous, if the pitch takes spin, but then Indian batsmen play spin well !

We had said in our columns that time before 0250 is adverse. Now India is 33/0.

Sehwag looks confident and so does Sachin. Chawla will come at No 9. NO 7 is of course Y Pathan. No 8 will be Bajji.

Shehzad impressed with his pace, but there was not much swerve in his bowling. It was Anderson who moved the ball and he did impress with his ability to swing !

Sehwag is now out, caught Prior bowled Bresnan. India 46/1 off 8 overs !

India are now 132/1, with Sachin 53 no.

After Sehwag's exit, Gambhir came in and gave a solid stand to Sachin. Sachin ruined the figures of Swann, who went for 26 runs off 4 overs.

The No 3 is very important and Gambhir proved that today. With the loss of the first wicket, India would have in trouble if she had lost another. Gambhir saw to that it did not happen. He is on 41 no. The No 3 can change the game. If he gives a solid performance, the team will be redeemed.

Responsible batsmen win matches. Just see yesterday's game. Misbah and Y Khan, two of the most experienced Pak batsmen, played responsible cricket and guided their team to victory.

Sachin now has hit 2 sixes and 3 fours in his 59 no. Gambhir has hit 4 fours in his 44 no. India 144/1 off 26 overs.

We had earlier remarked in our columns that the Indian batsmen will silence Swann, who said he will silence the Indian crowd. Two mighty sixes by Sachin and Swann may as well forget this match ! 15 runs off that over ! And 41 runs off his 5 overs !

India were all out for 338, with 35 fours and seven sixes. This is a terrific display of batting, as Sachin hit 5 sixes and ten fours. Yuvraj hit a blistering 58 off 50 balls and Dhoni 31 off 25 balls !

Swann gave 59 off his 9 overs. The crowd silenced him !

Bresnan was the most successful of the English bowlers and took 5/48.

Now England have started weill and are 23/0.

This is Sachin's 47th hundred in ODIs. Now he is the leading scorer in the WC with 1944 runs ! He has now taken his tally to 98 international hundreds. Will he complete a century of centuries in this World Cup?

Yuvraj was sent at No 4, in order to keep the left hander - right hander combination going. Gambhir and Sachin were playing well, when Gambhir was out. Then again Yuvraj came in and when Sachin left, the Commander, Dhoni and Yuvraj took over. England bowled well in the death overs, restricting India to 338!

Facing India our toughest challenge : Bopara

Dashing middle order bat, Ravi Bopara, opined that facing India on Sunday is indeed tough.

This is one of our toughest challenges in this tournament. We know what the Indian batsman are capable of but we do have our plans to keep them quiet. We will see on Sunday."

"If it is a spinning deck, we have got our own spinners who can cause problems. A pitch that spins is going to cause trouble for any team. It is going to cause problems for India as well. A lot is going to depend on the conditions," he added.

"Every match is big for us. Even the game the other night was also big for us. But against India in India is going to be huge.

"We are not thinking too much about it. If you think too much about it you will get out of the mould. We want to stay relaxed."

He said England has definite plans for the Sunday match.


"We have plans against each bowler and every batsman but it is how the batsman feel on the day. We generally play aggressive cricket. We know in places like Bangalore, there can be high totals like 270-300. It is a good wicket to bat on, especially against the seamers. It slides onto the bat quite nicely. Last time I played in Bangalore, it did not spin."

He is not bothered about not playing in Calcutta.

"We won convincingly against Pakistan in the warm-up game. I wasn't there in Australia. So I cannot comment about it. As soon as we arrived here, it has been back to usual work. The last two to three years, England have been excellent in ODIs. I am used to winning with England."

England's No 6 was eloquent about England's batting ability.

"It can be really hard work if the ball is not coming on but if we get some good wickets, like what we got the other day, it would be a lovely place to bat. We can free our arms and with the small grounds in India, we can generally score sixes," Bopara said.

He said he will be the last man not to seize opportunities.

"It is a big opportunity to get back into the side. I have got two opportunities so far, one in the warm-up game and then in the opening match. I haven't thought about that competition (with Yardy). I am just trying to do my best in every practice session."

Dont crucify Sree : Sreenath

Indian veteran pace bowler Sreenath told Indians not to crucify Sreeshant. Sreeshant gave 53 runs in the match against BD.

The dew was very much there and the Indian bowlers could not grip the ball. Because of the dew factor only did Shakib elect to field. The dew factor weighed heavily on Shakib's mind, according to Imran.

It is always better not to crucify anybody. Any player can have a bad day in office.

Sreenath opined that the Indian bowling was always an area of concern and the Indian bowlers did overcome some challenges.

One should know the mental state Sreeshant is in. He was not there in the fifteen and he came in as a replacement for Praveen. He was also not in the eleven and he came as a replacement for Nehra. So he is not fully prepared. His tendency to attack with pace and swing also proved futile.

The ICC's decision to field only ten teams for 2015 WC was proved right by the performance of Kenya and Canada. Both were ousted by professional teams. Pietersen had attacked the longish 2011 WC schedule and Ponting supported the ICC decision.

To protect the Crown, Aussies go to the field against Zimbabwe. Australia were invincible in 03 and 07 and hope to defend the WC title. Match starts at 0230 PM IST.

Indian campaign on a flyer : Sohail

Amir Sohail, ex batsman of Pak, feels that India has started her campaign on a flyer. She has given a great demonstration of her powerful batting strength.

The only way is to restrict the current favourites to 280 odd and then have a go at their bowlers.

Writing in his column for the 'News', the Pak batsman says " "If the teams who are yet to come up against India find a way to restrict their batting to around the 280 mark, I strongly believe they can upset the favourites."

"If you look at the Indian side closely, you will find they need to improve their fielding and on occasions the bowling can be vulnerable on a decent pitch where they could go for runs."

"Virender Sehwag who recently said that he would be looking to bat for the full 50 overs, made his intent clear by playing some exquisite strokes and settled down to gather singles with his partners, before a mix-up with Sachin Tendulkar saw the little master run out by the length of the wicket.

"The loss of his partner did not pressurise Sehwag as he took on the responsibility to produce a workman like effort in all respects, perfectly knowing when to rotate the strike to the younger mates, and hold back and then when to step up the tempo."

Imran on Geo Super channel said that the dew factor has weighed heavily on Shakib's mind as he elected to bowl.

"Basically I think Shakib gambled on the dew factor but his bowlers were unable to bowl with discipline and line and length to restrict India to around 300.

"I think the dew factor will still come into play in this tournament but batting will also become easier as the tournament progresses into the month of March. It is going to be hardwork for the bowlers and they will have to depend heavily on trying to reverse swing the ball." said Imran.

Former Pak wicket keeper Moin Khan said that Sehwag had given a clear warning to the other teams that he intends to bat the entire 50 overs, a warning which can send jitters down the spines of the bowlers.

"The Indian batting looks formidable and teams will have to be very careful working out bowling strategies against them. They should plan out something for Sehwag as he wishes to be there for full 50 overs." said the wicket keeper.

Reverse swing to play vital role !

The Pakis stunned the world with their ability to reverse swing the ball. Waqar and Wasim became deadly with the old ball. Now Umar Gul of Pak, Zaheer of India and Malinga of SL are known to be the experts of this sort of swing.

Allan Donald, the new NZ coach, feels that the reverse swing can make or break a team

Says he "The reverse swing is a massive thing and a huge key for me in this World Cup. That is where (the death overs) games are going to be won and lost."

That the Kiwis have reverse swingers was proved in the second match of the WC, when they shot out Kenya for 69.

Says the Kiwi skipper, Vettori "I think Tim Southee and Jacob Oram are probably the two best guys who have the ability to bowl both... Hopefully with Allan's knowledge, it will improve and we will find some result".

So batsmen, beware !