India England clash in Twenty20 match at Manchester, 31 August.

Test series was like free honeymoon for England and never ending nightmare for Indians who were whitewashed out of their no.1 rank. Visitors just couldn't stand upto the challenge but we also have to agree home team simply didn't give anything away..
Now, focus turns to limited over formats, begining with one off T20 match between India and England at Old Trafford in Manchester on 31st August 2011. England are current World T20 champions but they've new captain in Stuart Broad who's yet to taste victory in his leadership whereas MS Dhoni will be inspired by the youngsters at his disposal, improving fielding exponentially. here's how the story stands before the battle begins :-
Head to head
India and England have played two twenty20 matches before, first at Durban back on 19 September 2007 which was a high scoring game won by India by 18 runs defending 218 (Yuvraj hit Broad for 6 sixes in an over) and second at Lord's on 14 June 2009 when England defended 153, by 3 runs. Whoever wins this wednesday clash will lead the head to head going forward.
India T20 squad
is same as the one that'll be taking part in one day series. Opening slot is bit of mystery with Virender Sehwag returning home, Sachin Tendulkar not playing the format and Gautam Gambhir mildly injured. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have done well in few warm-up games they've been part of but Suresh Raina continues to struggle. Spinners R Ashwin and Amit Mishra will play crucial roles for visitors besides Praveen Kumar who always swings the new ball. Will we see Indians unleash speedy Varun Aaron? probably not but there's good possibility they'll play Rahul Dravid in what would be his last appearance in shortest version.

MS Dhoni (captain), Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Praveen Kumar, R Vinay Kumar, RP Singh, Varun Aaron, Munaf Patel and Sachin Tendulkar.
England T20 squad
English selectors have named 13 member squad with rookies like Jos Buttler and Alex Hales as well as Ben Stokes who made his international debut in an ODI vs Ireland last week. Pietersen has been rested from one day series but he'll play this T20 match. Captain Broad will be expecting big gun Eoin Morgan to fire and Graeme Swann to wreck opposition.

Stuart Broad (captain), Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Alex Hales, Tim Bresnan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, Jade Dernbach and Steven Finn.
Start time
To be played as evening match in Manchester, UK, this match will be starting 6pm local time = 6pm India & Sri Lanka, 3am Sydney in Australia, 10am Canada, 1pm New York in US and 9pm Middle East.
Records
India's 218 is the highest total so far while Virender Sehwag's 68 is best score. Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan are two bowlers to have taken 3 wicket hauls, for 30 and 37 runs each. Biggest partnership is 136 between Sehwag and Gambhir that was put on at Durban.

Weather forecast isn't great but we may sneek in 40 overs, 3+1/2 hours of cricket.

Blogger Admin

"CRICKET MERI JAAN"