The Dollop | UK sport video blog

Brilliant India expose England

First things first - this was a quite brilliant game of cricket. With the backdrop of the Mumbai bombings and all the conjecture that when with it, both teams are to be applauded for putting on a great spectacle.

For England, they came so close but ultimately couldn't put away an Indian side that seemed to grow in confidence as the test match progressed. Before the game there was much talk of how England would react to playing in such a difficult environment.

Everyone assumed that the Indians would continue unaffected but in fact it was England who got off to a flyer with India seeming a little off the pace. This was all to change as the match went on.

Why are England still no good at one day cricket?

For a long time now England's one day side has been pretty average. While the test team looks reasonably good, one never has much confidence when the one dayers arrive.

So it might seem odd then that I felt pretty optimistic as England headed off to India for the 7 game one day series. OK, we were shocking in the Caribbean during the Stanford series but prior to that, in the summer, we had handed a very good South African side a fairly comprehensive beating.

Spotlight on: Yuvraj Singh

Yurvraj Singh has been England's biggest tormentor in the first 2 one day internationals in India. Yuvraj scored 118 yesterday following up from his 78 ball 138 in the first game.

He is a fantastic striker of the ball as poor Stuart Broad found out in the World Cup.

England humiliated in warm up

Why is it that every time England go on tour they suffer a humiliating defeat to a local village side or such like?

Normally it is a Chairman's XI, or an Invitation team made up from past players and under 18s, who inflict a complete pasting upon us, just to ensure that our morale is at a real low when we arrive at the test matches.

Typically it's the Aussies that really take pride in stuffing us with a substandard side. They really enjoy filling the back pages with how our top 6 were skittled out by a 39 yr old plumber who hasn't played top grade cricket for 5 years!

Shift in world cricket as Aussies on the wane

OK, let's start with the facts.

Australia have lost their first test series since the Ashes in 2005. Perhaps more importantly though, it is the first time since 1988 that they have conceded a series by 2 tests.

Comprehensively beaten by India 2 tests on the trot, is this just a blip or is the Australian cricket team finally starting to wane following 2 decades of complete domination of the world game?

Is this the worst cricket leave ever?

This is brilliant! The reaction of the commentator says it all!

Stanford tournament a bad advert for cricket

After all the hype leading up to the most talked about game of cricket in history, when it came down to it England simply didn't show up and were dealt a thrashing by the Stanford All Stars.

Kevin Pietersen admitted after the game that his team had become distracted by "stuff happening off the field" which would appear a fair assessment.

All week, the England players had seemed uncomfortable talking about the financial element to the game. It is not a very English thing to talk about money and yet money was at the centre of this particular match and so they really couldn't avoid the inevitable questions.

Come Thursday last week, Pietersen had the honesty to admit that he was looking forward to the whole affair being over, and it showed on the pitch. The West Indian XI romped to victory barely breaking sweat. Their skipper Chris Gayle top scored and England didn't manage to take 1 wicket.

The Stanford farce!

Blimey, it seems it's all kicking off out in Antigua.

Leading up to Saturday's winner takes all, mulit-million pound 20-20 game between England and The Stanford All Stars, it appears everyone's getting a little stressed and tetchy.

During their game against Middlesex, the England players were reportedly furious at images displayed on the giant screen which showed Sir Allen Stanford flirting with the players' wives and girlfriends. Matt Prior apparently took great afront given that his wife was seen perched on Stanford's knee as the American had her in fits of giggles.

Genius Tendulkar will take some catching...

It's been coming for quite some time and many have been expecting it for the past 19 years or so. Last week, in the first innings of the first test against Australia, Sachin Tendulkar scored 88 and in doing so finally overtook Brian Lara's all time run scoring record in Test matches.

It marks a remarkable career for the diminuative Indian who first burst on to the scene as a 16 year old. From that moment, the world of cricket knew that he was something special and almost 20 years later he has gone on to achieve this incredible feat.

Test appeal system to be used in West Indies Test Series

Reports that England are to trial the new test appeal system in their 4 match test series in the Caribbean next year is great news for cricket.

Under the rules of the trial, each team will be allowed 3 appeals per innings.

There has been much debate for some time over whether technology should be used in cricket. The usual arguments about it undermining the umpires and slowing down the game have resurfaced, but surely it has to be the way forward.