by ben
3. November 2010 22:17
India have just comprehensively defeated Australia on home soil and are the number one ranked test team in the world. They have a captain who has the support of his team, the board and the country although his best cricketing days may be behind him. The team has a blend of youth and experience that gives hope for the future and near term stability. Next up are a team struggling on the world stage, at a low point even amidst their own uninspiring rollercoaster of cricketing glory. Welcome, my Indian friends, to the post-05 Ashes funk...
In November 2005 England toured Pakistan and lost the test series 2-0. They collapsed embarrassingly in the first test needing just 198 for victory, drew the second test and were then annihilated by an innings and 100 runs in the third test. There were no injury excuses, this was before Flintoff's perennial bad knees or Harmison's home sickness, England were beat fair and square by what in theory was a much weaker side.
I'm not going so far as to suggest that New Zealand are going to beat India, for one they don't have the advantage that Pakistan had of being at home. Despite that I think they could give India a much better fight than people are expecting. You can back India under 449.5 runs in the first innings at 2.50 at CricketBetLive and also go over 299.5 for NZ at 1.75, both of which I like.
You can catch the Sofa's live broadcast of the test starting at 3.55am GMT everyday from 4th November and Sofa favourite IOB is commentating into the wind for Sky doing the studio slot.
Good luck.
CricketBetLive have put a special promotion on for Test Match Sofa fans.
