"That’s the difference. That’s why India are going to win this series. Sorry Kevin...."

England vs India, One Day International Series Nov/Dec 2008.

1st ODI: Friday 14th Nov 3.30am GMT at Rajkot
2nd ODI: Mon 17th Nov 3.30am at Indore
3rd ODI: Thursday 20th Nov 3.30am at Kanpur
4th ODI: Sunday 23rd Nov at Bangalore 08.30am [day/night match]
5th ODI: Wednesday 26th Nov at Cuttack 08.30am  [day/night match]
6th ODI: Saturday 29th Nov 3.30am at Guwahati
7th ODI: Tuesday 2nd December at Delhi 08.30am  [day/night match]

England: Pietersen (Capt.), Anderson, Bell, Bopara, Broad, Collingwood, Cook, Flintoff, Harmison, Samit Patel, Prior, Owais Shah, Sidebottom, Swann, Wright.

India: Dhoni (Capt.), Sehwag, Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Khan, Kohli, Ojha, Munaf Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Murali Vijay, Yuvraj Singh.

Many years ago, I remember a long-forgotten cricket journalist hosting a video comparing and contrasting English and overseas batting coaching techniques. He asked seven English instructors (in the nets) how to play a line-and-length medium paced delivery pitching around off stump. They answered with seven slightly different versions of “Wait on the back foot, cover your off and middle stumps, play it late, see which way it moves, look to tap it into a gap for a single and for heaven’s sake play it down and don’t close the face to turn it round the corner because you might get caught off a leading edge”. When exactly the same question was put to the only West Indies coach appearing in the film (possibly Sir Viv Richards), he answered “You move forward, which turns it into a half-volley, then swing through your natural arc and hit it in the stand over long-on”. He then watched approvingly as the nets batsman hit six balls in a row straight back over the bowler’s head for thirty-six runs with all the lazy grace of a Sunday morning golf swing.

There is a point to this story. The point is that English players are brought up to think of defence first. West Indies players are brought up to think of domination first. Each and every delivery, Indian players are brought up to think “How can I get this ball to the boundary?” because if they don’t, they’ll never be noticed amongst thousands of rivals and they won’t be talent-spotted and asked to play for a better side – so the natural boundary hitters rise to the top. That’s the difference. That’s why India are going to win this series. Sorry Kevin.

Boundary shots are the key in Indian 50 over matches....