Date:21/11/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/11/21/stories/2005112107401800.htm

Sport - Cricket

England has its collars up

Kirti Patil

NEW DELHI: English women, unlike their male counterparts, are carrying on with a splendid form after the Ashes win against Australia this summer.

Braving the rigours of the sub-continental tour where food and weather is as much a bother as the opposition, the England women have shown remarkable form going into the one-off Test against India that opens at the Jamia Ground here on Monday.

Though a four-day Test match, on a flat and bald pitch, may not throw up an outright result, England is hoping that they have enough strength to bowl the host out twice.

Indian women, however, are up to stop the rampaging England. On their sub-continental tour,

Mithali confident

English women have scored 2-0 one-day series win against Sri Lanka, and have 4-0 record in the warm-up matches against India under-21 and India `A' sides.

"I am confident that we will be able to contain England with the kind of balanced team at hand," said the Indian captain Mithali Raj.

"We have a mixture of young and experienced, and after depending on spinners for years together now we have a team with good pace bowlers," said coach Sudha Shah referring to the surprise factor that the have for the England team.

England captain made no comments about the pitch saying, "we had a good look at it but haven't thought about whether to bat first or take the field. We will think it over overnight," Charlotte added.

Main attraction

The main attraction in the England team is pace bowler Isa Guha, Berkshire county player of Indian origin. "I have been overwhelmed with the kind of response we got during the four game we played so far. Crowds came to cheer both the teams, which is a positive trend," said Isa, who last year won English woman cricketer of the year award.

India last hosted England in 2003 January, in which the lone Test was drawn while the host blanked England 5-0 in the one-day series. In May same year, England handed out 0-5 thrashing on their soil after drawing one Test. The second Test was abandoned due to rain.

This year, a fourth place finish for England in the World Cup was the only blemish so far in 2005. India finished runner-up to Australia, which beat England in the semi-finals.

While England played Australia in the Women's Ashes and then toured Sri Lanka before coming here, Indian women had no such luck with international exposure after the World Cup.

The teams:

India: Mithali Raj (Capt.), Jaya Sharma, Neetu David, Anjum Chopra, Jhulan Goswami, Amita Sharma, Arundhati Kirkire, Nooshin Al-Khadeer, Reema Malhotra, Karuna Jain, Rumeli Dhar, Asha Rawat, Monica Sumra, S. K. Sravanthi Naidu and Varsha Raffel.

England: Charlotte Edwards (Capt.), Arran Brindle, Caroline Atkins, Rosalie Birch, Katherine Brunt, Lydia Greenway, Isa Guha, Jenny Gunn, Laura Harper, Beth Morgan, Laura Newton, Jane Smit, Claire Taylor and Jo Watts.