Power play.

Marcus Trescothick struck a commanding 104 as England won the opening match of the NatWest Challenge against Australia by nine wickets at Headingley. The English beat Australians easily. Hayden, Ponting failed to score [Again!].

In the current England squad “Flintoff would be the only player who would make it to Baggy green selection on merit “–this comment was made by an Aussie and today he would be thinking about those words. The Australian pride seems to have downward “slide”.

The new One-day rules are in place. The fielding limitations were increased to 20 overs. The first ten will be compulsory while the next 2 sets [set of 5 overs each] will be fielding captain’s choice. This will be called as “power-play”. Regular umpires will draw an imaginary circle to denote the commencement of such power plays while Billy Dancer Bowden will build a small house [oodu katuvar] to denote the commencement.

Next rule, other than carrying the sponsor’s drinks the 12th man gets to play. He can be asked to bat or bowl replacing an another player, meaning a selected players gets the boot in the middle of the game. Beware “Gangully saab”. PIO cardholder “Vikram Solanki” was the first player to be capped as a substitute. Aussies substitution was more calculated and complex. Still they lost the game badly is another story. The use of 'powerplays’ and 12th man substitution failed to have any significance in their first appearance in an international match.

Due to the gruesome Bomb blasts in London, status about next games in the tournament are unknown. EBC will meet to discuss London one-dayers.