da mrbet： The good news was that England cruised through their first, and only,practice game against an unheralded side; the bad news is that AndrewFlintoff, who smashed a breezy 59 with the bat, revealed that he will notbe bowling in the opening game of the Cha
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Jaipur12-Oct-2006
Not a sight we’ll be seeing on Sunday. Andrew Flintoff has decided against bowling too soon © Getty Images
The good news was that England cruised through their first, and only,practice game against an unheralded side; the bad news is that AndrewFlintoff, who smashed a breezy 59 with the bat, revealed that he will notbe bowling in the opening game of the Champions Trophy, a crucial clashagainst India on Sunday.”I won’t be bowling this Sunday,” Flintoff told reporters at the end of atiring day in the field. “As for the series, I’m bowling in the nets,trying to build it [the ankle] up. As for an exact date as to when I’ll be bowling again,I’m not sure. I’ve bowled two or three times in the nets and it’s feelingstrong but that’s something that we’re assessing day by day.”Speculation has been rife about Flintoff opening the batting in thetournament and his entry at No.3 today lent more weight to that theory.Flintoff, though, played his cards close to his chest. “Today, we had theorder we had,” he dead-batted. “Going into Sunday, we’d need to discusswith the coach and decide. We have quite a few options we can take butit’s something we’ll finalise before Sunday.”Flintoff was visibly sapped at the end of a demanding day under the Jaipursun but he brushed aside suggestions that the weather might affect histeam’s chances. “I thought we coped quite well with the heat last time,”he reasoned, talking about England’s visit to India earlier in the year,when they encountered temperatures so oppressive that a few players neededsaline drips. “We have experience in playing in extreme heat. It’ssomething we’re aware of. We’re getting accustomed to it in the last fewdays.”Just as they’d done against Pakistan, England played both their spinners -Jamie Dalrymple and Michael Yardy – in the warm-up game as well. “Weplayed two spinners today and they’re obviously vital members of our sideas are the pace bowlers. We’re quite fortunate to have three allroundersin the side – Collingwood, Yardy and Dalrymple. They all bat well and bowltheir overs. We also have Rikki Clarke. It gives us a lot of depth.”