The key to England losing this match was the first ten overs - of both innings. While England staggered ineptly to 22 for 2, India hared to 66 for 0. As our graph shows, England found the boundary with only 3% of the balls bowled to them in the first 10 overs; for India, as Virender Sehwag gorged himself on Andy Caddick, the figure was five times that. England's rate did pick up as the innings went on, and as Ian Blackwell plonked his front foot down to slog across the line, but they still managed to score only 35% of their runs in boundaries, as against 59% for India. For once, England didn't have Marcus Trescothick biffing the ball to the boundary, and it made a big difference: when he slammed 119 against Zimbabwe on Wednesday, 47% of his runs came in boundaries.

But the disparity in England and India's boundary ratio reflects as badly on the bowlers as the batsmen. Once Sehwag got going, England's body language suggested they were powerless to resist the force. Not entirely surprisingly: this was the fifth century opening partnership India have posted against them in one-day internationals this year, and Sehwag has been involved in the lot.

Rob Smyth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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