Five Things We Learned From England VS India

Well, that was bloody tense wasn't it? The first classic match of the tournament, so what have we learnt from it?

1. Andrew Strauss is by far and away England's most complete batsman

Captain Inspiration in Tests is now Captain Inspiration in ODIs, with probably the best innings played by an Englishman at a World Cup, becoming the first England captain to score a century at a World Cup in the process. His innings was the perfect combination of aggression and circumspection, knowing exactly when to accelerate, when to hold back; when to get carried away and when to pull oneself back in. He has already scored more runs in two innings than in his entire 2007 World Cup and while his captaincy in this format still leaves a bit to the imagination, his form, more than anyone's, will determine how well England do in this tournament.

2. This England team has character

We already knew this but it's worth repeating, this team has cojones. Bouncing back from a poor all-round team performance against the Netherlands last week, and all the associated flak that comes with it, losing your best pace bowler on the morning of the game, getting pasted around the ground for 45 overs (the last five overs of the Indian innings we can ignore) and then every single batsmen putting his hand up (give or take) shows this England team has something no other English ODI team has had for a very long; bottle and plenty of it.

3. England's bowling still leaves a lot to be desired

Yes, Stuart Broad was missing and yes, Tim Bresnan took a five-for but this was still a pretty poor bowling performance from England. All but one bowler going for more than 6.40 an over shows a serious lack of control from England's bowling and a definite lack of personnel (apart from Bresnan) for Strauss to turn to when run stemming is needed. Michael Yardy certainly isn't the answer to the second spinner question, Swann's lack of threat and/or ability to keep an end quiet on sub-continental tracks is a concern and Jimmy Anderson's form must be worrying England's management. But, that said…

4. Indian bowlers weren't much cop either

Whilst there were no terrible performances from the Indian bowlers, their own economy rates were nothing stand-out terrible but outside of a brief period where Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla strangled the life out of Strauss and Ian Bell and Zaheer Khan's late flurry, the lack of threat from the Indian bowlers was palpable, allowing Strauss and Bell to accumulate at a fair lick with no real pace and allowing the England tail to finish (sort of) the job. Perhaps it was quite a dead pitch, explaining both bowling performances, but time will tell whether the lack of real, express pace for both sides will prove an issue.

5. We were looking at two semi-finalists

We kind of knew this already but today's game showed the qualities, and indeed the flaws, of these two teams. Both sides have very strong batting line ups, capable of batting any bowling attack out of a game. India's bowling is better than England's, although still lacking a X factor, but England field more intensely (at times!) and more bottle but also the historical weight of failure. What is clear is that of the matches seen so far, this featured two of the favourites and on today's evidence, rightly so.