Birmingham, June 22
India’s batting and, surprisingly, their bowling, seem to have convinced everyone that they are the favourites in the final against England tomorrow. This conclusion is a bit surprising, ignoring the fact that India have lost seven of their last 12 ODIs against England in England. Their last win over England here came way back in September 2007, that too with just two balls to spare, when Robin Uthappa managed to get the 10 runs needed in the last over. Since then, India have lost four ODIs to England here, tying tied one. Two years ago, their nightmare tour ended without a single win in Tests and ODIs.

Overwhelming showing

But so overwhelming has been India's show in this tournament, in which they've won each match with unmatched conviction, that they've been labelled the favourites in the final.

This conclusion is certainly debatable, but what's not debatable is that the two best teams of the tournament have reached the final.

India have won all four matches they’ve played, England have won three of four. They’ve been the tops. This is supported by the statistics. India average 65.46 runs per wicket in the tournament, England are second best with 35. India's run rate is 5.93 to England's 5.65. India have taken 37 wickets to England's 30. But they've been vastly different, too; India have the flair, England have determination and doggedness.

England have been constantly reminded of their lack of One-day credentials; Alastair Cook was told today, as if he didn't know, that England have lost three World Cup finals (1979, 1987 and 1992) and one Champions Trophy final (2004).

Different ball game

England have been described as diffident in One-day cricket, not quite up to pace with the modern One-day cricket. One reason that has been proffered to explain this is that in county cricket, they don't play any 50-over cricket at all — it's all 40-over or T20 cricket in the one-day format. It's been said that England don't have the super-gear to blast out the runs in the last 10 overs. Cook said that his team intends to change all that. He said he and his team are “desperate” for a victory tomorrow. “That's why we've got to the final. We've been playing some good cricket, and it's an opportunity — we're desperate not to let go,” he said. “If it does, it does, and that can happen. The lads are raring to go. They're ready. I've never seen them as relaxed as we have been actually leading up to a big game.”

Desperate, and calm and relaxed — that's quite a mix that the English team is in.

Perhaps it would be wise to ignore England's history — certainly the history going back to 1979 or 1992.

And perhaps it would be wise to ignore India's history in England, too; because, in this tournament, India have played the best cricket by far. It's been exciting and thrilling and it has won them all matches with handsome margins.

All-round brilliance

India's openers have been excellent, especially Shikhar Dhawan; their seamers have done well too; the spinners too have found success. The fielding has been possibly the best any Indian team has ever fielded in international cricket. Those are reasons enough to explain the team's excellence. India have adapted to the conditions well. Their spinners and pacers have both come to the party. Their batsmen have been untroubled by the new ball which, it must be said, hasn't been swinging. England have been adequate and thorough. India have sparkled, England have played in their tried and tested method of batting with solidity.

Dhoni was asked to comment on the perception that England have played this tournament like Test cricket.

“Well, I think they've played proper cricket, and often you need to see how the game is going, how the tournament is progressing,” Dhoni said. “If you see how this tournament has particularly progressed, we are not seeing too many scores of over 300?odd runs, maybe because of the weather and maybe because of how the bowlers are bowling.”

In fact, the Indians too haven't had the opportunity to really blast off — rain and cold haven't really allowed that. One concern could be that India haven't really had much batting practice through the tournament — that's due to the excellence of their top order. Only in the first match, in which they batted first, have they had to bat deep; they've scored the three subsequent wins with eight wickets to spare. This means that while Dhawan has faced 334 balls, Rohit Sharma 219 and Virat Kohli 150, the others haven't had a long knock. Karthik has faced 84 balls in the tournament, Jadeja 29, MS Dhoni 26, and Raina 10.

India's middle order hasn't been tested; tomorrow could be the day it is. England's fast bowlers would be a threat, especially James Anderson, who has taken 10 wickets at 12.7. Rain has been forecast for the day. That, Dhoni said today, would make the toss crucial, as it has been over the last few matches.

Birmingham, June 22
On the eve of the last match of the last Champions Trophy tournament, captains Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Alastair Cook were urged to look into each other's eyes by the photographers. The way boxers do before they try to beat each other into pulp.

These were a few embarrassing moments for the two, but they did look into each other's eyes. But there was no danger of violence. It didn't turn out to be a Tyson-Holyfield moment -- Cook's eyes remained soft and dreamy, Dhoni's kind and pleasant. No ear was bitten, no eye blackened.

A few minutes later, Dhoni was playing a violent game on his smartphone -- it involved shooting to death some nurses in white, who seemed harmless enough. “That's a journalist,” quipped the captain as more victims appeared on the screen of the phone, and he slew them all with a burst of fire from his gun.

Dhoni has managed to keep it like fun and games in this tournament. He hasn't had to worry much, though. His batting line-up has been firing, battering into submission all opposition -- much like his own firearm in his smarphone game. Shikhar Dhawan has been a revelation at the top of the line-up -- opening partnerships of 127, 101, 58 and 77 in the four matches here have laid the foundations of comfortable victories. Dhawan has got 332 runs in this tournament, a good 110 runs more than the next man on the table, Kumar Sangakkara.

Dhawan's partner Rohit Sharma has done well too, but he'd be the first to insist that he's got to do much more -- he's into his sixth year as an international player and it's time he slipped into the role of the senior pro.

But with the batting shining, it's no surprise that India have won their four matches quite comfortably.

The bowling has been the bigger surprise, actually. In three of the four matches, it's the bowlers who have won the Man of the Match awards — Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma.

It's been a cold and wet summer, and surprisingly the swing bowlers haven't done well; but the sticky pitches have helped the spinners. Ravindra Jadeja has picked up 10 wickets — joint highest in the tournament — from four matches, at 13 per wicket.

Dhawan and Jadeja have been the unforeseen game-changers for India on this tour. Dhawan did score 187 on Test debut, but the form he's shown here has been startling; Jadeja, dismissed as a no-bowler, no-batsman allrounder earlier, has been a surprise, too. These two have powered India's astonishing success in this tournament.

“We have exploited the conditions well and we have bowled the right areas, which I feel is very important,” Dhoni said today. “What we have done is bowled in one area quite consistently. Most of our bowlers at times, they tend to look for wickets, and in these conditions what's important is to keep bowling in the same channel, use less of variations, more of consistency. That really helps you get wickets and put pressure, and you don't really leak runs. So that's one area where we have done really well.”

Dhoni, though, says there's no point in resting on the laurels — the big game is upon them, and the past would become irrelevant tomorrow, and the bowling is yet to be fully tested.

“The bowling is still a concern. We have not gone through the death (overs, ie the last few overs of the opposition innings) where the opposition had wickets in hand and were supposed to go after our bowlers. That's still an area where we need to improve as a team,” Dhoni said. How exactly does he remain so calm before the end of the match, Dhoni was asked.

“We prepare exactly in the same way how we prepared for the semifinal, when we played against Pakistan in that particular game,” he said. “The preparation remains the same, and that's what our emphasis is on.”

He's endured some difficult days in the recent past, with that controversy around his conflict of interest as captain and allegedly a part-owner of a player management firm.

That urge to shoot down a journalist isn't real, though; Dhoni says he's calm about the cricket, too. It's all fun for the ice-cool Dhoni.

Eastbourne, june 22
Strong winds played havoc with her skirt and brought her a warning for time-wasting but Elena Vesnina rose above the problems to win her second WTA Tour title on the grass of Eastbourne on Saturday, beating American qualifier Jamie Hampton 6-2 6-1.

The Devonshire Park courts at the southern English seaside resort, always known for windy conditions, proved especially tricky for finals day and Vesnina was warned for taking too long to serve early in the second set as she tried to stop her skirt flapping. When she complained, umpire Mariana Alves told her: “I understand, but we can’t wait forever.”

Afterwards, Vesnina was all smiles, saying her first tour win, in Hobart in January, had come in similar conditions. “Before I hated to play in the wind, I was struggling so much, but now I just love it,” she said. The 36th-ranked Vesnina, who won the French Open doubles title with Ekaterina Makarova this month, said the win gave her “a lot of confidence and positive emotions” for Wimbledon, which starts on Monday. — Reuters