INDIA BEST IN AMAZING SCORING SPREE:INDIA SURVIVED a thrilling Sri Lanka run chase to clinch a three-run win in the first one day international as the teams piled up more than 800 runs between them in Rajkot yesterday.

Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan smashed a career-best 160 off 124 balls to lead the chase after counterpart Virender Sehwag notched 146 to help India post their highest one-day total of 414 for seven after being put in to bat.

The visitors were restricted to 411 for eight after looking good to pull off the second-highest ODI run chase ever and then needing 11 runs in the final over and six off the last two deliveries.

South Africa hold the record for the highest successful run chase, scoring 438 for nine in reply to Australia’s 434 in Johannesburg in March 2006.

ENGLAND MAY be considered underdogs but they have some teeth – as long as Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad are fit. In the 10 months since the Andrews, Strauss and Flower, took England by the scruff and shook them after their 51 all out humiliation at Sabina Park, they have steadily built themselves an impressive record. In 10 full matches they have suffered only a single loss, and that the shocker at Headingley to be redeemed at The Oval. West Indies have been beaten at home, and so too Australia, albeit a team in decline.

Today England begin their stiffest challenge yet, from a cocksure South Africa side until very recently ranked the best around at the ground on which, were it not for the notoriously fixed match against Nasser Hussain’s side in 2000, they would be deemed invincible. Supersport Park is South Africa’s citadel, its banker, and a wholly appropriate place for them to try to establish an early hold on the four-Test series knowing as they do that the visitors, having lost the opening match in six of their last seven series abroad, are notoriously slow starters.

England’s captain and coach will have pondered whether the better form of defence against the inevitable onslaught that will come from South Africa is to return fire with fire or to circle the wagons. Restricting the bowling options in favour of an extra batsman is something they have done in only one of Strauss’s matches in charge and that, at Bridgetown, resulted in West Indies racking up 749 for nine. It goes against his ethos not to have as much ammunition as he can.

The Bridgetown Test was played on a moribund pitch that offered nothing to anyone below express. Centurion, by contrast, has a reputation for pace and carry that has brought hauls of wickets for the likes of Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini.

England have to protect their interest, which means that a Test debut for Luke Wright ought not to be an option. A batting line-up that includes Ian Bell at number six, a position in which he averages 49, has a strong look to it: one with Matt Prior at six and a novice Wright at seven looks a gung-ho recipe for disaster, the more so were the choice of Wright predicated on the fitness or otherwise of James Anderson.

The indications, though, are that Anderson has responded well to rest and treatment, and with Stuart Broad will provide the linchpin of the attack with the third seamer either Graham Onions or Ryan Sidebottom, who took five wickets in the final warm-up game in East London over the weekend and is said to have hauled his pace back to where it was when he held the attack together last year. Sidebottom’s inclusion now would be hard on Onions.

South Africa, too, will be going in with only three pacemen and a holding spinner in Paul Harris. If the attack of Steyn, Ntini and Morne Morkel sounds formidable then there should be a note of caution. For a fast bowler to reach a century of Test appearances is a magnificent achievement but had the milestone not beckoned, Ntini might not have made the cut.

All recent Test series between the two countries have been close affairs, although theoretically South Africa’s home advantage should give them the edge. However, they are significantly underprepared for Test cricket, not having played since they lost at home to Australia nine months since. Nor is their one-day form showing indications of a team at the top of their game. England’s last successful start to an away series was in Port Elizabeth five years ago, and they went on to dominate. A good start now and this is a series they can definitely win. Guardian Service