***Official*** India in England

[SpaceMonkey]

What happened to that rule about not being allowed to play beyond 6.30?

I was wondering that, 2 days in a row we've played till 7.30pm. Not that im complaining

 

[The Baconator]

What happened to that rule about not being allowed to play beyond 6.30?

That gets thrown out the window if they lose play on previous days it looks like. Fair enough I guess.

 

[Turbinator]

With a 174 run lead and 8 wickets in hand and 2 days left to go with more rain predicted... This could very well be a draw.

 

[Arjun]

There's a clip of Sreesanth walking with Prasad to the crease, to gethis run-up right. He's given too much width on the off-side. Gavaskar advises bowling fuller, so that the batsmen are incited to drive. However, there's one worrying factor- lack of pace. How did Sreesanth lose his pace? He was closest to tearaway pace among these bowlers, and without it, he seems headed the Irfan Pathan way. While swing is his main priority, he needs to bowl a lot faster than he is now.

 

[Sanz]

Very poor batting effort by India, I hope in the next match Dravid uses his brain and plays Yuvraj ahaed of Dhoni. It is ridiculous to leave out Yuvraj and play two wicket keepers.

England to win the test in 3 and 1/4 days.

 

[Manee]

Very poor batting effort by India, I hope in the next match Dravid uses his brain and plays Yuvraj ahaed of Dhoni. It is ridiculous to leave out Yuvraj and play two wicket keepers.

England to win the test in 3 and 1/4 days.

You think it will take them a session to set a total then bowl out India?

 

[greg]

What happened to that rule about not being allowed to play beyond 6.30?

The 'rule'/playing condition hasn't changed at all. In a match when no overs are lost to rain play continues until 90 overs have been bowled or 6:30 pm (technically 6:00pm + half an hour) (whichever is the sooner). Except on the final day when the overs must be bowled (light permitting).

In the event of weather interruptions up to an hour/15 overs can be made up on the same day, and half an hour/7 overs can be made up on subsequent days.

Hence the last two days they were able to continue until 7.30pm (7.00pm + 1/2 hr). Technically they only made up 1/2 hr of today's play this evening since play was anyway scheduled to go to 6.30 + 1/2 hr to make up yesterday's overs.

The general principle is that there should be no greater than 7 hrs playing time on any individual day. Popular belief is that these rules came in to appease TV but it is probably more related to do with lobbying from players' associations due to concern over overly long final sessions (the most famous before the rule coming in being the Ashes test at Melbourne in 1998/9 - a four hour final session from memory)

 

[Sanz]

You think it will take them a session to set a total then bowl out India?

Well I thought it was the second day of the test match. My mistake, so the test to get over in 4 days.

 

[open365]

Very poor batting effort by India, I hope in the next match Dravid uses his brain and plays Yuvraj ahaed of Dhoni. It is ridiculous to leave out Yuvraj and play two wicket keepers.

England to win the test in 3 and 1/4 days.

The Dhoni situation is realy confusing, the selectors should ignore all the public love of Dhnoi and drop him when Khartick plays.

 

[Richard]

There's a clip of Sreesanth walking with Prasad to the crease, to gethis run-up right. He's given too much width on the off-side. Gavaskar advises bowling fuller, so that the batsmen are incited to drive. However, there's one worrying factor- lack of pace. How did Sreesanth lose his pace? He was closest to tearaway pace among these bowlers, and without it, he seems headed the Irfan Pathan way. While swing is his main priority, he needs to bowl a lot faster than he is now.

S managed to bowl at 92mph earlier this game, and even RP was hitting 87mph, which is quite something.

Pace hasn't been a problem this match.

 

[Richard]

With a 174 run lead and 8 wickets in hand and 2 days left to go with more rain predicted... This could very well be a draw.

Optimistic as ever, As.

 

[JBMAC]

The great pity of this series currently being played is that England will dominate so much their Rankings will bring them up to a comfortable second place and as Indian Cricket is struggling so much it hardly seems like a fair contest.

 

[Richard]

The Indians have held their own pretty well so far this game.

 

[NUFAN]

The Dhoni situation is realy confusing, the selectors should ignore all the public love of Dhnoi and drop him when Khartick plays.

Karthick is still finding his feet in the Test arena. You can't expect him to open the battting and keep aswell. If you think that it's just simply not going to happen.

What would your batting lineup be to include Yuvraj?

Dravid open, Laxman to 3?

 

[adharcric]

Karthik has simultaneously kept wicket and opened the batting before for Tamil Nadu on several occasions. Given that he is probably the fittest member of the Indian squad, that should not be a huge worry (obviously, it is something to consider). Karthik >>> Dhoni with the gloves, worth it as things stand IMO.

 

[silentstriker]

Indian Cricket is struggling so much it hardly seems like a fair contest.

Actually, last 3-4 years have been the best period of Indian cricket in maybe 20 years. Which says a lot more about Indian cricket than anything else, granted...but it's true nonetheless.

 

[chalky]

Actually, last 3-4 years have been the best period of Indian cricket in maybe 20 years. Which says a lot more about Indian cricket than anything else, granted...but it's true nonetheless.

I'm a bit suprised at that was comparing the this Indian team to the one that toured in 2002 I think the current is a fair bit weaker. Harbhajan & Sehwag 2 of the young stars of that team, who you would have expected to lead the team forward, have gone backwards and lost their place in side and no quality replacements have yet been found.

There is no doubt that of the batsmen Laxman, Tendulkar & Ganguly have also regressed in that period yet none of the young promising batsmen (Yuvraj Kaif etc) have been good enough to take their place in the side.

Of the bowlers Kumble has improved, Zaheer still blows hot & cold And the young seamers Sreesanth, Munaf are of similer quality to your Agarkars & Nehras of that time.

It was apoint Nasser Hussain made that India still rely on exactly the same players as they did in 2002 Kumble, Dravid, Tendulkar, Zaheer etc. Infact in that 5 year period I am struggling to think of a consistent test match cricketer India have introduced into their side.

 

[silentstriker]

Haha, cricket web head of vice would be an awesome title. That's what I read it as.

 

[pasag]

Haha, cricket web head of vice would be an awesome title. That's what I read it as.

 

[Pratters]

Karthik has simultaneously kept wicket and opened the batting before for Tamil Nadu on several occasions. Given that he is probably the fittest member of the Indian squad, that should not be a huge worry (obviously, it is something to consider). Karthik >>> Dhoni with the gloves, worth it as things stand IMO.

Keeping and opening in a test match is one of the most demanding tasks physically for a test cricketer. Regardless of how fit you are, to concentrate properly in international matches - you are keeping to Kumble, then jumping left and right to catch the straying deliveries; next thing you know you are to tackle the swinging ball - is a pretty difficult task and thank god we are not going down that road at least.

The second talking point - playing both Karthik and Dhoni in the XI is pretty ridiculous. I watched Karthik's inning and he seemed to have no clue against the moving ball - looked completely out of sorts. Maybe he will improve some how and go on to score some runs and repay the faith Dravid has had in him but I would be very surprised if a Yuvraj or some other first class batsman could not do a better job than Karthik opening. It is time we put an end to the crazy trend of having keepers open - Mongia, Deep Dasgupta, Parthiv Patel come to mind immediately.