***Official*** India in England

[wpdavid]

England played badly with the bat, India bowled well with the ball, that's the story imo.

The pitch and conditions obviously weren't a batting paradise, but India bowled quite well and England never got going with the bat.

Don't see what complaints you have with complacency though, yes we could have batted a lot better than we did but i don't see how that is an reason to advocate changing the batting line up when there aren't really any replacements that are making a more than good case to be in the team.

The complacency is evident in the recurrent failure to develop as players, and actually the rest of your post identified that far more eloquently than I did. tbf I didn't actually advocate changing the lineup. Not quite yet, anyway.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Would have gone over the top and it pitched outside the line of legstump.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Think people are overstating how well India have done and how badly England have done here. Sure, by 200s standards our score is not good, however pre-2000s (ie before pitches started becoming ridiculously flat) this sort of score was slightly below par but not exatly exceptionally so. And this pitch is certainly doing more than the vast amount of wickets in the 200s have so far.

Of course, our bowling is quite liable to misfire totally, but I wouldn't be too surprised to see us churn out a first innings lead yet.

 

[Richard]

No, it's almost always inside-edge.

Granted...but it does happen

Obviously it does, I'd just never seen it before today!

 

[Richard]

Oh please, everyone was saying Dravid's an idiot for choosing to bowl and that Vaughan would have chosen to bat, just a few hours ago.

I tell you what, after the First Test it's a damn good job he didn't get the chance to choose to bat here else he'd have been crucified.

 

[Richard]

Think people are understating how well India have done and how badly England have done here. Sure, by 200s standards our score is not good, however pre-2000s (ie before pitches started becoming ridiculously flat) this sort of score was slightly below par but not exatly exceptionally so. And this pitch is certainly doing more than the vast amount of wickets in the 200s have so far.

And, and this is even bigger a thing IMO, so is the ball.

Great to see a ball that swings, properly, again. Let's just hope a relative novice attack can do the business - cos they need to, otherwise we're out of this game.

I really, really wish Hoggard had been fit for this game. More still, I wish we still had Frasers, Goughs and Caddicks - and even Corks.

 

[alternative]

Ganguly so gun, the second i saw him take the wicket i declared that all the drinks on me for the whole night. Regret it now thou .

 

[Dasa]

Would have gone over the top and it pitched outside the line of legstump.

Don't think it pitched outside leg. Yeah, it looked a bit high on the replay but in real time it looked pretty close.

Anyway, I reckon England only have themselves to blame so far. India bowled well but not brilliantly, just a lack of application from everyone bar Cook imo.

 

[Jono]

Wow, yesterday went extremely well for India, and I completely agree with Dasa. They just showed no thought in their batting, and even when they attempted to apply themselves, they went about it stupidly by letting India get on top after tea.

Heading into tea, even with KP out I got the feeling England had taken back the momentum, and then after tea they start treating Ganguly as if he's Malcolm Marshall. India were disciplined with their bowling, but other than a few deliveries from Sree and Zaheer here and there, they weren't exceptional.

Good day to be an Indian fan though. I think it was important India won the toss, and I did do a bit of a boogie when they chose to bowl. a) because it was going to be the first day I actually watched this series properly, and I didn't feel like seeing a collapse (yeah I'm not that confident anymore lol), and b) I think all India needed was some early wickets in these conditions and the rest of their team would have their tails up, and Lords would be forgotten.

That's exactly how it went IMO, and I think its telling that Vaughan not only wanted to bowl first as well, but made it crystal clear at the toss. I wouldn't have stated as much.

 

[Jono]

Ganguly > Malcolm Marshall IMO. Bet he couldn't trouble the batsman this much at 69mph...

Lol, I mentioned Marshall in my above post before reading that.

So true

 

[Jono]

Ganguly so gun, the second i saw him take the wicket i declared that all the drinks on me for the whole night. Regret it now thou .

Lol! Have you ever met the man? Can't imagine how you'd react.

 

[Pratters]

Well, um, yeah actually. 16-year-olds have next to no chance of success in international cricket, and Tendulkar was no different.

It took him a fair few games and a bit of growing-up before he was ready.

Really? Then how did he have a successful tour of England?

India in Pakistan, 1989/90 [Series]
- 4 6 0 215 59 57 41 35.83 0 2 0
India in New Zealand, 1989/90 [Series]
NZ 3 4 0 117 88 24 5 29.25 0 1 1
India in England, 1990 [Series]
Eng 3 5 1 245 119* 68 27 61.25 1 1 0

 

[Fiery]

Really? Then how did he have a successfull tour of England?

India in Pakistan, 1989/90 [Series]
- 4 6 0 215 59 57 41 35.83 0 2 0
India in New Zealand, 1989/90 [Series]
NZ 3 4 0 117 88 24 5 29.25 0 1 1
India in England, 1990 [Series]
Eng 3 5 1 245 119* 68 27 61.25 1 1 0

Not really too shabby in his first 2 tours either for a new-comer

 

[alternative]

Lol! Have you ever met the man? Can't imagine how you'd react.

I haven't but there was a chance which i screwed up royally.

 

[honestbharani]

Ind33d.

What's more, I'd even posted a link to it already!

It is a stupid suggestion, simply because it will mean that Chennai can't host a match, playing duirng peak monsoon for us.........

 

[honestbharani]

Won't matter if Bell does get set, tbh, unless he manages a rapid 100 in the 10 minutes or so it takes to remove our tail.

Another triumph for our vastly over-rated batting lineup, afaics. Nice averages, but they don't hang around when the going is anything other than very easy indeed.

lol, that could so easily be said about the Indian batting line up too. Funny how the same criticism seems to apply for both teams in this series.

 

[Salamuddin]

Seems quite ludicrous to me. Not only do India rely on their spinners for the majority of their victories, but the outfield is wet. Obviously bowling on a theoretically drier outfield later is going to be of an advantage, and overcast skies are predicted throughout anyway. I just don't get it.

I've gotta agree....I think India would have been better off getting England chasing runs in the 4th dig - bringing Kumble into the equation to a greater degree.
I don't think the ball will stop swinging for the India innings.

Defensive move by Dravid and a poor one IMO - he was trying to protect his over the hill batting lineup by bowling first on a juicy wicket something Indian teams did a lot of during the 90's and it pretty much got them nowhere.

It would not surprise at all if India were dismissed for some paltry score
and subsequently lose the game.

 

[Perm]

What's the weather looking like today?

 

[Fiery]

What's the weather looking like today?

Pretty good according to this

 

[Pratters]

Venter: Where is the proof that there will be cloud cover all through this test match? There isn't. Seeing the conditions, Dravid decided to bowl and take wickets against an English line up which could punish India in more batsmen friendly conditions. The bowlers had already shown in the first game that they are capable of taking english wickets in swinging conditions. Batting in such conditions would make no sense.

The only tricky aspect was the ball getting wet and less effective. Inning four equations aren't that important as it is how teams fare in the first two innings which is much more crucial more often than not. You can't plan a test match looking into inning four as a lot can happen by that time.

Saying it is a defensive move isn't right because Vaughan would have done the same. Would you say it was a defensive move by Vaughan too given that the English batsmen hadn't coped with Indian swing bowling in the first test in swinging conditions after they got the bearings right after day 1? Not really. It was the right thing to do given you want to give your team as much chance to get wickets if the ball getting wet and thus ineffective aspect is negligible as it seems compared to the wicket taking aspect.