***Official England in India***

[tooextracool]

Haha.... that's true, but the wickets seems too lifeless for something like that to happen, English batting is also decent enough, and btw expecting Collingwood to make up for his poor form in the ODI series with a good showing in the test series.

This start is not too disimilar from this one: http://howstat.com.au/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=1591

And England pretty much lost that series as a result of one bad session. Keeping my fingers crossed here.

 

[biased indian]

it might rain in the evening most probably ..only question is when ..after the game finish or before that

 

[Precambrian]

Yeah. Very good decision that.

 

[GIMH]

Watched a bit of the game this morning before leaving for work. Strauss looked good.

 

[tooextracool]

Strauss has played well, although it mmust be said the bowling has helped him by bowling to his strengths. This is largely the kind of bowling that resulted in his successful run in 2004-05 and India definetly needs to work on that. Strauss has an impressive conversion rate, so letting him get a start is almost always dangerous.

 

[Precambrian]

Strauss has played well, although it mmust be said the bowling has helped him by bowling to his strengths. This is largely the kind of bowling that resulted in his successful run in 2004-05 and India definetly needs to work on that. Strauss has an impressive conversion rate, so letting him get a start is almost always dangerous.

Bowlers can't do the slightest wrong here. Dhoni erred on the side of aggression by not having a deep cover for his spinners perhaps.

 

[social]

Bowlers can't do the slightest wrong here. Dhoni erred on the side of aggression by not having a deep cover for his spinners perhaps.

The need for a deep cover implies wide. crap bowling

 

[tooextracool]

Hes barely scored a run down the ground, I cant even remember a single boundary of a drive. The pace bowlers bowled too short and the spinners came on and drifted it onto his bats with Harbhajan continuing his tendency of dropping the ball too short every once in a while. Obviously, Strauss has worked on his sweeping and that has helped him turn the bowlers off, but still this kind of bowling leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[Precambrian]

The need for a deep cover implies wide. crap bowling

Short, yes. Wide, no. Hard not to let one or two go the shorter length on such an unhelpful pitch. Although deep cover is essentially a field position for bad bowling, and thereby denotes a defensive mindset.

 

[social]

Hes barely scored a run down the ground, I cant even remember a single boundary of a drive. The pace bowlers bowled too short and the spinners came on and drifted it onto his bats with Harbhajan continuing his tendency of dropping the ball too short every once in a while. Obviously, Strauss has worked on his sweeping and that has helped him turn the bowlers off, but still this kind of bowling leaves a lot to be desired.

Every bowler in test cricket should know that the place to bowl to Strauss is reasonably full and straight

 

[Precambrian]

Hes barely scored a run down the ground, I cant even remember a single boundary of a drive. The pace bowlers bowled too short and the spinners came on and drifted it onto his bats with Harbhajan continuing his tendency of dropping the ball too short every once in a while. Obviously, Strauss has worked on his sweeping and that has helped him turn the bowlers off, but still this kind of bowling leaves a lot to be desired.

AWTA. Looks like India is the perennial water in the jug, would raise the game when the opposition is tough and lowers when it is not.

 

[tooextracool]

Personally think that this England outfit is more competitive than the Australian side that was in India recently, but that is just my opinion.

 

[social]

Personally think that this England outfit is more competitive than the Australian side that was in India recently, but that is just my opinion.

Agreed and that's why I've backed them to win the series

Eng has actually picked a side to suit the conditions rather than simply operating out of misguided loyalty to some players and/or blind faith with others as was the case with Australia

 

[Uppercut]

How's the pitch played? Saw a little there and it looked like there was zero bounce, hoping against hope this isn't a replica of the SA series pitch.

 

[Precambrian]

A bit better than the notorious one during the SA match. Some deliveries popped out of the rough, though that has started to happen only towards the last hour of the second session.

 

[wpdavid]

Smart thinking by Bell to play across a straight ball in the first over he's faced from Zaheer in the first over after tea.

 

[Goughy]

How's the pitch played? Saw a little there and it looked like there was zero bounce, hoping against hope this isn't a replica of the SA series pitch.

For the first 2 sessions, I dont think lack of bounce was a problem. Though it will get lower as the game progresses.

There was one ball where Strauss played a backfoot defensive shot into the ground and the ball bounced back way over his head and Dhoni was nearly decapitated by another.

There is bounce available.

There just isnt much movement available and it is pretty even paced

 

[Goughy]

Hard to express how much I dislike Ian Bell as a cricketer.

 

[Precambrian]

**** Bell. Missed out on a golden opportunity to get some easy runs.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

**** Bell. Missed out on a golden opportunity to get some easy runs.

Very un-Bell like. Doesn't usually miss an opportunity to score easy runs. Quite unlikely that he'll score you any tough runs though.