***Official England in India***

[superkingdave]

Is it me or has the pitch flattened out somewhat rather than deteriorated?

 

[Scaly piscine]

God's sake how does Panesar keep being gifted wickets in consistently toothless performances? It's so irritating.

 

[Precambrian]

Is it me or has the pitch flattened out somewhat rather than deteriorated?

Will see when India bats. right now looks calm.

 

[wpdavid]

Is it me or has the pitch flattened out somewhat rather than deteriorated?

It'll liven up when we lose a wicket.

Mind you, it's hard to say given the number of overs being bowled right now. Looks like Dhoni's been taking lessons from Gavaskar circa 1981/82.

 

[wpdavid]

Phew - almost ****ed it up at the end there.
Quite a partnership between these two though. Collingwood once again playing an innings that you couldn't ever see Bell producing. And Strauss's ongoing reinvention as a posher vesion of Gary Kirsten is exactly what England have needed for years.

 

[superkingdave]

Yeah, decent day in the end from England despite letting the Indians get a few too many and a mini collapse at the start

 

[Goughy]

Phew - almost ****ed it up at the end there.
Quite a partnership between these two though. Collingwood once again playing an innings that you couldn't ever see Bell producing. And Strauss's ongoing reinvention as a posher vesion of Gary Kirsten is exactly what England have needed for years.

Yeah, he plays his fair share of 'pulling us out of the ****' innings.

An ordinary record but Im one of the few on here that will always (well since I joined anyway) that rates him above Bell.

When, where and how can often be more important than how many.

 

[Uppercut]

It'll liven up when we lose a wicket.

Mind you, it's hard to say given the number of overs being bowled right now. Looks like Dhoni's been taking lessons from Gavaskar circa 1981/82.

The bounce only gets lower for 95% of deliveries. How many of the 23 wickets down have been catches behind the wicket, 3? 4? Of course, that also makes scoring quickly very difficult. If it comes down to it, England have to be careful with how much time they leave India.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah, he plays his fair share of 'pulling us out of the ****' innings.

An ordinary record but Im one of the few on here that will always (well since I joined anyway) that rates him above Bell.

When, where and how can often be more important than how many.

The funny thing is, even if you judge solely on how many, Collingwood STILL>>>>Bell. With Bangladesh, Bell averages 41 to Collingwood's 42. Without them, Bell averages 37 to Collingwood's 42. He scores more runs, he's scored more important runs, he's a better fielder and a handy bowler.

 

[fredfertang]

..... one of the things I like most about Colly is the way he keeps his focus - I cant help but feel if the oppo sledge Bell they get in his head - do it to Colly and he just gives it back and plays better

 

[irfan]

We're ****ed. Need the Great Wall of India to reconstruct himself and ton up in the second innings to have any chance

 

[social]

Barring a major turnaround, this game is done and dusted

IMO, cricket is entering an interesting stage as no team will dominate all others like Oz has done for the past 15 years - there simply isnt one nation with a collection of great players who are able to win in any conditions.

It will come down to individual matchups and, in this series, Eng bowlers match up very well against the Indian batters

 

[Scaly piscine]

The funny thing is, even if you judge solely on how many, Collingwood STILL>>>>Bell. With Bangladesh, Bell averages 41 to Collingwood's 42. Without them, Bell averages 37 to Collingwood's 42. He scores more runs, he's scored more important runs, he's a better fielder and a handy bowler.

Yep, I really can't see how people can prefer Bell to him - other than the usual media bias towards southern softies. It's baffling, even during bad spells Colly's average has been about the same as Bell - before you take out Bell's Bangladesh freebies. Colly's a better fielder, gets harder more valuable runs, better bowler and is a good team player.

 

[Uppercut]

IMO, cricket is entering an interesting stage as no team will dominate all others like Oz has done for the past 15 years - there simply isnt one nation with a collection of great players who are able to win in any conditions.

It will come down to individual matchups and, in this series, Eng bowlers match up very well against the Indian batters

They all played the one-dayers though, bar Panesar, and it didn't show then. Flintoff and Harmison would be the two i'd expect to make the Indians uncomfortable. Panesar bowls a bit too flat, i haven't seen much of Swann, Anderson troubles everyone when the ball swings and noone when it doesn't, Broad troubles noone.

Any other particular players you think would excel against a certain team?

 

[wpdavid]

(re Collingwood) Yeah, he plays his fair share of 'pulling us out of the ****' innings.

An ordinary record but Im one of the few on here that will always (well since I joined anyway) that rates him above Bell.

When, where and how can often be more important than how many.

imo Collingwood's 130 at Edgbaston is the best innings this year by an Englishman who isn't KP. In terms of opposition, pitch, and match situation, it was a gem of a knock. Today was terrific as well: incredible pressure, in no sort of form, but he's made absolutely vital runs and hardly looked like getting out apart from that time he hit the leggie only just over the top.

I'll bet his skipper is impressed, which seems to count for rather a lot nowadays. Bell, otoh, must be falling seriously out of favour with KP, who has more than once been vocal about under-achievers. Given that he seems to rate Shah, I can see Bell being ditched sooner than some of us might have thought. Especially now that there's an easier decision to be made between him & Colly. Bell reminds me of Keith Fletcher actually, in terms of his ability to maintain a healthy average by cashing in when the living is easy but nowhere to be found when life's tougher. I never rated Fletcher, either.

As for Strauss, he really does have the ability to make hundreds when it counts - Lord's vs NZ in 2004, all 3 tons in SA, The Oval in 2005, Mumbai in 2006, Leeds in 2006, that run chase against NZ earlier this year and now, hopefully, in this test. Good luck to him. It makes a rare change to see an English player actually think about his game and come back a better player.

 

[Uppercut]

imo Collingwood's 130 at Edgbaston is the best innings this year by an Englishman who isn't KP. In terms of opposition, pitch, and match situation, it was a gem of a knock. Today was terrific as well: incredible pressure, in no sort of form, but he's made absolutely vital runs and hardly looked like getting out apart from that time he hit the leggie only just over the top.

To be fair, against Mishra he landed one between the bowler and mid-off and edged past Dravid too. Targeting the leggie was an interesting tactic. If it's a deliberate tactic to put him under pressure, i don't think it's a good call. He uses enough variations that you could end up with major egg on your face (Colly almost did, twice). What it's good for is forcing him to keep his length back. Sensibly, Strauss and Colly weren't driving at all, so Colly might feel that if he doesn't use his feet once in a while Mish+Harbs can bowl as full as they like to him.

 

[wpdavid]

The bounce only gets lower for 95% of deliveries. How many of the 23 wickets down have been catches behind the wicket, 3? 4? Of course, that also makes scoring quickly very difficult. If it comes down to it, England have to be careful with how much time they leave India.

I'm not thinking about the possibility of a declaration. Tomorrow's a fresh start for the batsmen, and we all know how fallible our lower order is. There's good case to be made for Prior batting above Fred, as the latter will clog things up against the spinners. Better by far to have Fred come in at 7 and tell him to pretend its a oneday game. Won't happen, I suppose.

 

[Neil Pickup]

I'm not thinking about the possibility of a declaration. Tomorrow's a fresh start for the batsmen, and we all know how fallible our lower order is. There's good case to be made for Prior batting above Fred, as the latter will clog things up against the spinners. Better by far to have Fred come in at 7 and tell him to pretend its a oneday game. Won't happen, I suppose.

That was suggested to me by a 10-year-old at the Christmas Fair this morning as well. It made absolute sense then and it does now, too. Anything 350+ I am very happy with and if we made 400 I would be calling them in.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Haven't Sky woken upto the metric system yet? Hate to get the calc everytime mph is mentioned.

Metric system is the work of Satan himself. I have to convert everything into inches, feet and miles for it to have any meaning.

Caught by Penesar. You got to feel Laxmen got alittle unlucky knowing the way Monty catches.

Monty's reaction (or lack thereof) was priceless. Given how excited he usually gets at wickets (and, indeed, with his faintly irritating appealing), his c&b hardly registered. I don't think he could quite believe it himself!

Pahaha, out of the blue. Musically i like Guns'n'Roses (although Sweet Child o' Mine annoys the hell out me), they're a good, listenable rock band. They're one of those bands that i never listen to anymore, but when they come on somewhere else i'm like "aw great song, haven't heard this in ages." They also have the quite incredible feat of being the only people ever to cover Dylan and do it better than the original.

You jest, surely? There's no way on God's earth it's in the same league as the original.

----

Anyway, didn't expect to be here after three days (literally as well, after the Mumbai attacks). Great performance by our bowlers as a unit & Strauss looks to be coming into a bit of form too. Has played the spinners very well, used the sweep excellently. It's given him a whole new scoring option because a year or so ago he looked like a batsman who'd been absolutely worked out: starve him of width and he was buggered.

Bell showed he still has issues with top class spin (it was a great ball from Mishra tbf) and, with Shah, Vaughan & Patel in the wings, he surely can't be afforded too much more grace by our selectors.

KP looks a bit out of nick as well, which is the first time I can recall since he came into the team. Still, refreshing we can be ahead with our top chap contributing almost literally nowt.

 

[silentstriker]

Excellent job here by England. They've pretty much won the game already.