*Official* First Test at Lord's

[silentstriker]

Good century. If Pietersen and Strauss are now back in form, their batting lineup is as good as or better than any IMO.

 

[Spark]

Critical wicket. Morgan vs Kumar should be interesting.

The beauty of wider slips. Fully committed and he swallows it.

 

[Rush]

Praveen!

 

[vcs]

Nice catch Dhoni, well bowled Praveen.

 

[Howe_zat]

Bugger. Good ball, good catch.

 

[Kylez]

Classy shot from KP to get to the much awaited century, well done.

That's very disappointing for Ian Bell though. Another couple of wickets here and India could restrict England to only a decent total.

 

[vcs]

Is it me or does Harsha Bhogle seem to be obsessed with all the imports in England's side? Brings it up at every opportunity.

 

[Spark]

Well that was a brief battle.

 

[Cevno]

He's lost his swing and hasn't a clue how to bowl on this wicket. He'll do better on tracks similiar to the 1st and 2nd tests in WI with some pace and movement.

He needs carry,bounce and movement of the track or reverse.Never been a swing bowler.

 

[vcs]

Praveen!!!

 

[Rush]

Good century. If Pietersen and Strauss are now back in form, their batting lineup is as good as or better than any IMO.

Yeah and unlike our batting lineup they're all relatively young, Cook is 26, Bell 29, Trott 30, KP 31 and Strauss the only one slightly pushing on at 34.

 

[weldone]

Ah, I called a relatively big partnership between Pietersen-Bell, and that it was.

Come on now, make Morgan a walking wicket...

 

[Jono]

Well that decision should be reversed because Praveen bowls slow, swings it out of the hand etc.

 

[Kylez]

Morgan gone! I had a feeling Morgan was going to fall quickly. Praveen using the newish ball to great effect here.

 

[Tom Halsey]

I was meant to quote Teja here but nevermind.

I don't think it matters whether we're talking one delivery, one day, one series, one year. If a bowler is constantly missing the edge that isn't bad luck. Luck is something out of a player's control. It is the bowler's job to make the batsman play at it.

To put it another way, if a batsman slightly mistimes a shot, gets the thinnest of edges and out, it's not unlucky. A bowler missing the edge is their equivalent.

If he was bowling at the tail I could maybe buy it as bad luck because tailenders will sometimes play and miss where a batsman would get out. But Kumar was bowling to some of the world's finest (referring to Cook and Trott, primarily).

Bottom line is that this doesn't mean I've written him off. Not thinking someone was unlucky doesn't mean I think they were ****. If he adjusts his length, who knows. If he bowled like he did yesterday though, and Zaheer can't play (see what I did there ) then I think we might see some big totals from our bats.

DWTA. Whether the batsman edges it or not is partly out of the bowler's control in that they can only do so much. If they put it in the right spot and move it about then that's really all they can do beyond actually hitting the stumps. Obviously if they're bowling long hops and half volleys then they're obviously going to find the edge less and that's their fault but if they're bowling well then they need the batsman to be good enough to actually hit it.

I don't say all of this with respect to Kumar necessarily, just as a general point, but just as I've been typing this post, PK has found the edge twice, despite not bowling much differently, which would indicate to me that the finding of the edge has a lot to do with elements of luck outside the bowler's control.

 

[Spark]

Doesn't look fun for batting against swing atm though.

 

[Rush]

Dobber picks up two wickets in an over.

 

[weldone]

Come on now, make Morgan a walking wicket...

 

[Spark]

DWTA. Whether the batsman edges it or not is partly out of the bowler's control in that they can only do so much. If they put it in the right spot and move it about then that's really all they can do beyond actually hitting the stumps. Obviously if they're bowling long hops and half volleys then they're obviously going to find the edge less and that's their fault but if they're bowling well then they need the batsman to be good enough to actually hit it.

I don't say all of this with respect to Kumar necessarily, just as a general point, but just as I've been typing this post, PK has found the edge twice, despite not bowling much differently, which would indicate to me that the finding of the edge has a lot to do with elements of luck outside the bowler's control.

He's definitely bowled fuller today.

 

[silentstriker]

Yeah and unlike our batting lineup they're all relatively young, Cook is 26, Bell 29, Trott 30, KP 31 and Strauss the only one slightly pushing on at 34.

Cook IMO will break Sachins run record. That kid can flat out bat.