*Official* Fourth Test at The Oval

[BoyBrumby]

Hating Dravid is unforgiveable.

Nonetheless. A young lad I know, aged 24. He loves the mighty whites and he loves the England cricket team. Today he was defeated by cancer. It would mean a lot to me if you just took five seconds to bow your head and pay your respects. It's a cruel world. A **** world. But the more positive messages go out the better his family will feel.

RIP Antony. 4-0 will be for you.

Ah, ****. That's horrible. The arbitrary injustice of it.

 

[marc71178]

Also, ****ing should have played Kohli this test instead of Raina. So annoying.

Replace a bowler with a batsman when the bowling's been so poor? ITSTL.

 

[Jono]

Tell Sachin to bowl or **** off.

 

[GotSpin]

This is getting a bit embarrassing now...

But still

 

[subshakerz]

All you can ask of your spinner in England is that he keeps things tight on an unresponsive pitch, and picks up a few on a pitch like this one.

At Lords he bowled nicely. Although India were bowled out twice for less than 300, the bowling effort was more one of creating pressure on a pretty flat deck, rather than the destruction we saw at TB and Edgbaston.

Swann bowled 19 overs in the first innings, 22 in the second, each time at an economy of less than 3. The 3 seamers simply wouldn't be able to bowl teams out on the pitches like Lords without Swann's control. They rotate at the other end and build pressure together with Swann; he is vital.

I think you can pretty much discount TB and Edgbaston. At TB he bowled while in a lot of pain 1st innings, before the seamers made hay in the 2nd. When he was asked to bowl the Indian lower order had nothing to lose by slogging. Same situation at Edgbaston.

At the Oval hes finally found a pitch with a bit of turn and bounce. Hes taken 3-27 so far while the opposition leggy suffered figures of 0-170.

No need for people here to be so tough on Swann. If you look at his record, he has a pretty consistent MO: he usually is support for the pace bowlers but manages to produce at least one matchwinning spell per series. For his effort this test (though its not finished), you can read his 5/91 against Australia, 4-16 against Sri Lanka, 5-54 against SA, and so on. He may not end up with the fanciest figures overall, but this is essentially his job and he does it well. He might not be a Warne or Murali who can produce class every game, but one matchwinning spell a series is more than any spinner nowadays can produce, enough to make his captain happy.

 

[Flem274*]

hating dravid is unforgiveable.

Nonetheless. A young lad i know, aged 24. He loves the mighty whites and he loves the england cricket team. Today he was defeated by cancer. It would mean a lot to me if you just took five seconds to bow your head and pay your respects. It's a cruel world. A **** world. But the more positive messages go out the better his family will feel.

Rip antony. 4-0 will be for you.

rip

 

[smash84]

Hating Dravid is unforgiveable.

Nonetheless. A young lad I know, aged 24. He loves the mighty whites and he loves the England cricket team. Today he was defeated by cancer. It would mean a lot to me if you just took five seconds to bow your head and pay your respects. It's a cruel world. A **** world. But the more positive messages go out the better his family will feel.

RIP Antony. 4-0 will be for you.

No need for people here to be so tough on Swann. If you look at his record, he has a pretty consistent MO: he usually is support for the pace bowlers but manages to produce at least one matchwinning spell per series. For his effort this test (though its not finished), you can read his 5/91 against Australia, 4-16 against Sri Lanka, 5-54 against SA, and so on. He may not end up with the fanciest figures overall, but this is essentially his job and he does it well. He might not be a Warne or Murali who can produce class every game, but one matchwinning spell a series is more than any spinner nowadays can produce, enough to make his captain happy.

Awta

 

[GotSpin]

Hating Dravid is unforgiveable.

Nonetheless. A young lad I know, aged 24. He loves the mighty whites and he loves the England cricket team. Today he was defeated by cancer. It would mean a lot to me if you just took five seconds to bow your head and pay your respects. It's a cruel world. A **** world. But the more positive messages go out the better his family will feel.

RIP Antony. 4-0 will be for you.

Sorry to hear

 

[Anil]

can't recall when we were humiliated so thoroughly in tests...and this has to be the worst performance by a top ranked team ever...

 

[Top_Cat]

Meh, same **** has been said about him every time he goes into a mini slump. I'll believe age is taking its toll when he actually struggles over a long period of time.

You don't go from being able to score a magnificent century against Steyn at his absolute best to being too old for the game in 8 months. It's a gradual process.

Have heard former players say quite the opposite, that's it's not gradual but quite quick when they 'lose it'. Mind you, with some it's hard to say whether they were in denial about their form for the 12-18 months prior to their retirement.

 

[Spark]

Off topic, but how awesome was it when Dravid got that absolute jaffer from Broad and played and missed it, and his reaction was to just smile at how awesome that ball was.

Was a nice tough. Just quality test cricket really. Been few and far between.

Dravid haters can go suck on a lemon.

In terms of the quality of cricket, Broad vs. Dravid is the highlight of this series by a massive, massive margin.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Hating Dravid is unforgiveable.

Nonetheless. A young lad I know, aged 24. He loves the mighty whites and he loves the England cricket team. Today he was defeated by cancer. It would mean a lot to me if you just took five seconds to bow your head and pay your respects. It's a cruel world. A **** world. But the more positive messages go out the better his family will feel.

RIP Antony. 4-0 will be for you.

Very sad. RIP

 

[centurymaker]

Have heard former players say quite the opposite, that's it's not gradual but quite quick when they 'lose it'. Mind you, with some it's hard to say whether they were in denial about their form for the 12-18 months prior to their retirement.

might just be the milestone messing up his head. he took balls on his body off southee when he was struggling to get to his 50th 100 last year

i think he avg'd 30 odd in that 3 test series on flatter tracks than any other series in india last year!

we'll find out soon i suppose.

 

[centurymaker]

can't recall when we were humiliated so thoroughly in tests...and this has to be the worst performance by a top ranked team ever...

got a feeling that the indian batting might finally come good in the last innings


laxman must stay at 5 though

 

[GIMH]

So what's the forecast today?

 

[Uppercut]

Set fair. Should get a full day in.

 

[GIMH]

98 overs then, 96 with the innings break accounted for. Plus an extra eight if we have them on the ropes come the close of play.

With no Praveen, I am fairly confident that we can run through the tail in no time, just need to get rid of Dhoni. Poor Dravid will find himself stranded and then having to start all over again.

Any news on Gambhir?

 

[The_roc]

Anyway, not sure why so many of us are assuming England victory from here. They've still got to take 15 wickets in 6, or more likely 5, sessions. I'd say that's about a one in three chance of a draw.

The trouble with the 15 wickets is that it includes the tail twice. 3 wickets a session should be a walk in the park

 

[GIMH]

The trouble with the 15 wickets is that it includes the tail twice. 3 wickets a session should be a walk in the park

I assume by the tail you mean everyone barring Dravid

 

[BoyBrumby]

Any news on Gambhir?

X-ray revealed no trace of backbone.

EyeThangEwe.