***Official*** England in India

[flibbertyjibber]

would feel sorry for the spectators at the stadium

wonder what the barmy army that is present over there is thinking

My dad has not replied yet. Must be asleep.

 

[centurymaker]

I just have a feeling someone like Sehwag will make scoring look so much easier on this wicket. It definitely seemed really hard for the batsmen to time anything from what we saw today but the English batsmen would've felt this pitch was from Mars; Sehwag and Tendulkar could well find ways to score at a decent pace and get set with all their experience and suitability to these pitches and Pujara won't throw it away in frustration like the England middle order seemed to either.

It's definitely not a very good Test wicket but I'm reserving judgement on how easy it is to bat on; I certainly don't think 250-300 is a par first innings score like some do, even if it may end up a winning score because of how hard it gets to bat on later. I reckon it'll get tougher to bat on as the match goes on and that sort of total could well be an excellent third innings score but England have squandered the advantage they got from winning the toss by refusing to tough it out and build a big, long boring top order partnership.

can never judge a wicket by how sehwag bats on it. in SC.

just recall even the last indian innings of the last test. india at one stage were close to 100 for no loss and the match looked to be heading towards a draw when suddenly wickets fell one after another following sehwag's departure.

he essentially takes the pitch out of the equation, which is why i firmly believe he is the key here.

 

[centurymaker]

My dad has not replied yet. Must be asleep.

LOL

how was his experience at the eden gardens?

 

[Prince EWS]

can never judge a wicket by how sehwag bats on it. in SC.

Well that's kind of my point. It's obviously a **** cricket wicket but that doesn't mean Sehwag won't manage to come out and look completely comfortable. Tendulkar will have a lot of experience batting on wickets like this too; England don't. For all the constant talk about how captains have to be careful about declaring too early in fear of a second innings Sehwag blitz (lol), this is his real utility.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

LOL

how was his experience at the eden gardens?

Absolutely loved it, result was a bonus. Says it one of the best grounds he has ever been to and it has the same aura as a Lord's/MCG.

 

[harsh.ag]

My thoughts on the day:

1. India got very lucky w.r.t. to Cook, Trott and Pietersen. Bell should just be disappointed in himself.

2. Ishant Sharma has not redeemed himself too much in my eyes. Cook wasn't out. Compton's wicket wasn't a wicket taking delivery either. Still doesn't bowl full enough. I heard he got a catch dropped though. That's too bad.

3. Chawla should not be anywhere near the Indian test side. Ashwin should be bowling more. If he is thought of as a lesser bowler than Jadeja and Chawla, he should not be in the side. Plus, he is the only bowler close to Kumble we have, and this pitch will suit him better than it did Ojha and Chawla.

4. If England score above 270, we should have a match on our hands. If not, I would predict India to do well.

5. Matt Prior is a very, very good wicket-keeper batsman. Wish Dhoni was as good.

 

[weldone]

Absolutely loved it, result was a bonus. Says it one of the best grounds he has ever been to and it has the same aura as a Lord's/MCG.

Your dad is a champ

 

[Xuhaib]

I just have a feeling someone like Sehwag will make scoring look so much easier on this wicket. It definitely seemed really hard for the batsmen to time anything from what we saw today but the English batsmen would've felt this pitch was from Mars; Sehwag and Tendulkar could well find ways to score at a decent pace and get set with all their experience and suitability to these pitches and Pujara won't throw it away in frustration like the England middle order seemed to either.

It's definitely not a very good Test wicket but I'm reserving judgement on how easy it is to bat on; I certainly don't think 250-300 is a par first innings score like some do, even if it may end up a winning score because of how hard it gets to bat on later. I reckon it'll get tougher to bat on as the match goes on and that sort of total could well be an excellent third innings score but England have squandered the advantage they got from winning the toss by refusing to tough it out and build a big, long boring top order partnership.

If Indian batsman were not out of of form/over the hill I am certain India would have been firm favorites at this stage can see 2009-2010 India comfortably scoring 450+ on this deck.

 

[centurymaker]

Well that's kind of my point. It's obviously a **** cricket wicket but that doesn't mean Sehwag won't manage to come out and look completely comfortable. Tendulkar will have a lot of experience batting on wickets like this too; England don't. For all the constant talk about how captains have to be careful about declaring too early in fear of a second innings Sehwag blitz (lol), this is his real utility.

I'm not too sure about the tendulkar bit. I believe he will struggle more than ever before on this slow pitch from what i have seen of him in the last yr or so. He just seems to find it so much more difficult to score runs on this sort of wicket nowadays. (goes into his shell and just plays out balls, appears to be ill at ease)
Having said that though, he may be able to grind a good 60 odd. (if he cuts out some of the horizontal shots)

Agree with the everything else. Sehwag really isn't that useful a player in the 2nd innings. His 2nd innings avg is a testament to that.

 

[centurymaker]

your dad is a champ

+1

 

[Spark]

Yeah I reckon Tendulkar prefers a bit of pace on the ball nowadays.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah I reckon Tendulkar prefers a bit of pace on the ball nowadays.

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if he struggled either because he's seeing it like a golf ball, but unlike the entire English lineup he'd have seen a lot of pitches like this before so if he got set and found a way to score freely I would not be overly surprised either.

 

[Jono]

I just have a feeling someone like Sehwag will make scoring look so much easier on this wicket. It definitely seemed really hard for the batsmen to time anything from what we saw today but the English batsmen would've felt this pitch was from Mars; Sehwag and Tendulkar could well find ways to score at a decent pace and get set with all their experience and suitability to these pitches and Pujara won't throw it away in frustration like the England middle order seemed to either.

It's definitely not a very good Test wicket but I'm reserving judgement on how easy it is to bat on; I certainly don't think 250-300 is a par first innings score like some do, even if it may end up a winning score because of how hard it gets to bat on later. I reckon it'll get tougher to bat on as the match goes on and that sort of total could well be an excellent third innings score but England have squandered the advantage they got from winning the toss by refusing to tough it out and build a big, long boring top order partnership.

Pujara threw it away in Kolkata tbf, but otherwise I completely agree with you.

The idea that 250-300 is par is ridiculous, and mere speculation as to what they reckon the pitch will be like on day 3.

 

[uvelocity]

hope tendy gets another hit in the shoulder lbw

 

[SS1]

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if he struggled either because he's seeing it like a golf ball, but unlike the entire English lineup he'd have seen a lot of pitches like this before so if he got set and found a way to score freely I would not be overly surprised either.

Tendulkar hasn't looked comfortable on any wicket for a long time. It isn't particularly nice to watch but I'd be surprised if he came in on this and looked comfortable.

Sehwag is the danger as he is just oblivious to conditions. See ball, hit ball basically. If they get him early, then 300 will look a good score IMO.

I reckon Pujara could be pretty difficult to shift on this, moreso than many others mentioned.

 

[smash84]

hope tendy gets another hit in the shoulder lbw

 

[silentstriker]

The strange thing is we have reached the end of the first day and nobody really has any clue which side has had the better day. Not very often you can say that about a game as usually you know if your side has underperformed or not but this pitch is so slow that it could be extremely hard to take 20 wickets on in time to win it for either side.

Happens quite often actually doesn't it? We (us, commentators, etc) judge an innings to be good or bad, and then we're all surprised when the other team bats.

 

[Prince EWS]

Tendulkar hasn't looked comfortable on any wicket for a long time. It isn't particularly nice to watch but I'd be surprised if he came in on this and looked comfortable.

Sehwag is the danger as he is just oblivious to conditions. See ball, hit ball basically. If they get him early, then 300 will look a good score IMO.

I reckon Pujara could be pretty difficult to shift on this, moreso than many others mentioned.

I mentioned Pujara already tbf. The real danger with him is that even if he does struggle to time the ball and rotate the strike, I don't think he'll get frustrated by that and throw it away (despite what Jono thinks ). The reason I mentioned Sehwag and Tendulkar is the fact that they will have accumulated so much experience batting on wickets exactly like this, so they'll have developed methods of scoring relatively freely and combating the problems within them. Of course Tendulkar is out of form so he might struggle anyway, therefore Sehwag becomes the real threat of the two, but the point stands.

I'm practically fizzing at the bung in anticipation for India's innings; purely from a quality of cricket point of view the pitch is awful but I'm quite excited to see how India's batsmen deal with it.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Happens quite often actually doesn't it? We (us, commentators, etc) judge an innings to be good or bad, and then we're all surprised when the other team bats.

Not many are as confusing and conflicting as this one though and most of the time you know deep down despite a lot of bravado whether your team have done ok or not. Today I have no idea.

 

[Spark]

Happens quite often actually doesn't it? We (us, commentators, etc) judge an innings to be good or bad, and then we're all surprised when the other team bats.

Nah generally you can make a judgement about whether someone is in front or whether it's roughly even after Day 1. It being the first day, that judgement can change very quickly the next day but it's still a judgement.

On this deck, I'm with KP: I have no ****ing clue who's in front right now. I say this because we actually don't have any idea about how much reverse swing might have been available, given that Ishant is the only seamer, he didn't bowl for most of the day and, well, he's Ishant.