***Official*** England in India 2016/17

[grecian]

Oh that should have been it Moeen, lucky not to be out though. I definitely think it's nerves.

 

[91Jmay]

Phew. 311 on day one is great going, especially with plenty of batting left in the tank. Can nearly secure the game for at least a draw by batting till tea tomorrow.

 

[anil1405]

Well played England. Michael Vaughan's 5-0 prediction has taken a blow on the first day of the tour.

 

[Jono]

Great effort England after lunch.

Looked poor bowling conditions but no excuses for the full tosses and dropped catches. Mishra sucks when it doesn't turn.

 

[grecian]

What a difference a run makes. I guess Stokes could have tried to get him back on strike, but in the end, last thing Moeen and England want is a silly run-out.

 

[harsh.ag]

Well played by England. Fantastic by Root and Moeen. Favourites to win this test at this point.

 

[Adders]

Who's session was that Jono??

 

[OverratedSanity]

Well done England. Totally on top at this stage.

 

[ImpatientLime]

Well played by England. Fantastic by Root and Moeen. Favourites to win this test at this point.

lol

 

[harsh.ag]

lol

Shhhhhh. Have to say it or there won't be a collapse in the morning.

 

[Jono]

Who's session was that Jono??

Yadav's.

 

[ImpatientLime]

by my reckoning, england are the first team to pass 300 in india since australia back in march 2013.

 

[grecian]

I hate it tbh. It's basically umpires call again which sucks for decisions like this because the third umpire is actually making a decision using his own instincts, instead if it being just a checklist like drs lbws (where umpires law makes more sense). It doesn't make sense that the decision made by the umpire having the benefit of TV replays and slow mos is lower on the ladder than the instinctive decision made by an umpire on the field.

Also, does the on field umpire have to make a soft decision? What if he genuinely has no idea? Is he essentially forced to blindly guess.

I couldn't agree with any of this less TBH, I'm afraid. The umpire on-field should still be our first port of call, they're not perfect and that's why we have DRS. Yet Soft calls and umpire calls are fine with the technology not being perfect either. Only thing is that teams shouldn't lose reviews on umpires call IMHO.

 

[SeamUp]

Would have loved a pitch like this, first game of our test series....

 

[SeamUp]

Ballance averages 39 now, so it's not as if people in years to come will look at his stats and end up massively over-rating him, but you're right in that they'd also never guess how utterly wretched he's been for a little while now. Though I'm still backing him to play 70-odd tests for England and average 45 or so.

Didn't realise we had so many keepers in the squad, though. What's Duckett like? It's actually pretty handy as it's not unthinkable that Bairstow will struggle behind the stumps in India, though I can't remember that he embarrassed himself to much in Bangladesh, so who knows.

Ballance needs to learn how to balance on the front foot first before we talking 45 !!

Not sure when last Duckett kept but I'm sure I've seen him do it in the limited overs stuff for Northants. Obviously well down the pecking order but capable.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Would have loved a pitch like this, first game of our test series....

Amazed we got one like it. Maybe they are trolling us by letting us win this match then playing us on bunsens for a 4-1 win.

 

[Stapel]

I haven't seen a single ball. Simple judgement by scorecard tells me that it was England's day. When not having a proper idea about conditions, my par score is 300/6 at stumps on day 1. That should result in 400 or so. So I reckon England are on their way to 500 at tea tomorrow. From a neutral pespective, the visiting team (and underddogs) batting well on day 1 of a 5-tests series, is just what is needed!

Does anyone have a short analysis what's ben going on today? Class batting? Under-standard bowling? Is the pitch a road? Tough luck on the bowlers? Or, as is mostly the case, a bit of all?

 

[cnerd123]

Catches win matches, and several poor balls there isn't great.

Sloppy day 1 from India + fantastic batting from Root and Moeen.

Still plenty of time to go and this pitch is fairly flat. Lets see what happens.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Good batting by Root and Moeen, decent bowling by the Indian pacemen, Ashwin the pick of the spinners and Mishra was toilet.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I couldn't agree with any of this less TBH, I'm afraid. The umpire on-field should still be our first port of call, they're not perfect and that's why we have DRS. Yet Soft calls and umpire calls are fine with the technology not being perfect either. Only thing is that teams shouldn't lose reviews on umpires call IMHO.

Soft signal (ie) umpires call sort of works for lbws because all the third umpire does in that situation is go through a checklist. He's not actually making a decision on his own with the data available to him. He's just following a set of strict guidelines. He's basically a robot.

In situations like the catch though, the third umpire has access to numerous replays and should be expected to actually make a decision on his own. I fail to see the logic of not giving his decision a higher priority since he's making it with more information at hand than the on field umpire.