***Official*** England in India

[adharcric]

brilliant fighting knock from mohammad kaif.

 

[adharcric]

Trescothick has been england's best batsman on the sub-continent for a long time, so i reckon he could have done better than Cook while Vaughan has been out of sorts of late so maybe if he had played over Collingwood he wont have scored all those runs. But add Jones & Gilo to the bowling attack making it full strenght, to me judging on this 1st innings may have been enough to cause India's batsmen enough problems.

yeah perhaps it would make a difference, but cricket is so circumstantial you can't really make assessments in hindsight about what difference a certain player would have made. england have been well-served by the replacements cook and collingwood, so the absence of tresco and vaughan hasnt been felt as much. brilliant bowling by hoggard, jones would've been a handful i reckon.

 

[Jono]

Yes Kaif yes!!!

Brilliant 50! All 3 of his career 50s have been under tremendous pressure against good opposition. Hopefully he can convert this one.

 

[Jono]

india are lucky england aren't full strenght, then i'd be seriously backing england to win this series.

LMAO! Conveniently ripped that out with India 7 down.

 

[PY]

LMAO! Conveniently ripped that out with India 7 down.

Quality effort.

 

[adharcric]

the glamorous indian middle-order legends should learn from kaif right now (laxman, are you hearing me)

 

[wpdavid]

yeah perhaps it would make a difference, but cricket is so circumstantial you can't really make assessments in hindsight about what difference a certain player would have made. england have been well-served by the replacements cook and collingwood, so the absence of tresco and vaughan hasnt been felt as much. brilliant bowling by hoggard, jones would've been a handful i reckon.

Sounds about right. No-one could argue that T&V would have definitely made more than the 194 contributed by C&C. Jones has been missed, of course, but that's increasingly looking the way it's going to be, so we'd better get used to it.

 

[Jono]

the glamorous indian middle-order legends should learn from kaif right now (laxman, are you hearing me)

Yeah because he went out playing a stupid shot didn't he? No he got an absolute gem of a ball on his first delivery he was facing. I'd hardly blame him for that. Hell, at least he didn't get bowled.

Dhoni and Pathan played some stupid shots, and considering all Kaif needed was someone to stick around with him, their shots were even more criminal.

 

[Pratters]

Yeah because he went out playing a stupid shot didn't he? No he got an absolute gem of a ball on his first delivery he was facing. I'd hardly blame him for that. Hell, at least he didn't get bowled.

Well said Jono.

The top order Indian batsmen shouldn't be blamed. England put on pressure and bowled quite well.

 

[Anna]

seriously, why is blackwell even in india. he's done absolutely NOTHING.

He's only bowled 4 overs, give him a chance. Apparently he was being primed to come on before tea but it was taken early. With the way the Kaif-Kumble partnership is going, I think it's only a matter of time before Blackie's brought on.

Anyway, Harmison's bowling like a drain.....I see no-one getting on his back.

 

[wpdavid]

Anyway, Harmison's bowling like a drain.....I see no-one getting on his back.

It looks like Flintoff agrees with you - he's brought on Panesar ahead of Harmison with the new ball only a handful of overs old

 

[SJS]

(laxman, are you hearing me)

What do you think Kaif would have done to the delivery that got Laxman ?

 

[PY]

First up....rank long hop.

 

[Anna]

Blackwell's on....hopefully he can break up this partnership. Anyway, as Aggers just said, your 1st test match is always really hard. Cut the man some slack!

 

[PY]

First up....rank long hop.

This post should be after yours Anna.

 

[Anna]

 

[SJS]

During the tea interval Hussain mentioned that Blackwelll bowled far too short in his first spell. Now in his first over in his second spell he got pulled to long on off a long hop and another one was exactly the same but hit to the fielder.

Not surprised he dient bowl more. England have done India in today with some exceptionallly disciplined bowling. A few overs like this last one of Blackwell when the middle order was still in would have ruined England's fight back.

 

[IndianByHeart]

Kaif and Kumble are going great guns, India fighting back.

I hope India doesn't concede a lead of more than 50 runs.

 

[PY]

Bowled 'im.

 

[Anna]

If he only bowls a few overs at a time he's never going to get into a rhythm, is he? Damn Kaif for not playing the shot