***Official*** England in India

[wpdavid]

But the biggest positive from today is easily that little session India had bowling at England. For ages India's new ball combination in tests has been either inconsistent or plain useless. Whilst Pathan really has fallen off and needs to improve a hell of a lot, a lot of heart should be taken from Patel and Sreesanth's start to their test careers. Sreesanth showed a lot of promise in the 1st test, and Patel's bowling was nothing short of fantastic in the 2nd, but tonight with a deficit of 121 runs, wickets were a must and the bowling had to be accurate from ball 1... and Patel and Sreesanth did exactly that. Particularly Sreesanth's 4 over spell, where he ripped out Bell and could easily have had Udal at least 3 or 4 times. When Yuvraj drops a catch you know India has been poor in the field, but despite my frustration with that catch going down, Sreesanth has been fantastic and after taking a little while to look over the day, the future looks bright so long as these guys continue to improve and get the attention they need to become test class fast bowlers to lead India into the next generation.

They look the real deal, don't they. Lets just hope they last longer than the guys who played against England 4 years ago and their replacements who toured England shortly afterwards. tbf Srees & Munaf look a whole lot better than all of those, but they'll need some consistent handing when the bad days come along.

 

[silentstriker]

Mother****ing Mumbai Crowd

 

[aussie]

this is game is too close to call, it can go anywhere. England will start day 4 ahead since they have a lead but that can easily change in no time, great test match so far..

 

[Scaly piscine]

It's beautifully set for tomorrow. Ideally, England will bat for another two and a half sessions and set India about 400. More likely, they'll subside for 150 and set them an all too gettable 270. Once again, they're left to regret the missed chances, but this should still be a very interesting finish. I wonder what the highest 4th innings scores are to win games at Mumbai.

Poor old Bell. I know he's batting out of position, but his dismissals have been so tame in this match. If Shah looks good again tomorrow, he might just leapfrog both Bell & Collingwood, come the summer.

England shouldn't bat for much longer than two sessions in my view, if either KP or Flintoff (or both) get going 2 sessions should be a maximum - would leave 350ish off 120 overs. Given the shameless time-wasting from India in this game combined with England's crap over rates it'll be miraculous if they get that many overs in anyway.

 

[honestbharani]

They should play Anderson. It does swing around a bit at Mumbai. It would be a mistake to play Blackwell again, though.

I really don't see why you guys have to be so pessimistic. I think Anderson is a better bet to run through an Indian line up than Harmison, because swing and reverse swing has always been the key to get this Indian batting line up out quickly. See if Lee and Akhtar have had that great a sucess against us as they have against some other sides. Pace is only an accessory, the main weapon is swing and reverse swing and I think it might be a blessing in disguise for England that Anderson is now playing.

I called it. How about some credit for moi?

I did the same with Vaughan's knock at OT during the Ashes.

 

[Sanz]

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/indveng/content/current/story/241392.html

Rather appropriate for all the talk that's been going on in this thread.

Sanz, you should enjoy the bit on the pathetic crowds of Mumbai.

Well, I dont enjoy such acts, I have never booed any sportsman and will never do. But you have to accept that there will always be some idiots in crowd.

My beef is not with the crowd or player but with some people's selective amnesia. These people were so critical of Kolkata and Bengali crowds and would open thread after threads on Kolkata and now so quiet when it has happened in their own city.

Where is that generalisation Brush - Let's paint Mumbai with the same brush.

 

[wpdavid]

England shouldn't bat for much longer than two sessions in my view, if either KP or Flintoff (or both) get going 2 sessions should be a maximum - would leave 350ish off 120 overs. Given the shameless time-wasting from India in this game combined with England's crap over rates it'll be miraculous if they get that many overs in anyway.

True - and I'm sure England would quite happily slow it down if India were getting close.
Trouble with KP & Fred is we really haven't seen either of them produce a prolonged innings on this tour. If KP bats for a couple of sessions, then England will be in a great position, but he'how often have we seen him do that?

 

[honestbharani]

England shouldn't bat for much longer than two sessions in my view, if either KP or Flintoff (or both) get going 2 sessions should be a maximum - would leave 350ish off 120 overs. Given the shameless time-wasting from India in this game combined with England's crap over rates it'll be miraculous if they get that many overs in anyway.

Why is it not shameless time wasting when England do it?

 

[Sanz]

England shouldn't bat for much longer than two sessions in my view, if either KP or Flintoff (or both) get going 2 sessions should be a maximum - would leave 350ish off 120 overs. Given the shameless time-wasting from India in this game combined with England's crap over rates it'll be miraculous if they get that many overs in anyway.

Shameless Whining.

 

[Sanz]

So what would be a safe winning total here for England ? I say 325-350, which means England still need to score another 200 runs and score quick in 70 over or so. That will leave India with 350 runs to chase in 110 overs. England does have upper hand here but IMO match is still open and any team can win it.

 

[honestbharani]

So what would be a safe winning total here for England ? I say 325-350, which means England still need to score another 200 runs and score quick in 70 over or so. That will leave India with 350 runs to chase in 110 overs. England does have upper hand here but IMO match is still open and any team can win it.

I would like to think so, Sanz, but our test team has so many weaknesses that it is not even funny. Ever since the end of the Pak tour in 2004, we have had only two batters performing with any degree of consistency (Sehwag and Dravid) and now one of them is looking out of sorts. Dhoni is good, but he is not dependably good yet. Pathan is the same. Patel and Sreesanth look to have good potential, but I hope they buck the trend of "great this year, average next, out of the team the year after" trend. Harbhajan has not been the same and Kumble is basically carrying him. The fielding and esp. the catching has digressed to disgraceful extents. I remember during that glorious winter of 2003 and early 2004, we almost never dropped catches (except for a few moments of madness when in sight of victory at Pakistan during the last test)... Now, it is a miracle when we hold on to one. Hussain was right when he pointed out that one had to consider what Laxman brought to the team in terms of catching in the slips and at silly point before dropping him.


The problem is that whenever Kaif or Yuvraj have played during the Sourav/Wright era, they did as the 6th batsman. That meant that they already had the settled slip cordon of Rahul, VVS and Viru with Kumble at gully and the other opener at short leg. So Kaif or Yuvi were always at their preferred spot of point or covers. Now, when India are playing only 5 batters, they need one of these guys to stand either at the slips or at bat pad. Why not ask Sachin to come back to the slips? At least, he has the experience of having been India's first slip for over 5 years.

 

[DanielFullard]

It is going to be a very interesting two days cricket thats for sure

 

[Sanz]

It is going to be a very interesting two days cricket thats for sure

A day and half. I dont think either team will last 2 full days.

 

[billie424]

Whatever the result might be, but i am very very disappointed by the behavior of the crowd towards the GREAT SACHIN Tendulkar. We people from the Sub-continent dont know how to respect our legends.Wasim Akram, then Gangully and now Tendulkar.

 

[honestbharani]

Whatever the result might be, but i am very very disappointed by the behavior of the crowd towards the GREAT SACHIN Tendulkar. We people from the Sub-continent dont know how to respect our legends.Wasim Akram, then Gangully and now Tendulkar.

yeah, that was rather disgraceful.

 

[DanielFullard]

I have a funny feeling that Tendulkar is going to bat us off the park in the second innings. Hope not

And Sreesanth is really a marvellous player and is a great bowler to watch

 

[silentstriker]

Whatever your personal opinion on the status of Sachin in the current XI, you cannot boo the greatest ever player to bat for your country (with all due respect to Gavaskar).

 

[DanielFullard]

Just out of interest...how many people on here are actually getting up at 4am and watching the match through to 12 noon? I have for the first three days and intend to for the next 2

 

[SJS]

Just out of interest...how many people on here are actually getting up at 4am and watching the match through to 12 noon? I have for the first three days and intend to for the next 2

Absolutely but the behaviour of the crowds at Wankhede has been going bad for quite some time now as Sambit Bal mentions in
this excellent article

 

[aussie]

Just out of interest...how many people on here are actually getting up at 4am and watching the match through to 12 noon? I have for the first three days and intend to for the next 2

i have for most of the series but i have school so i only see up to 9:00 am.