***Official England in India***

[Woodster]

Set it all up to record the whole day's play today, took the day off work to enjoy the battle in India all day, and the Sky turned itself off as it went into standby!! Never happened before, needless to say I am very very frustrated!!Gutted!

Although would have been even more disappointed had I watched us capitulate from an excellent start. Middle order culpable once more and our hopes of staying in this Test are now reliant upon Flintoff and Prior forging an impressive partnership.

It's the highlights for me later, so is there a great deal of turn around, if so is it very slow spin ? Believe there is a bit of bounce knocking around, managed to see the last 2 or 3 overs and Mishra got one or two to turn and leap a little.

 

[Richard]

It's been a funny pitch really. The turn hasn't been out-and-out constant, but you get the feeling it will be before too long. The speed and bounce has been, by the normal standards of the Chepauk, slowish and lowish, but still, the bounce has been far from what I'd call out-and-out low and good spin bowling should be rewarded richly if we get a full game in. There's been the odd ball that's stopped and\or has stayed down but by-and-large it's carried through truly.

And of course the pitch and outfield are abrasive and the ball has reverse-swung well for more of the day than not, so good practitioners of that are more than in with a shot too.

 

[Goughy]

It was a typical but disappointing middle order effort.

Id personally have Vaughan in there but that is neither here nor there for the rest of this Test.

It is now set up, IMO, for Prior. This is what he is here for. Ie a batting keeper to score runs at the important 7 (8 after nightwatchman) position.

1 good innings for Prior here could help cement his career.

 

[Richard]

Even if Prior does play well here (far from impossible) I still don't want him cemented if he keeps wicket as he did in the ODIs and his previous Tests.

A wicketkeeper's wicketkeeping has to be up-to-scratch first and foremost. We've still yet to see any evidence that Prior's is.

 

[Woodster]

It was a typical but disappointing middle order effort.

Id personally have Vaughan in there but that is neither here nor there for the rest of this Test.

It is now set up, IMO, for Prior. This is what he is here for. Ie a batting keeper to score runs at the important 7 (8 after nightwatchman) position.

1 good innings for Prior here could help cement his career.

It would certainly do him no harm in future selection meetings should he play a major part in taking England towards 350. These are the kind of situations that a player can really make a name for himself. The Indians will be feeling very confident, the track presumably, is unlike anything Prior will bat on regularly, he will feel under a lot of pressure for his place in the side and the situation of the game, and if he comes through, big praise for him. Oh, and he's facing a pretty useful attack also that will be hitting him with googly's, doosra's, orthodox and reverse swing and a general attacking mentality. Good luck Matty.

 

[Woodster]

Even if Prior does play well here (far from impossible) I still don't want him cemented if he keeps wicket as he did in the ODIs and his previous Tests.

A wicketkeeper's wicketkeeping has to be up-to-scratch first and foremost. We've still yet to see any evidence that Prior's is.

While the actual importance of genuine wicket-keeping skills seems to have diminished in some parts, I agree that this is an area he must shine. It won't be easy, having watched the difficulties Brad Haddin had recently, and a lot of the overseas keepers struggle in India, Prior will have to be pretty tasty for his keeping to get any great credit on this tour.

Arguably it may his keeping that keeps him in the side rather the volume of runs he scores in this series. I'm pretty sure he's the best batsman of the keeper contingent in England, so the runs will come, it's just how good an actual keeper he is that people still need to be convinced of.

 

[Uppercut]

I have a feeling the five-bowler folly will be exposed again in tomorrow's play. In one of the Aus-Ind tests recently, India recovered from five down with excellent batting from Ganguly and Dhoni. Can Flintoff and Prior really hold it together well? (Assuming Anderson doesn't last long). Both i'd be happy with coming in at 7, but Flintoff is no number 6 against quality spinners in the subcontinent. The chances of him picking Harb's doosra or Mishy's googly are precisely zero. If i were Dhoni i'd start with the spin duo tomorrow, but given Khan's performance it's fair enough if he comes on first.

 

[Uppercut]

It would certainly do him no harm in future selection meetings should he play a major part in taking England towards 350. These are the kind of situations that a player can really make a name for himself. The Indians will be feeling very confident, the track presumably, is unlike anything Prior will bat on regularly, he will feel under a lot of pressure for his place in the side and the situation of the game, and if he comes through, big praise for him. Oh, and he's facing a pretty useful attack also that will be hitting him with googly's, doosra's, orthodox and reverse swing and a general attacking mentality. Good luck Matty.

The thing is though, Prior had an excellent series this time last year on similar tracks against Sri Lanka. He's not great against spin by any means, but i'd be more concerned about his ability against top-quality pace on fast tracks than spin on subcontinental turners.

 

[Woodster]

Freddie never fills me with confidence either when facing decent spinners on such tracks. Although much to his credit his last tour to India was fairly impressive - 43,70,51,50,50, and 18*.

 

[Woodster]

The thing is though, Prior had an excellent series this time last year on similar tracks against Sri Lanka. He's not great against spin by any means, but i'd be more concerned about his ability against top-quality pace on fast tracks than spin on subcontinental turners.

That's one for down the road though. Right now, he needs to perform well with the gloves aswell as the bat in India. The fact that top-quality pace is a bit of a rarity these days, if he is susceptible (I'm not entirely sure he is), he may be able to get by.

 

[silentstriker]

The good and bad of Test cricket.

Zaheer bowling a world class spell (amazing that his record is so ordinary) and Collingwood getting hosed by an 'eccentric'.

A multi-million dollar industry in the unsupervised hands of an idiot like Bowden, especially as we have the means to make sure these mistakes dont happen. At times cricket is a bloody stupid sport.

Yup. Exactly. I've been saying it for a long time. Umpires shouldn't be deciding the outcome of games.

 

[TT Boy]

Oh dear. I went to dinner with England in easy street, comeback and now they could struggle to make 300. Wicket looked to me like a 400 plus minimum surface so big ask for Fred and Prior tomorrow.

 

[Woodster]

Oh dear. I went to dinner with England in easy street, comeback and now they could struggle to make 300. Wicket looked to me like a 400 plus minimum surface so big ask for Fred and Prior tomorrow.

England's failure to put big first-innings totals on the board rears its ugly head yet again.

 

[Prince EWS]

The thing is though, Prior had an excellent series this time last year on similar tracks against Sri Lanka.

Funnily enough, he actually got dropped after that series.

You probably should have qualified that with something like "with the bat"...

 

[honestbharani]

How's the pitch played? Saw a little there and it looked like there was zero bounce, hoping against hope this isn't a replica of the SA series pitch.

The pitch was being prepared for the Champions League T20 games... There has been a cyclone a week ago and another one threatening since then... I will be extremely surprised if this pitch held together beyond the 4th afternoon.

 

[Precambrian]

Flatter than the chest of an Asian woman.

 

[Precambrian]

England played into India's hands by being over-defensive. After overs and hours of defence and cautious play by the openers, which at one stage saw them sitting pretty at 164/1, has gone down the sewers now. Petersen's innings was a case in point. He looked like wanting not to score above a SR of 30, a predetermined mindset. The main thing to ensure on pitches like is that, after getting such a good start, to make it count. The bowlers and fielders were down more or less after the first two sessions, and had England been a bit more positive, they would have seen themselves near around 270-300, and even if 5 wickets were lost, would not have been as bad as 227/5 as they are now.

Shoddy umpiring, atleast 2 close lbws were turned down and a regular pad-up was given as a catch. Also Anderson would've earned his first duck in 42(?) innings but for a bat-pad turned down.

All in all, India's day, primarily due to goof-up from the English batsmen and one poor decision by Bowden.

That said, Zak deserves a fifer going by his spell yesterday. He'd have got Strauss and gave one of the finest exhibitions of reverse swing in recent times.

 

[aussie]

I have a feeling the five-bowler folly will be exposed again in tomorrow's play. In one of the Aus-Ind tests recently, India recovered from five down with excellent batting from Ganguly and Dhoni. Can Flintoff and Prior really hold it together well? (Assuming Anderson doesn't last long). Both i'd be happy with coming in at 7, but Flintoff is no number 6 against quality spinners in the subcontinent. The chances of him picking Harb's doosra or Mishy's googly are precisely zero. If i were Dhoni i'd start with the spin duo tomorrow, but given Khan's performance it's fair enough if he comes on first.

Well two years with the burden of captaincy Freddie conquered these demonds. Don't think we should be that worried about his ability againts spin these days.

 

[duffer]

Flatter than the chest of an Asian woman.

My woman is an Asian. So awesome.

 

[Precambrian]

My woman is an Asian. So awesome.

So is mine. More Scarlett Johanesque than Jessica Alba.