***Official England in India***

[wpdavid]

Interesting, I wonder if we've misjudged this pitch. England, scoring at 2.45-an-over, got 316. India, so far scoring at 3.44-an-over, are 155 for 6 overnight. And in most Indian batsmen (Sehwag, Laxman, Tendulkar, Yuvraj) 's cases, and also Cook for England, wickets have been lost through expansive strokes.

It'll be interesting to see how things go for the rest of the match.

Either way, it's shaping up into one of the better games in recent times: certainly far more interesting than any of us expected. It reminds me a bit of the first test last time we were in India. On that occasion, Kumble batted well to bring India far closer to England's first innings score than seemed likely at one stage, and I fear that Harby might do the same tomorrow. If India do get within 50 over 316, you'd have to fancy them, imo.

 

[Precambrian]

Interesting, I wonder if we've misjudged this pitch. England, scoring at 2.45-an-over, got 316. India, so far scoring at 3.44-an-over, are 155 for 6 overnight. And in most Indian batsmen (Sehwag, Laxman, Tendulkar, Yuvraj) 's cases, and also Cook for England, wickets have been lost through expansive strokes.

It'll be interesting to see how things go for the rest of the match.

DWTA with Sehwag, he was bloody lazy and played no stroke really. Agree with others though. The thing is India have now 2 batsmen in the top 6 guaranteed to struggle in test matches, and that doesn't exactly help the morale of the other 4.

 

[Precambrian]

Yuvraj vs Bell

Bell in a heartbeat. Yuvraj is worse than Bhajji in tests.

 

[Precambrian]

Either way, it's shaping up into one of the better games in recent times: certainly far more interesting than any of us expected. It reminds me a bit of the first test last time we were in India. On that occasion, Kumble batted well to bring India far closer to England's first innings score than seemed likely at one stage, and I fear that Harby might do the same tomorrow. If India do get within 50 over 316, you'd have to fancy them, imo.

Can't see India adding even 100 runs to their total unless a miracle happens.

 

[masterblaster]

I've been one of Yuvraj's biggest and most vocal critics on this forum and I must say that he proved me right today. He has the concentration of a bug and is not cut out for test cricket. What's even more absurd is that ODI performances got him into the test side, where is the logic in that?

To the Indian selectors, keep refusing to play Badrinath in test matches and keep putting your faith in flash in the pan ODI players who don't have the technique or the concentration to play test cricket. Utterly ridiculous. For whatever shortcomings Sourav Ganguly had, the man was a fighter and he wouldn't have given his wicket away like this towards the end of the day.

 

[Richard]

Either way, it's shaping up into one of the better games in recent times: certainly far more interesting than any of us expected. It reminds me a bit of the first test last time we were in India. On that occasion, Kumble batted well to bring India far closer to England's first innings score than seemed likely at one stage, and I fear that Harby might do the same tomorrow. If India do get within 50 over 316, you'd have to fancy them, imo.

Yeah, if only Flintoff had held that c&b off Kaif, India might've been far behind. Let's hope someone doesn't drop Dhoni and see him doing something similar tomorrow. That game turned-out a fair dud though, after Cook (to an extent with help from Harbhajan's missing the easist c&b ever - he'd already scored 70 by then though), Pietersen (with help from a c&b that wasn't), Jaffer and Dravid held their second-innings' together. The pitch held together rather better than this one currently appears likely to do, but pitches in the subcontinent have refused to break-up plenty in recent years, so you never know.

But yeah, given this game was expected to be a near-washout, it's somewhat turned-out more interesting than had been anticipated. Good ol' Chennai weather.

 

[Richard]

DWTA with Sehwag, he was bloody lazy and played no stroke really.

I suppose. Sehwag pretty well always looks lazy when he drags on, but you couldn't say it was any type of stroke really. Sehwag's just the sort of player you expect to be out playing expansively rather than defensively though.

 

[NUFAN]

Bhajji averages over 20 in tests this year, with 4 50s, all of them against Australia , and 2 of them in Australia .

He has a terrific eye does Harby. One of the funnest tailenders I enjoy watching the most.

BTW - I was way off with Sachin, disappointing.

 

[silentstriker]

Haha, you know what I realized? If he wants, Sachin can play until he is 75 years old if he wants. If the selectors don't have the guts to drop Dravid after two years of sustained mediocrity, they'll never drop Sachin.

In any case, Yuvi - what a moron. Hasn't this guy proved he can't play at this level? He's an ODI player, plain and simple. I'd rather have guys like Badrinath, Chopra, Vijay, or even Pujara ahead of him, and I hate giving guys a Test spot without 2-3 years of FC record, but I'd rather take a guy who has done something in the four day game rather than this guy.

Hell, bring in Raina or Sharma over this chump (though Badrinath, or Chopra would be my ideal picks).

As for the pitch, I said it on the first day, I said it today, it's a good solid result pitch. I like it - we need more of them in India. The last Chennai Test was a disaster, and if this pitch breaks up, the curator is going to be blamed (though due to the weather, maybe he won't be). This is why I will never listen to the ICC and their incompetent henchmen referees. They get a hard on for pitches that produce exciting cricket in the subcontinent, but the pitches that are actually killing test cricket, they just ignore.

 

[andruid]

As for the pitch, I said it on the first day, I said it today, it's a good solid result pitch. I like it - we need more of them in India. The last Chennai Test was a disaster, and if this pitch breaks up, the curator is going to be blamed (though due to the weather, maybe he won't be). This is why I will never listen to the ICC and their incompetent henchmen referees. They get a hard on for pitches that produce exciting cricket in the subcontinent, but the pitches that are actually killing test cricket, they just ignore.

I balme the TV people, after are the ones who suffer the most when they set aside 5 whole days to cover a match which ends 2 days early. In truth there is no time a Sports chennel is more annoying than when they have to find something to broadcast in the interval when ther is no play.

 

[silentstriker]

I balme the TV people, after are the ones who suffer the most when they set aside 5 whole days to cover a match which ends 2 days early.

They'll suffer more when no one bothers turning on the channel to watch Tests in India. And this match should go to four days, that's perfectly fine in my book.

 

[GIMH]

wooohooohoooo

wooohooohooo


India

 

[silentstriker]

I didn't think both Dravid or Gambhir was out, but neither was close to as bad as the decision yesterday that England got. I can't believe we allow **** like this.

Mind you, Dravid would have gotten out anyway soon enough.

 

[silentstriker]

wooohooohoooo

wooohooohooo


India

Once England collapse for 24 runs in the second innings, that's going in my sig.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

England

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[shankar]

Bad day for India, but great to see the Chennai pitch back to its true form producing great test matches.

 

[Precambrian]

I didn't think both Dravid or Gambhir was out, but neither was close to as bad as the decision yesterday that England got. I can't believe we allow **** like this.

Mind you, Dravid would have gotten out anyway soon enough.

DWTA with Gambhir. The decision he got was fair as no modern batsman imho use pad as first line of defence. I thought it was just grazing the off stump at first, but subsequent hawkye showed it taking out the entire off stump. Given he was given not out the previous delivery (which remains inconclusive owing to lack of replays), it was a fair one.

Dravid perhaps got a rough one. I thought the ball hit him just outside the line of the off stump and he was attempting a shot.

 

[Precambrian]

Bad day for India, but great to see the Chennai pitch back to its true form producing great test matches.

AWTA. Was really worried whether it had lost it after the borethon involving SA. Glad to see a close contest or a bowler dominated one.

 

[analyst]

Dominic Cork is amazingly poor as a studio analyst

Disagree, perhaps he is not as eloquent as some of the others but his cricketing knowledge should be sufficient for those with a broad knowledge to excuse that.

 

[pasag]

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