***Official*** England in India

[flibbertyjibber]

Seems strange that the Indian fans are all calling for heads to roll in the middle of the game. Have you all given up hope and expect it to end 3-1 to England.

As for the future, Sehwag, SRT, Dhoni to go. Ashwin maybe to play as a bat who can bowl (better at both than Yuvraj who got 40 caps) and Chawla not good enough. Bring back Praveen if fit and use Yadav and Ishant as the main body of the seam attack. Jadeja deserves a run and Ojha has done enough to get a decent run in the side. Kohli is a decent player out of form and should stay.

 

[centurymaker]

Sehwag/ Gambhir/ Mukund
Rahane
Pujara
R Sharma
Kohli
Jadeja
Saha
Ashwin (no other spinner left?)
Ojha
Ishant
Yadav

 

[centurymaker]

Seems strange that the Indian fans are all calling for heads to roll in the middle of the game. Have you all given up hope and expect it to end 3-1 to England.
.

It's 80 to 90% over imo.

dhoni will have to do something special to turn it around.

 

[centurymaker]

MOST expensive over of the day went for JUST 8 runs

 

[marc71178]

Dravid is such a good commentator. Been said to death by now but genuinely one of the best going around already.

Good sense of humour as well.

On the way to work yesterday Agnew was talking about the warren that is the pavilion at Nagpur. He got lost and said he ended up in the England dressing room.

Quick as a flash Rahul replied "First time in 20 years for you"

 

[Spark]

Seems strange that the Indian fans are all calling for heads to roll in the middle of the game. Have you all given up hope and expect it to end 3-1 to England.

As for the future, Sehwag, SRT, Dhoni to go. Ashwin maybe to play as a bat who can bowl (better at both than Yuvraj who got 40 caps) and Chawla not good enough. Bring back Praveen if fit and use Yadav and Ishant as the main body of the seam attack. Jadeja deserves a run and Ojha has done enough to get a decent run in the side. Kohli is a decent player out of form and should stay.

Four down and 250 behind on a deck like this when you have to bat last?

Unless something seriously bizarre happens, this one's going in one direction.

 

[uvelocity]

Indeed. Only me muvver & ****s from work call me "Dale".

and that richard fella amirite?

 

[Burgey]

If England win this game, this will have been the most impressive victory on Indian soil that I have ever seen. Previous times when India lost, it was never on pitches like this. When Australia won, it took a pacy Nagpur pitch to seal the deal.

England here have won on bounce and spin (Mumbai), Flat/low and spin (Kolkata), and slow and low breaking up (Nagpur). That is unbelievable. I would not have thought it possible. Yes, I know India have played like **** - but that has happened before too. The difference was the England spin bowling and England batting against spin was superior to their Indian counterparts in all Indian conditions.

Amazing.

Rubbish. You have a **** side now.

When Australia won, your captain stubbornly refused to play the last test when he should have manned up. Now, Dhoni stubbornly continues to play instead of manning up.

 

[grecian]

and that richard fella amirite?

Could people stop using his name, I fear it'll be like Candyman, but duller obviously.....

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Rubbish. You have a **** side now.

When Australia won, your captain stubbornly refused to play the last test when he should have manned up. Now, Dhoni stubbornly continues to play instead of manning up.

So which 3-1 victory is best then for England? The one in Australia or the possible one here in India. Both against rank bad sides to be honest.

 

[Teja.]

Whatever these players do in their careers, nay, lives - How many ever centuries they score, wickets they take, kids they have, lives they save and tranform; They will have to celebrate everything in the context of letting the fortress be breached and be a little ashamed for every second till the end of their time.

Absolutely appalling - '04 was bad enough but we lost after putting up a fight against a team which had 4 ATGs and multiple very good players. Now we are actually getting destroyed, routed by a good-but-not-great side who were not even on a winning streak.

This is the absolute bottom of Modern Indian cricket. The era that 281 set off ends with Sehwag 0 b Anderson.

We do not lose at home dammit. We just do not lose at home. Aaaaarghh.

 

[Spark]

So which 3-1 victory is best then for England? The one in Australia or the possible one here in India. Both against rank bad sides to be honest.

In Australia the conditions weren't that different to what you were used to and you were going into the series in much better form.

 

[Burgey]

So which 3-1 victory is best then for England? The one in Australia or the possible one here in India. Both against rank bad sides to be honest.

That's probably for their supporters to decide. Winning tests by an innings is probably objectively better.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Both came beating substandard opposition

But seriously, England have showed massive balls here and deserve this every bit. No. 2 after SA most definitely. This Indian team can go **** itself.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

That's probably for their supporters to decide. Winning tests by an innings is probably objectively better.

Personally I enjoyed stuffing you crims more but this has a real sense of massive achievement about it as I thought we would get hammered where as I expected and was bullish about beating Australia before the series. As to which is the better performance, difficult one, not having won in either country for ages makes it even harder to decide. Probably the fact that only the great Aussie side had won in India in donkeys years gives this one the edge but only just.

Need to complete the job first though obviously.

 

[benchmark00]

How much are india paying for the win atm?

 

[Biryani Pillow]

So which 3-1 victory is best then for England? The one in Australia or the possible one here in India. Both against rank bad sides to be honest.

I've noticed in more than one sport that whenever England win it's only because the opposition were crap.

The Aussies certainly didn't think their team were crap before, or even a few days into, the last Ashes series.

A good point was made on Sky regarding the relative fitness of the two teams - this is part of the reason India tend to crumble as the day, and match, goes on, especially in the field.

As the great Vince Lombardi put it "tiredness makes cowards of us all." You can add "and it makes us look lesser players."

With c200 runs a day looking the par on here (might be more if England get a good lead and the situation calls for attack) the best India can hope for is to be a little behind England at the end of day 3. England could reasonably hope to be 100-150 ahead if the pitch plays like it did today and they bowl even decently.

Unfortunately it looks like time for Sachin - he should play his last Test at home and this really should be the one.

 

[tooextracool]

Chawla's really not a test bowler. Just a slow roller.

Athers just said his figures flatter him as I type and that Ishant was the best Indian bowler on display.

Also said India picked the wrong team. Hard to disagree on the evidence so far.

Of course they did. The logic of selecting 4 average spin bowlers on any pitch is baffling to say the least. Unless you had the quality of Chandra, Bedi, Prasanna and Venkat. And quite possibly worse than picking Bresnan for this game quite frankly.

 

[tooextracool]

It's 80 to 90% over imo.

dhoni will have to do something special to turn it around.

Lets get real- England were 133/5 in the first dig, so its not out of the realms of possibility to get upto par. Also, need I point out that you are playing against England.

 

[fredfertang]

Of course they did. The logic of selecting 4 average spin bowlers on any pitch is baffling to say the least. Unless you had the quality of Chandra, Bedi, Prasanna and Venkat. And quite possibly worse than picking Bresnan for this game quite frankly.

.... and then they only played them together once, even though the time they did they took 20 England wickets, and that was back in 1967, so they had plenty more chances - shame they didn't have their current selectors back then as they were a tremendous quartet to watch, they really were