*Official* - India in West Indies

[vcs]

Dale Steyn at Johannesburg too.

But Steyn and Amir are probably the only bowlers they've faced who can regularly swing it late at serious pace - Johnson also did it for a (thankfully) brief period, and look what happened.

Zaheer is going to be a very wily customer, I don't think we'll ever get on top of him, and he's bound to pick up wickets. However, I'm not sure he has the pace to run through us when guys like Trott, Bell - and maybe Pietersen if in form - will come out of the crease to negate the late swing. Praveen is the same but more so. The way Trott dealt with Asif's movement at Lord's was outstanding.

The only way I can see an Indian bowler running through us is if someone like Mishra can get some dark arts going, or possibly if Ishant inexplicably finds the fountain of awesome he seemed to have discovered in Australia.

There is, of course, the possibility of the traditional England collapse-for-no-reason spectacular.

Yeah, your guys are in spectacular form. Cook and Trott never look like getting out, and if Bell gets a chance to bat, he's not too bad either.

 

[Cevno]

Bangers, Pakistan, Australia and Sri Lanka.

So hardly surprising that the only attack to trouble them was the best they faced.

Australian attack only troubled them when Johnson got it right at Perth,while the Bangladesh and Srilanka attack are worse than India too.

 

[vcs]

Yeah Bangladesh and SL were never going to pose much of a challenge but Australia aren't as bad as they made them look, though Australia bowled pretty poorly in that series and their batsmen didn't give them reasonable totals to defend.

 

[Cevno]

Dale Steyn at Johannesburg too.

But Steyn and Amir are probably the only bowlers they've faced who can regularly swing it late at serious pace - Johnson also did it for a (thankfully) brief period, and look what happened.

Zaheer is going to be a very wily customer, I don't think we'll ever get on top of him, and he's bound to pick up wickets. However, I'm not sure he has the pace to run through us when guys like Trott, Bell - and maybe Pietersen if in form - will come out of the crease to negate the late swing. Praveen is the same but more so. The way Trott dealt with Asif's movement at Lord's was outstanding.

The only way I can see an Indian bowler running through us is if someone like Mishra can get some dark arts going - Ajmal was a problem - or possibly if Ishant inexplicably finds the fountain of awesome he seemed to have discovered in Australia.

There is, of course, the possibility of the traditional England collapse-for-no-reason spectacular.

Whenever the Indian attack runs through a team ,it is not one bowler though .

They all contribute together and chip in with a 2 to 3/4 wickets each .
India's success has depended on the attack performing together when there was a need to do so.(Though they have tended to not perform together too on some occasions).

This is much better than the bowlers alternating to do well one by one as my CWPL attack is doing. One bowler turns up one innings and takes 5/6 or even 8 wickets while the rest are ****.

 

[Kylez]

So hardly surprising that the only attack to trouble them was the best they faced.

Australian attack only troubled them when Johnson got it right at Perth,while the Bangladesh and Srilanka attack are worse than India too.

Peter Siddle troubled them at times, got two 6 - fers IIRC.

 

[shivfan]

Observations from Otis Gibson....

"Batting has been our real problem. We play six batsmen and they are preparing hard for the game but it's about going out there and having the mindset to bat for a long period of time." They haven't done it for a while now. "We managed to get 20 wickets to win a Test match against Pakistan but we haven't been able to put [up] big scores." For West Indies, another factor has been the lack of match practice for cricketers. Batsmen like Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Brendon Nash hadn't played many practice games before this Test. Nash had three practice sessions and went straight into this Test. Gibson said it's the system at fault. "It's very challenging. We are not like England who have long county season. They play cricket five months. We are not that fortunate. You make a good point about Shiv and the amount of cricket. We have the High Performance Centre and stuff like that. People are playing club cricket. We are just trying to give people a lot more opportunities to keep their game in shape." Adrian Barath hit a fighting fifty on his comeback but no one else coped with the pitch and the attack. "The surface was disappointing," Gibson said. "It seems to be that the surface continues to favour the opposition more than us."

West Indies v India: Ottis Gibson rues another batting failure | Cricket News | West Indies v India | ESPN Cricinfo

1) Lack of match practice: this highlights the stupidity of playing international cricket in the Caribbean in June. The Caribbean domestic season runs from January to April. That's just one reason why our international season shouldn't really go beyond April, or May at the latest.

2) The 'disappointing' surface: as Jimmy Adams said on Sky the other day, be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it! Gibson asked the curators to prepare pitches with more bounce, to aid the pacers. But pitches with more bounce can help the spinners, too. As a Kittian poster pointed out on CMS, if pitches did not offer more bounce, and more for the bowlers, the grounds were in danger of losing international matches in the future.

Gibson and WICB need to think thru what they're doing when they schedule international series. It doesn't help to moan about the matters afterwards....

 

[GotSpin]

They really should consider a double FC competition too.

 

[Bun]

Correct me if wrong, but has not test cricket always played during this period?

 

[Jono]

Kohli to bat all 90 overs imo

 

[silentstriker]

Kohli to bat all 90 overs imo

 

[Jono]

****ing down legside.

What the **** Kohli.

 

[Daemon]

Feel like shopping the trollface onto that picture of Kohli

 

[Austerlitz]

Kohli.............too defensive approach.

 

[silentstriker]

Haha wheres your UDRS now? Might have been overturned.

 

[Bun]

Dire stuff from Kohli.. absolutely dire..

 

[Cevno]

Haha wheres your UDRS now? Might have been overturned.

Wouldn't have .

Not "conclusive"

 

[Jono]

WI are actually well in this match.

 

[Austerlitz]

Me too stop watching indian cricket when tendulkar leaves............we'll never replace him.Not even close.Look at these guys mukund,vijay,kohli,raina.Literally struggling at test class.
Didn't see a single confident cover drive from kohli,and dravid at 38 has to do it.

 

[Cevno]

Kohli never looked comfortable to the short ball specially against edwards.
Nearly got out to it twice yesterday too.

Will people write him off as Sadogopan Ramesh or a ODI bully too now?

 

[Cevno]

Me too stop watching indian cricket when tendulkar leaves............we'll never replace him.Not even close.Look at these guys mukund,vijay,kohli,raina.Literally struggling at test class.
Didn't see a single confident cover drive from kohli,and dravid at 38 has to do it.

Yeah,Tendulkar has never failed in any match.

Laxman has scored less runs in this match than those you mention btw.