*Official* - India in West Indies

[Teja.]

Saw the entire day at my neighbor's place sitting on his exercise cycle with the TV on mute. Off and on cycling for 6 hours means the calorie meter on it read 1344.8 and I have an incredibly sore arse even now.

Pretty disappointed with the top order batting display. Harbhajan's was the most important innings, changed the state of the game completely by scoring 30 in his first 15 balls and allowing Raina to bat himself in. Have always been a backer of not discarding Raina completely because we've already given him a chance, however undeserved, and he's had a decent start to his career, technical problems notwithstanding. Not saying he should be a lock from now on, but he should definitely be in the mix. He seems to have come past his problems against the short ball too.

I thought Bishoo bowled exactly how a good attacking leg spinner should early on to get 3 but then kept bowling too many pies, has potential but is still very rough on the edges. Edwards bowled beautifully. Praveen was off his radar, was swinging it but not in the right areas, prepared to forgive him because it's his debut. Ishant looked promising, 87-88 mph at reasonable accuracy and not too many 'Ishant' balls(wide outside off-stump). There were encouraging signs for Harbhajan yesterday so it'll be interesting to see how the pitch reacts to the spinners today.

 

[biased indian]

Have not seen a single ball of the match as Ten cricket is off the cable for the last 2 months and DD think only T20 and ODI is of national interest

How is the Pitch all the papers was saying about it being Pace friendly and ehy did dhoni choose to Bat first..with two spinners playing will it be difficult to score any thing more than 250 in the fourth innings ?

 

[biased indian]

Chanderpaul the only one going to stand between that ..

 

[Stapel]

11 wickets down and I still wouldn't like to say who's ahead with any certainty.

Windies will probably be happier as India chose to bat, but was a sterling comeback from Harbhajan and Raina.

Cricinfo's headline of "Teams Even" obviously assumes that WI are going to collapse tomorrow because they're well ahead on the face of it

If it was any other team than the WI (or probably Pakistan), they would be ahead on this surface. But WI have struggled to break the 230 barrier in recent times, so India are still about even. Will need early wickets though.

I'd say, trailing 212 runs with 9 wickets in hand is always a favourite situation. The simple fact that Windies haven't scored too many runs in Tests recently, hardly matters imho.

The 7th wicket stand was excellent, but let's not forget that the Windies would blindly have said yes to "trailing 212 runs with 9 wickets in hand" onbeforehand!

 

[Dissector]

If it was any other team than the WI (or probably Pakistan), they would be ahead on this surface. But WI have struggled to break the 230 barrier in recent times, so India are still about even. Will need early wickets though.

Also there's some turn and WI will have to bat last against two decent spinners. India will have to bat better in the second innings but I would back them to take this one.

 

[Spikey]

Also there's some turn and WI will have to bat last against two decent spinners. India will have to bat better in the second innings but I would back them to take this one.

true dat. Raina will be great support to Mishra.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Fascinating day, can't wait till todays play starts. Not sure which way it will go but i expect Harbhajan to bowl a bloody long spell today.

 

[silentstriker]

I'd say, trailing 212 runs with 9 wickets in hand is always a favourite situation. The simple fact that Windies haven't scored too many runs in Tests recently, hardly matters imho.
!

Err shouldn't that be the primary thing that matters? Just like it would matter if the windows quartet were defending a score of 250 vs Sreesanth & co. I'm not saying it's necessarily even but the way you decide if something is even is by looking at precisely what your statement in bold says doesnt matter.

 

[GotSpin]

Very excited for tonights play. Sarwan and barath to put on 300

 

[Dissector]

true dat. Raina will be great support to Mishra.

Still bitter about 2001?

 

[Stapel]

Err shouldn't that be the primary thing that matters? Just like it would matter if the windows quartet were defending a score of 250 vs Sreesanth & co. I'm not saying it's necessarily even but the way you decide if something is even is by looking at precisely what your statement in bold says doesnt matter.

Not in regard of trailing 200 with 9 wickets in hand.....

If this is not WI's advantage, what is? A day of Test cricket could only be in WI's advantage, if they bowl their opponents out first day below 150.... That's a bit odd, not?

Let me put it this way:
Since India's projected first innings score, batting first, was 400+, 250 all out is thus advantage WI!

I do agree this does not per se mean WI's chances to win this are 50%+

 

[GotSpin]

It's a shame Sammy has to play on wickets like these. They provide nothing for his bowling and his batting isn't much use either. While I do agree that Sammy can be very useful on the slower type wickets, an attack including Roach or Russell is just so much more potent

 

[Daemon]

It's a shame Sammy has to play

 

[GotSpin]

Besides, russell is fairly handy with the bat too.

 

[Xuhaib]

seems to me West indies can only produce under prepared square turners or flat roads nothing inbetween.Indian-Pakistani curators of the 70-80 era would be proud of them.

 

[GotSpin]

Lol what. This pitch is spinning but jeeze, it's not a bowlers paradise.

 

[Xuhaib]

get the impression from what I read on the net as I have not seen a ball bowled in the game tbh.

 

[GotSpin]

get the impression from what I read on the net as I have not seen a ball bowled in the game tbh.

The fact that Bhaji got 70 should testify to the potential of the wicket.

 

[Himannv]

Yep there isn't that much help for the bowlers. Some very ordinary batting though.

I actually like Sammy as a captain but he simply does not do enough as a player for me. They would have an amazing bowling attack if they left him out. The likes of Roach, Russell, Taylor and Edwards should be easy selections.

 

[Xuhaib]

tbh Bhajii would be one of the batsman I would back to score decent runs on a minefield.