India v England - Test Series

[CHAPPERS]

Patel still not called on, with a 70 over old ball.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Fantastic bowling from Swann, on fire. Today was swung back in England's favour, at 220-1 the match looked lost already, 283-4 is a great come back. One more tonight and I might even get up early!!

 

[CHAPPERS]

Sounds like the last Swann wicked went straight through the top of the pitch. Expect us to collapse to the Indian spinners in both innings.

 

[Simster]

Patel still not called on, with a 70 over old ball.

f***ing shit decision, picking Patel (unless he scores lots of runs, I suppose)

Sounds like the last Swann wicked went straight through the top of the pitch. Expect us to collapse to the Indian spinners in both innings.

Indeed.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Sounds like the last Swann wicked went straight through the top of the pitch. Expect us to collapse to the Indian spinners in both innings.

I'm watching it, it bit into the surface a touch, but the pitch has been very consistent.

 

[Bold Seagull]

f***ing shit decision, picking Patel (unless he scores lots of runs, I suppose)

Really? I think Bresnan is the one to be wondering if Panesar was a better bet. Patel has actually helped slow the RR down, and given Swann support at the other end.

New ball taken now....seamers back on, will having 3 of them actually pay off!?

 

[CHAPPERS]

I'm watching it, it bit into the surface a touch, but the pitch has been very consistent.

Any reverse with that first ball?

 

[Bold Seagull]

Any reverse with that first ball?

I don't think it did anything to write home about. There weren't many play and miss shots, Sehwag who looked ordinary with any movement in England last year, barely played a false stroke. Kind of tells you what the ball was doing.

The new ball was conventionally swinging just now, but they quickly got on top of it. Pitch is deteriorating though, which is a worry.

 

[Buckley's Mad Eye]

New ball not swinging in India shocker!!!

The selectors are idiots.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I think there are other factors at work.

Pitching in Compton is a risk and so the selectors have shored up the batting by including 2 all-rounders in Patel and Bresnan. It's a shame that considering they have a batman / wicketkeeper of the class of Prior. Had Strauss been available I think they might have played Panesar ahead of Bresnan.

The Indians have been crafty in both keeping the spinners away from England in their warm-up games and also producing pitches that helped the seamers, particularly Bresnan who until today had bowled well and picked up wickets on this tour. The Indians have lulled England into picking the 3 seamers and then produced a spinner's paradise track for the 1st Test. How is it that the England selectors fall for this every time in the sub-continent?

 

[Bold Seagull]

502-6.......death by a thousand cuts (or probably 600 declared cuts...).

It didn't need India to 'dupe' England selectors by preparing seaming pitches in the warm up, even if they had turned in the tour matches, It is simply not in England's DNA (or South Africa / Australia for that matter) to select just 2 spinners and 2 seamers (I would welcome being proved wrong on that point!).

England's 1 success on the subcontinent last winter following 4 successive defeats to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, was with Patel, Swann, Bresnan, Finn and Anderson in the attack in the final test in SL. With Monty and Swann in the team with only 2 seamers, England lost 3 on the bounce - although I accept some of that had more to do with the batting than the bowling.

All very easy in hindsight, and we'll know more about how well they've selected by the close of play tomorrow...

 

[Bold Seagull]

521-8 Declared.

Right, now we'll see how good this pitch is....

 

[Simster]

I can't bear to stay in touch with this test match but I'm convinced it's going to be an absolute disaster.

So a flat pitch. I reckon we'll be about 40/3 in no time.

 

[Beach Hut]

Hopefully we can at least draw

 

[Pevenseagull]

turning nightwatcman in we're screwed

 

[Beach Hut]

Wicket, here we go

 

[Pevenseagull]

and out .... that didn't work

 

[Simster]

29/2

Lovely stuff.

 

[brightonmark1234]

england should of played 2 spinners and patel is a waste of time and 3 down now

 

[Pevenseagull]

Trott gone FFS