England vs India 2nd Test debate

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Sides

England:

1) Andrew Strauss (C)
2) Alistair Cook
3) Jonathan Trott
4) Kevin Pietersen
5) Ian Bell
6) Eoin Morgan
7) Matt Prior (WK)
8) Tim Bresnan
9) Stuart Broad
10) Graeme Swann
11) James Anderson

India:

1) Abhinav Makund
2) Rahul Dravid
3) Sachin Tendulkar
4) VVS Laxman
5) Yuvraj Singh
6) Suresh Raina
7) MS Dhoni (WK)
8) Harbhajan Singh
9) Praveen Kumar
10) Sreesanth
11) Ishant Sharma

Full house for today!

Sharma is demonstratoing exactly how not to use the new ball when youve put the op[position in to bat.

One bowler below 80mph, the other spraying down leg side. Its like Englnad in the 90's

Bad decision

OK ignore what I just said...hes duddenly managed to bowl two good balls in a row ..BANG

Not out but thats what happens when you dont have DRS.

England to collapse? Please no

Terrible decision, clearly going over. Another example of why the ICC should have over ruled India and made DRS mandatory including hawkeye.

Yep India are taking us back to the bad old days in the ways of umpiring.

It may have been a bad decision but it was an error from Cook and his usual weakness expossed by good bowling.
Its more irritating when the bowler beats the batsman hands down and the decision isnt given, or when the batsman has played succesfuly and is given out.

Amazing just how much Cook struggles at home compared to his abilities abroad. He really cant cope with opening in swinging conditions.

Trott gone aswell now, terrific swinging delivery from Sreesanth.

good bowling from sreesanth, we are in trouble this morning

i wonder if Yuvraj will come on now kp is in

Since when has Trott played at balls like tha though? England seem far to casual today. The conditions are helpful but really the bowling is pretty scrappy and all over the place, yet Trott managed to help himself out there. Didnt see that sort of thing from him in Aus.

to be fair it was a drive ball, the late swing meant he edged it

Not a great start from England. Cook was unlucky but he only has himself to blame for getting his pads in the way too often - it gives them a chance to give you out

Not easy though when the ball is swinging about...the Indians have sprayed a few but have kept it full and the movement did for Trott too. I thought at first sight he played a loose shot but on a second look I give credit to some good bowling. Who needs Zaheer?

Work to do here for KP and the skipper...

Sreesanth continues to bowl short, KP continues to hit it for 4.

lol if only there was udrs for the cook decision

huge lbw shout turned down

Difficult first session but not unexpected really

Kumar thinking he'd like udrs for KP then

Wouldn't have helped him though , was way too marginal. (Must admit it looked a good shout on live viewing! But you really shouldn't be giving those out with a man that far down the track.)

Perhaps an umpire might be more inclined to chance his arm on those if they had the safety net of udrs ? Wouldn't that be ironic...

cricketfan90 wrote:to be fair it was a drive ball, the late swing meant he edged it

Yeah but this is Trott, he would normaly leave that alone in a T20 let alone a test in swinging conditions.


KP could be the man agains here, looks like hes come out looking comfortable for once. Hes always more comfortable when hes scoring and tehse guys are giveing plenty of opportunities.

If these too can stay in to middle of the lunch session teh damage is repaired and Id say England would be sitting pretty with the chance to build a competitive total. I have a lot more confidence now that they will make 400 from pretty much any start in the first innings.

lol Strauss's hopeless form with the coin continues.

put in again by India in horrid conditions.

India massive favourites to win again. Bet they don't blow it this time. too good a team to lose twice when i command.

You bat first here in these conditions you lose.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:OK ignore what I just said...hes duddenly managed to bowl two good balls in a row ..BANG

Sharma? great historian and he can bowl a bit.

Liam_Main wrote:Trott gone aswell now, terrific swinging delivery from Sreesanth.

it's Trent bridge, even i could swing it there

Cf, you might want to record this:

Gregers thinks that KP is playing really well atm!

Although he's got to stop walking across his stumps.

Bit of yuvraj before lunch?

Gregers wrote:Although he's got to stop walking across his stumps.

Bit of yuvraj before lunch?

Doubt it. The ball is still nipping about and I don't think Kumar will be willing to hand it over yet...Be a brave skipper to argue with him in his present mood

Hah! Shows what I know - here comes Harbhajan

Harbajan on.

Yuvraj should be given a few overs just for the mental factor over Kp

Seems like both sides are content to coast into lunch, negative from India.

when the big occasion came, Kevin Pietersen showed what he means for England. And for a change, he's temporing his game according to the situation.
excuse me MS, Harbhajan before your wicket taking spinners like Yuvraj and Raina? and even Dhoni himself should have taken the ball ahead of India's motivator in chief and number 8 batsman who bowls a bit!!!.

quite a change to the Indian team today then?

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Seems like both sides are content to coast into lunch, negative from India.

My thoughts exactly PSW ...should have kept the seamers on - nearly had several lbws , spinners no threat at all . Bit like captaincy on autopilot.

England's session in the end - only losing two in those conditions was a good effort.

msp83 wrote:when the big occasion came, Kevin Pietersen showed what he means for England. And for a change, he's temporing his game according to the situation.
excuse me MS, Harbhajan before your wicket taking spinners like Yuvraj and Raina? and even Dhoni himself should have taken the ball ahead of India's motivator in chief and number 8 batsman who bowls a bit!!!.

Harbajan did nothing in his first over the suggest he's up for this match either!

Think England just edged the session. In helpful conditions, after 2 early wickets, they seem to have settled down.
KP looks good, and Strauss has grafted hard. Now they have to go on building on this start, Strauss did throw away 2 starts in the last match, this time around he has seen england through a session, they need more from the captain.
Pietersen just likes the big occasion he's just showing his value for England.
The Indian bowlers didn't exactly support their captain, as they were mostly all over the place
. Praveen Kumar managed to swing it, but it seems his lackof pace is slowly catching up with him.
Sharma looked threatening at times, but hasn't been consistent enough.
Sreesanth got Trott with a good, swinging ball, but bowled far too short to KP and got the deserving treatment.
Yuvraj has had the one over so far, and Raina and Dhoni hasn't bowled as yet. Harbhajan bowled a usual lackluster over.
The Umpires haven't had the best of starts either, Cook got a rather tough call against him, and Praveen has reasons to consider himself unlucky not to have baged Pietersen.
It has to be said, a full DRS may have corrected both the calls had they been challenged.

i wonder if we will see dhoni have a cheeky bowl this afternoon

You really see the difference there between an attack like Englands where you have 4 bowlers who look threatening and Indias which is mostly relying oin the iodd good ball to take advantage of the swing.
Pakistan got right into England last summer in similar circumstances, this time we are seeing KP and Strauss given easy runs most overs when they should have been under the cosh.

Still its not a bad position for India to be in. You can flip it around to say that Englands batsmen didnt have the class to really cash in on so many loose deliveries. Even playing defensivly I wouldve expected Tendulkar tio make more from that bowling than the Englnad pair did.

69/2 is still delicate, but if this partnership goes places then Bell Prior and Morgan could really cash in when the bowlers flag and the batting conditions improve.

How I wish PK can bowl 5 MPH faster with the same swing and control!!!!.
But alas, this is what we have always got.

msp...

In some ways its good to see the Indian bowlers not trying to force the pace. They are all capable of delivering faster but you get more conventional swing keeping the ball below the mid 80's.
They are bowling the their strengths, certainly Im sure Sreesanth can deliver fast than that and Sharma is only pushing his fast ball in once in a while.
Even if Praveen were able to keep the same seam position and accuracy with an extra 5mph he probably wouldnt be extracting the same amount of movement.

The lack of pace is only really going to get exposed when conditions are less helpful and against well set batsmen. If these two are still together in another 15 overs the Indian seamers coudl start to look very average.

KP gone... the angry one strikes again!

Looks like Morgan might have to actually make some test runs this innings, even if Bell hits a few.

I suppose Bresnan for Tremlett makes our tail rather formidable though! Anderson is surely the only one that's a proper "tail-ender" in the traditional sense...

jimmy will like these conditions...

sressanth convinced that he caugh it lol

Thank goodness all but 1 of the England players are quite handy with the bat...we may need to bat down to 10 this innings!

Its as I feared. India's dander is well and truly up after Lords and England looking a little complacent, though to be fair Sree and "Simon" Sharma have bowled some good deliveries, mixed in with some more wayward stuff.

Strauss and Bell need to really dig in and pray the sun comes out.

could really do with straussy getting his form back here

cricketfan90 wrote:jimmy will like these conditions...

sressanth convinced that he caugh it lol

That's if the conditions remain the same. The weather forcast says otherwise.

Come on England dig deep. It's time that Morgan made a significant contribution so let's hope he does just that! 79/3.

i dont think morgan is test class, but we will need him to prove me wrong lol

cricketfan90 wrote:jimmy will like these conditions...

sressanth convinced that he caugh it lol

I think the umpires wouldve been more convinced if he'd claimed he caught genital warts from Akhtar

the indians cant play the swinging ball well, so it will be a very intresting test match

I say England will be in a winning position if we can get to 350. That looks a long way off at the minute though.

Sreesanth has looked quite handy today I reckon. Sure he bowls some right old rubbish at times - and we'll only judge his selection after two England innings I suppose - but today he has taken two big wickets and threatened more.

Credit where it's due