England vs India 3rd Test Debate

First topic message reminder :

This is the official thread to discuss the 3rd Test between England and India to be played at Edgbaston.

Toss:England won the toss and chose to field first

Indian line up

Virender Sehwag
Gautam Gambhir
Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
VVS Laxman
Suresh Raina
MS Dhoni(c & wk)
Amit Mishra
Praveen Kumar
Ishant Sharma
S Sreesanth

England Line up

Andrew Strauss(c)
Alastair Cook
Ian Bell
Kevin Pietersen
Eoin Morgan
Ravi Bopara
Matt Prior(wk)
Tim Bresnan
Stuart Broad
Graeme Swann
James Anderson


All the best to both the teams

Cheers

Oh Sreesanth

Utter disgrace. Its like watching Matt Prior the last time they came here.

I hope the Indian public gives their egos a kick when they get home and look long and hard at the IPL and whats its done to their teams reputation.

This is getting bad for India

Tendulkar on to bowl...maybe he'll get his first century of the series

SACHIN

Whats the weather forcast for tomorrow?

overthrows, and no backing up from tendulkar. its ameture cricket

utter dross from India, no test should be so one sided between what on paper are equal sides

Double Indias score and only 3 wickets down. This is very sad for India.

Does anyone remember swamycricketananda from the 606?

england are humilating india

eirebilly wrote:Double Indias score and only 3 wickets down. This is very sad for India.

Does anyone remember swamycricketananda from the 606?

Doubt we'll hear from him at the moment

Dravid again!!!!!!!

Lol Hoggy but i do so want to hear what he thinks of Broads contribution lol

eirebilly wrote:Lol Hoggy but i do so want to hear what he thinks of Broads contribution lol

And Pietersen's

True lol

However much spin is in the pitch, Swann will still get carted. All rough is outside the left handers off stump, and India only have two left handers. Swann has been hammered by India's batsmen anyway.

Fair enough Punter but as you have said already, Swann hasnt taken too many wickets because the rest have... England may not need him

Why is it so hard to give England some credit. This series they have batted, bowled and fielded India out of the matches. Sign of a good side in my books.

So, bat out tomorrow, let Cook get to 300, and give the Indians two days to bat out?

eirebilly wrote:Fair enough Punter but as you have said already, Swann hasnt taken too many wickets because the rest have... England may not need him

England may not need him, but Swann's decline proves spin is truly dead.

Makrish wrote:So, bat out tomorrow, let Cook get to 300, and give the Indians two days to bat out?

More meaningless records hey? Cook would be the worst player to ever reach 300.

What do you mean 'Spin is dead'?

eirebilly wrote:What do you mean 'Spin is dead'?

Swann can't cut it vs special players of spin. Singh can't turn a ball for love nor money. Vettori's body is falling apart, Ajmal isn't too threatening, Mishra is village, Beer, Lyons or who ever Australia pick aren't International quality, Mendis, Randiv, Herath etc are overly great.

Punter's Dodgy Digit wrote:

Makrish wrote:So, bat out tomorrow, let Cook get to 300, and give the Indians two days to bat out?

More meaningless records hey? Cook would be the worst player to ever reach 300.

Worst ever player to rack up more than 600 runs in a series, too, then? Against a 'world class' bowler, Johnson?

Spin is always a funny thing Punter. Sometimes there is a lack of any good and then you get some brilliant ones. Spin is not dead.

Makrish wrote:

Punter's Dodgy Digit wrote:

Makrish wrote:So, bat out tomorrow, let Cook get to 300, and give the Indians two days to bat out?

More meaningless records hey? Cook would be the worst player to ever reach 300.

Worst ever player to rack up more than 600 runs in a series, too, then? Against a 'world class' bowler, Johnson?

Certainly, he was dropped on 80 odd in Brisbane and got a fluke 200, out off a no ball at Sydney on 44 got 180 odd. Cook relies plainly on luck.

eirebilly wrote:Spin is always a funny thing Punter. Sometimes there is a lack of any good and then you get some brilliant ones. Spin is not dead.

Since Warne, Murali, Kumble and MacGill retired, a few bowlers have had a decent run here and there(Swann and Mendis spring to mind), but all modern spinners aren't very good.

You may have a point punter but before Warne and Murali, who were the truely great spinners after Benaud?

Punter's Dodgy Digit wrote:
Certainly, he was dropped on 80 odd in Brisbane and got a fluke 200, out off a no ball at Sydney on 44 got 180 odd. Cook relies plainly on luck.

So, the fact that the Aussies didn't manage to get him out for about 17 hours didn't matter at all?

On a side note, I can't believe I'm rising to the bait.

eirebilly wrote:You may have a point punter but before Warne and Murali, who were the truely great spinners after Benaud?

So Kumble and MacGill weren't great? I also forgot Saqlain

Abdul Qadir was great, Mushtaq Ahmed was pretty good, Bedi, Chandra, Prasanna where all great

Sorry Punter, i am trying to have a decent debate with you but it seems your not interested in it.

eirebilly wrote:Sorry Punter, i am trying to have a decent debate with you but it seems your not interested in it.

I picked out great spinners and you chose to ignore my post, so you don't acknowledge any spinners other than Warne and Murali?

It has nothing to do with who i pick out. Its more to do with the rest of your comments and you inability to even acknowledge that England have performed well.

eirebilly wrote:It has nothing to do with who i pick out. Its more to do with the rest of your comments and you inability to even acknowledge that England have performed well.

We were talking about spin, not about England...

Which is why i said 'The rest of your comments'.......

Commanding performance from Cook and support from the others. Cook was solid in a Boycott type run gathering with no thrills.

I wasn't that convinced by Morgan who had a few lives today.

Reminds me of the 1990 series where we could score freely against the Indians with little opposition. I would think the timing of the declaration may depend on any time lost that might be lost to weather later in the game. However India will be batting sometime later tomorrow if no time is lost to rain.

Back in the real world, the very talented Cook has once again shown that he is a very good batsmen. Really good stuff from him.

eirebilly wrote:Which is why i said 'The rest of your comments'.......

No point arguing with someone who is clearly just trying to wind people up. Anyone who says someone who has now got 19 test centuries is 'lucky' clearly is just a WUM.

Missed both days' play so far due to work (being out of the office) but caught the Channel 5 highlights and it looks like India's bowling hasn't improved much and the return of Gambhir and Sehwag didn't really change anything. Gutsy knock from Dhoni - finally showing what he's capable of. Badly let down by the rest of the team.

Whereas it was business as normal for England's bowlers on Day 1 and our openers decided that the 3rd Test was where they wanted to get some runs. First opening century partnership this summer and Cookie "monstering" the Indian bowling attack (I use the word "attack" loosely here).

Good knock from the skipper - undone by the "13 away from a century" hoodoo? Plus a typically rollercoaster fifty from Pietersen and Eowyn "I Know Your Face" Morgan picking up where KP left off.

Unbelievable stuff. Should think England only need another 100 tomorrow before they put India back in. Cook said the pitch won't get any easier to bat on, so we should declare around lunchtime.

Would love to feel cocky, but England have benefitted from some poor Indian bowling and some frankly atrocious fielding. If we were facing India at the top of their game, this series would be a whole lot closer. As good as our lads have been, they have been made to look even better by a very out-of-sorts opposition.

Still, if it means we're the world's No.1 Test nation, I'll take that.

3-0 to the Eng-er-land!

eirebilly wrote:Double Indias score and only 3 wickets down. This is very sad for India.

Does anyone remember swamycricketananda from the 606?

Swanny would be loving it. He'd be using it to point out how overhyped Vaughn and Flintoff were.

eirebilly wrote:
Does anyone remember swamycricketananda from the 606?

How could one forget :

Dire performance from India - excellent from England. If we aren't all out there's a lot to be said for batting until at least tea on Friday to establish a really massive lead.

It's a total difference in class.
The England attack has been one of the best I have ever seen, Broad has been immense.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Dire performance from India - excellent from England. If we aren't all out there's a lot to be said for batting until at least tea on Friday to establish a really massive lead.

If they are stll in and scoring it would be pointlessto declare. f they dont cleve thy can bowl India out in two days then they might as wekll not have bothered turning up at all. It would be a big suprise if this game goes to 5 days.

Really hope we bat all day again because today we could get the score to 700! Come on England!

I hope the Indian public are preparing to give the BCCI absolute hell for this. It seems to me the BCCI doesn't give a toss about the Tests because they make their money from 50 over rubbish.

This Indian side is overtired, underprepared and as a result, injury shot. Indian players are being treated like a badly run stable of horses, run too often in too many different types of race for short term profit. What are they going to do with Zaheer Khan when they decide treatment isn't going to get enough wickets to justify the expense? Sell him to the knacker's yard for dogmeat?

On the other hand, it has made Geoffrey Boycott sound happier than I've ever heard him. So it isn't all bad.

Cowshot wrote:I hope the Indian public are preparing to give the BCCI absolute hell for this. It seems to me the BCCI doesn't give a toss about the Tests because they make their money from 50 over rubbish.

This Indian side is overtired, underprepared and as a result, injury shot. Indian players are being treated like a badly run stable of horses, run too often in too many different types of race for short term profit. What are they going to do with Zaheer Khan when they decide treatment isn't going to get enough wickets to justify the expense? Sell him to the knacker's yard for dogmeat?

On the other hand, it has made Geoffrey Boycott sound happier than I've ever heard him. So it isn't all bad.

What he said.

BCCI and Fletcher are also going to have to face up to replacing the old guard at asome point.
Zaheers career is pretty much over, old and injury prone. The star batters have gone on longer than expected but surely cant keep going that much longer, and the risk is that they hang around like a bad smell (Ponting) into their declining years. Its going to be very hard to sort out the fielding and fitness when a big chink of the team is well into their 30's.
Big decision has to be made to take on young guys who are hungry and raw and mould them into professionals in the way England have been. Not many of the current side stepped straighht in and performed, but through hard work and profsionalism and good coaching they have turned into better players. Fitness and fielding can be taught but only to those with the attitude to do it. Even in the 50 over game where India excel this is a weak area for them.
Its unacceptable to send a side anywhere that performs so far below their abilities.

dhoni has been awful as well, with the gloves he is hugely overrated!

I am a huge fan of Mogs but i am still to be convinced by him at test level. I hope he does well, i really do but i just am not convinced that he is test quality.

Anyone fancy Cook for 300?

cricketfan90 wrote:dhoni has been awful as well, with the gloves he is hugely overrated!

To be fair to him he just looks completely knackered. 150 ODis and 40+ Tests in 4 years will do that to you.