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

They can claim be the best current test team, and best England teast team of the modern era.
Not the best England test team ever, or to be a truely great test team like the Aussies were.
Nor can we claim there is a big gap between England and India and South Africa, they are 3 well matched sides.

What this series does poopoo is the notion that the Indian test side is the greatest ever.

I reckoN Swanny can grab a wicket before lunch. Bring him on!

Bresnan removes Gambhir.

Bresnan making himself undroppable atm. Might have to gamble on a 5 man attack if we make it a dead game here.

shankythebiggestengfan wrote:
I told you msp.Sehwag cant play the moving ball.

Neither can Cook and Morgan

Bresnan!!!!!!

The Australian side of the last decade or so was unbelievably good. Its unlikely that any team will meet that standard for a while. That doesn't mean you should be ashamed of being #1 and worse than they are.

YES! Great ball from Bresnan.

screamingaddabs wrote:I suppose it's just the years of being a running joke (i.e. losing more often than the England cricket team like jokes) in the 90s has left me a little unwilling to suddenly declare us the best. I still see a batting collapse about to happen whenever we bat. I'm scarred for life, the horror, the horror......

I agree with that, and if it wasn't for the long tail and India's complete lack of character and persistence we would have seen 1 or 2 in this series already.

You feel this is the key partnership now. If one of these goes quickly its hard to see India making a comeptitive total.

Anderson to come back and remove Sachin?

Fists of Fury wrote:Anderson to come back and remove Sachin?

Looks to be the plan.

liverbnz wrote:

screamingaddabs wrote:I suppose it's just the years of being a running joke (i.e. losing more often than the England cricket team like jokes) in the 90s has left me a little unwilling to suddenly declare us the best. I still see a batting collapse about to happen whenever we bat. I'm scarred for life, the horror, the horror......

I agree with that, and if it wasn't for the long tail and India's complete lack of character and persistence we would have seen 1 or 2 in this series already.

True, but we need to get used to the fact that this England side can have a mini collapse, but SOMEONE will sort it out, be it Broad or Bresnan or Swann or Prior or...

That never happened in the 90s! I'm slowly adjusting

Play and miss first up, oooh.

Oohh what a ripper, Jimmy!

This pitch is a tad disappointing , not enough pace in it.

Anyway the boys are still applying pressure...............

How on earth has he survived that, an incredible slice of luck that that didn't splatter his stumps.

Boom Tendulkar gone

Gaaaaaannnnnn!

Sachin gone!

Jeepers Creepers.

Drop Broad

Well Anderson did kinda get Sachin

Broad has probably the been the difference between 2-0 and 0-0/0-1

And Jimmy does for Sachin again...

Catching end rather than bowling this time.

Got himmmm!

Yep, hands up - who called for Broad to be dropped before this series? I did

Broad for man of the series?

So far, I'd say he has to be, Sainty, with an honourable mention to Dravid.

We would've lost the 2nd test without him, probably wouldn't have a forced a win in the 1st test either.

Sainty wrote:Broad for man of the series?

Leaks too many runs through easy 4's. Drop him

Another one!

India are sinking again.

Dravid bowled Bresnan/

Brilliant session for England

Wall - demolished.

Big Big wicket just before lunch!

For all the talk about how India would grow into this series, England have been the team getting better and better

Brilliant from Bresnan. A lot of people were wrong about him.

Have to feel for Tremlett though. It's going to be tough for him to get back in the side.

England have done really well here. After the early wicket, they bowled a bit too full, looking for the magic ball constantly and leaked a lot of runs. Then someone (presumably Strauss) said "OK let's just settle things down a bit", they dragged the scoring rate right down (thanks in huge part to Bresnan's 1st spell but you could also see Anderson and Broad dragging their lengths back a fraction). Gambhir played a loose shot and now India are 4 down.

Great test cricket, and very impressed by this England side.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

shankythebiggestengfan wrote:
I told you msp.Sehwag cant play the moving ball.

Neither can Cook and Morgan

Agreed.Nor can Strauss

Gambhir is the best opener in the world IMO.He looked very very good today.

He hit 38. That's not "very good"

Oh, just got the sarcasm

Fists of Fury wrote:Yep, hands up - who called for Broad to be dropped before this series? I did

would never have thought of it

screamingaddabs wrote:Oh, just got the sarcasm

No it was not at all a sarcastic comment.I think he looked really really good while he was in.And he usually performs better in the 2nd innings.There is still a long way to go for England in this match yet.
Regarding Gambhir he is much better than flat track bullies Cook,Sehwag and Strauss and others.

Gambhir is the best opener in the world IMO.And it is a genuine opinion.Its not sarcasm.I am not sarcastic.
Fists
Cook struggled against Pakistan in swinging conditions.Didnt he.Ausssie pitches were flat and so were the pitches against SL.He also struggled in the 2009 Ashes in swinging conditions didnt he.And he is struggling in swinging conditions once again in this series.
He cant play swing.

Shanky, please stop making these ludicrous comments.

Cook - a flat track bully? Ok, so against Sri Lanks when he averaged about 4,000 that was on a flat track was it? Wrong again, it was in England, the very same conditions that these Indians are falling like a pack of cards in.

Australia - flat track? No, plenty of pace and bounce. Again, he averaged about 3 million.

Gambhir is a very good player, but he is no better than many other openers of the top test sides.

Just came back from the shops and seen 77-4.
Great start from the England attack.

Fantastic start, Y I. Business as usual, one might say.

Gambhir's scores this series:

15,22,38

Strauss

22, 32, 32 16

Cook

12, 1, 2, 5

Sehwag

0

None of them look too hot at the moment really!

Y I Man wrote:Just came back from the shops and seen 77-4.
Great start from the England attack.

fancy another trip to the shops.....

Ha!
No thanks Hodge, it's chucking it down now.

I don't know, what a disgrace, not willing to make a sacrifice for Queen and Country. Is it because Newcastle is officially in Scotland, maybe?

This will be a good test for Raina now, he can expect some heavy artillery!