England's Summer of Cricket 2021

First topic message reminder :

Jacks, Crawley, Hain, Stokes, Salt (WK), Lawrence, Gregory, Overton, Saqib, Ball, Parkinson?

Will MacPherson suggests Hales won’t be picked, which is a bit odd given they hinted he would get a chance this summer.

You also have Vince, Duckett and keep an eye out for Harry Brook.

Another rain ruined day of test cricket that was otherwise shaping up nicely. India though, wouldn't have minded the break too much when it came, they were right in the middle of a horrendous collapse! Absolutely disappointing from the Big Three. They really had a solid platform. It was ages before an Indian opening partnership came anywhere close to putting a hundred on the board. But Kohli, Pujara and Rahane just didn't follow-it up and let the openers and the bowlers down so badly.
Rohit played an injudicious shot and got out at a terrible time and opened the gates. A few months ago, I would have been absolutely furious! Not really a fan of his yet, but to be fair to the man, he has made an effort to tighten up his game, started taking test cricket seriously and started giving the game due respect. There would still be such absolutely infuriating mistakes, but Rohit of late, seems to be learning from these experiences. Hopefully, he'd have noted, that in the last 5 overseas tests, this is the 3rd time he has given it away with a silly shot, when the bowling was there for the taking...
Rahul has made a welcome return to the test fold. I always have had a soft spot for the lad, he seems to be far more capable, than he has shown so far. Hopefully, this unexpected opportunity is just the turning point in his career. He'll have to hold the innings together now, and the conditions are likely to get tougher for batting. But so far, so good from KL.
Cheteshwar Pujara didn't
look comfortable out in the middle before he got out. Kohli didn't last long enough to even think of getting comfortable! And Ajinkya Rahane just give his wicket away with the silliest of run-outs!. Getting pathetic from Rahane, his running between the wickets is becoming a major concerned. Getting run-out in test cricket is just too terrible, and Rahane has been involved in a few too many of them of late.

England bowled alright in the first hour, then lost the plot a bit before Rohit lifted their day. Anderson could be stopped only by the rain thereafter. Robinson bowled alright, Broad was probably the least impressive of their bowlers though he did get a few to beat the bat. Thought they didn't employ Sam Curran well enough. He should have been given an early go, probably even should have taken the new ball along with Anderson. And when they go for an all-seam attack, there should be place for at least 1 proper fast bowler. Guess only Wood is left now as both Archer and Stone are out injured and as such they would want to be careful with him as he anyways has a poor injury history. And they can do a lot worse than rethinking the Moeen call, can't be worse than most of their recent number 5s and 6s picked as specialist bats in recent times and he can bat 7. As a 5th bowling option, can't be bad at all particularly as they consider their other spinners in the squad as unplayable. Else, their attack does look just too same same.

Said all that, England are surely in the game. If they rip out a couple of early wickets, then India's last 4 are unlikely to present much of a challenge. Won't be surprised at all if the lead would be in the region of the 30s, for either side.
Hope the weather stays reasonable, though it doesn't look good for tomorrow.

msp83 wrote:Said all that, England are surely in the game. If they rip out a couple of early wickets, then India's last 4 are unlikely to present much of a challenge. Won't be surprised at all if the lead would be in the region of the 30s, for either side.
Hope the weather stays reasonable, though it doesn't look good for tomorrow.

Msp - agreed but there's no doubt that after less than two days' actual play, England are the team playing catch up and would settle for the weather forecast proving right.

guildfordbat wrote:

msp83 wrote:Said all that, England are surely in the game. If they rip out a couple of early wickets, then India's last 4 are unlikely to present much of a challenge. Won't be surprised at all if the lead would be in the region of the 30s, for either side.
Hope the weather stays reasonable, though it doesn't look good for tomorrow.

Msp - agreed but there's no doubt that after less than two days' actual play, England are the team playing catch up and would settle for the weather forecast proving right.

Guildford you haven't been paying much attention to India's lower order batting of late! Appalling is an understatement, and there is no way out as they are very good at what they are actually primarily supposed to do!

does the game start early today

Weather outlook suddenly looking a lot more optimistic for today. Small burst of rain expected between 11-12, otherwise it's seemingly clear for the next few hours.

England have a decent chance of eking out a small lead with that long Indian tail, but they'll need to get Pant and Rahul in the first 45 minutes of play to make that a reality. Pant, especially, can make that lead disappear in an instant if he gets going.

No, we don't start early in England. But they will play on a bit later this evening.

msp83 wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:

msp83 wrote:Said all that, England are surely in the game. If they rip out a couple of early wickets, then India's last 4 are unlikely to present much of a challenge. Won't be surprised at all if the lead would be in the region of the 30s, for either side.
Hope the weather stays reasonable, though it doesn't look good for tomorrow.

Msp - agreed but there's no doubt that after less than two days' actual play, England are the team playing catch up and would settle for the weather forecast proving right.

Guildford you haven't been paying much attention to India's lower order batting of late! Appalling is an understatement, and there is no way out as they are very good at what they are actually primarily supposed to do!

Msp - I can't claim that India's lower batting order has been the top item in the Bat household over the last year and bow to your knowledge of how appalling it is.

However, as you acknowledged, we are not into it yet.

Duty281 wrote:Weather outlook suddenly looking a lot more optimistic for today. Small burst of rain expected between 11-12, otherwise it's seemingly clear for the next few hours.

England have a decent chance of eking out a small lead with that long Indian tail, but they'll need to get Pant and Rahul in the first 45 minutes of play to make that a reality. Pant, especially, can make that lead disappear in an instant if he gets going.

No, we don't start early in England. But they will play on a bit later this evening.

Does cricket in any format anywhere in the world start early to make up for lost time? It definitely should do.

I think England is the exception in that most other countries will start a day of a test 30 minutes earlier to make up for lost time, while in England they prefer to add time on at the end.

Well there's the expected rain. If test cricket had more flexibility and sensibility they could have got an hour's play in this morning.

Radar reckons this could go on until just past 12, so they might be off for a couple of hours.

Rain has stopped. Rather than restarting instantly they're going to wait twenty minutes before going back on...what is the logic of this?! Well it's raining again so it doesn't actually matter.

Duty281 wrote:I think England is the exception in that most other countries will start a day of a test 30 minutes earlier to make up for lost time, while in England they prefer to add time on at the end.

Ah yes, I do remember staying up to watch on tv some Tests brought forward to start earlier than the originally scheduled 1:00 am.

I hope they don't take a 40 Min lunch break now
I hope the lots time is adjusted and lunch reduced to no more than 15min

They won't reduce lunch - it's sacred or something - but they should take it now/should have already taken it.

They were going to restart at 12:05, but it's raining again. Good news is it's clear for the next few hours.

Restart at 12:05...lunch at 13:30.

Can go on until 19:30.

Pant goes, the ball sticking in the pitch a little. Good field changes from Root, good bowling from Robinson.

Lead of 38. Thakur at 8, Bumrah at 9 shows how weak this Indian tail is if England get amongst it.

Pant gets a 4, a 6 and out. Huge breakthrough for England. That lead would have evaporated very quickly with Rishabh out there.

Duty281 wrote:They won't reduce lunch - it's sacred or something - but they should take it now/should have already taken it.

They were going to restart at 12:05, but it's raining again. Good news is it's clear for the next few hours.

Restart at 12:05...lunch at 13:30.

Can go on until 19:30.

Test cricket in England is playing all it's stupidity hits in this test isn't it? Can't start before 11am, must take a full lunch no matter what, off for bad light with the lights on...

Three utterly dismal reviews from Root.

Lead down to 14 as England haven't been able to stem the runs since Pant departed. Time for Curran.

Jadeja is such a brilliant cricketer. He's playing the situation very well and keeping the board ticking. If England don't find something soon then that missed run out could prove costly.

Robinson has once again been impressive so far in this Test. He looks like a player will a good Test career ahead of him if he stays fit.

Not a test for either Broad or Curran it seems. Neither one able to get the ball to talk, nor are they getting the lengths right.

India inching into a lead. England can't let it get above 50.

Good session of test cricket once it got going, narrow advantage to India in an absorbing test, undermined by rain and slow over rates.

Quality effort by Jadeja who's kept the score ticking and not allowed England to exert control.

Radar looking clear for the next few hours. Next burst of rain expected around 17:00, which could be the end point of day three.

Root drops a sitter. Another life for Rahul.

Another drop of Rahul in the slips, this time from Root. A very poor shot, and even worse fielding.

England's slip catching continues to be woeful.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:England's slip catching continues to be woeful.

Sky just flashed up a stat showing England have the second-worst slip-catching percentage of test nations since January 2019, only ahead of Bangladesh.

The graphic on Sky backing that up...dropping 1 in 4 in the slips since the start of 2019. Having to take 20 wickets a test is hard enough, let alone 24/25!

Third time lucky for Anderson v Rahul.

Goes past Kumble with that wicket...88 more to level up with Warne.

Duty281 wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:England's slip catching continues to be woeful.

Sky just flashed up a stat showing England have the second-worst slip-catching percentage of test nations since January 2019, only ahead of Bangladesh.

It seems unlikely that the last three England captains in Root, Cook and Strauss have coincidentally been the best first slippers too. Strauss was pretty good iirc, but Cook and Root are bang average at best. A far cry from Trescothick and Freddie at 1 and 2.

Yes, England seem to like seniority for the slip cordon.

Another one for Anderson. Puts it in the right area and Thakur has no answer. Into the three number 11s now. Time to wrap it up swiftly.

It's a few years too late but I did for a time think Daryl Mitchell was worth trying as an opener with his slip fielding being an added bonus, there doesn't seem to be any real consistency in the cordon.

And now Anderson drops Shami off Sam Curran!

Utterly rotten fielding effort all-round. Three dropped catches, about the same number of missed run-out chances (Burns with a recent effort was probably closer to the other set of stumps than the ones he was aiming for), and other various misfields.

In a low-scoring test like this one it could make all the difference in the final reckoning.

Wonder how long play will continue for as it's looking quite dark out there.

guildfordbat wrote:

msp83 wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:

msp83 wrote:Said all that, England are surely in the game. If they rip out a couple of early wickets, then India's last 4 are unlikely to present much of a challenge. Won't be surprised at all if the lead would be in the region of the 30s, for either side.
Hope the weather stays reasonable, though it doesn't look good for tomorrow.

Msp - agreed but there's no doubt that after less than two days' actual play, England are the team playing catch up and would settle for the weather forecast proving right.

Guildford you haven't been paying much attention to India's lower order batting of late! Appalling is an understatement, and there is no way out as they are very good at what they are actually primarily supposed to do!

Msp - I can't claim that India's lower batting order has been the top item in the Bat household over the last year and bow to your knowledge of how appalling it is.

However, as you acknowledged, we are not into it yet.

Msp - watching Shami and Bumrah batting together now, I see what you were getting at about India's late order batting.

That said, India have a lead in excess of 60. They have a lot to thank Rahul and Jadeja for but I did always think 183 was far too shy of par and that one or two India's batters would ensure they achieved a decent lead.

Despite Anderson and Robinson's efforts feels like England are sleep walking to a defeat here. Appalling batting, dropped catches, missed runouts and to top them all a 15 run over from Bumrah when Anderson was inexplicably not given the new ball

Frustrating runs being added here. India in a position of strength, with England probably thinking it would be all over shortly after Jadeja fell...but Bumrah's got to his highest test score!

What was NZ’s lead at Edgbaston? About 80 odd? With England’s batting this could heading a similar way with friendly bowling conditions about…

England going to need to score 300+ in this third dig to set India anything defendable. Very useful runs being added by the swinging Bumrah

I'm going for 6 down by the time we erase the deficit

I'm calling the innings defeat!

I'd never thought I'd see <insert batsmen here> make such a high total, but England have made it possible.

Today it's Bumrah's turn. This is a almost a match-winning lead now. England need 300+ in the second innings (unlikely) or sufficient quantities of rain.

Bumrah's finally out. Deserved five-for for Robinson - though he and Anderson took some time to get going, they've been the pick of the bowlers. Broad and Curran rather blunt by comparison.

India's No. 6 and 7 scored 85 off 105 balls......No. 8 Thakur quite capable of doing the same and he will one day during this series
I hope he doesn't need to bat though in 2nd innings

India carries 3 no. 11s and between them they scored 50 runs...this Indian team doesn't cease giving  unexpected thrills to its fans

Anderson bowled very well and Robinson quite well
but they problem for Eng was that 3rd and 4th seamer Broad and Curran got nothing on such a seam friendly pitch

the other problem being it will be a tight game & Eng will have no choice but to bowl Anderson into the ground in 2nd inning trying to win them the game......
& sad it will be from an English P.O.V if they exhaust him in a Losing cause

Curran is in my tipping picks but to be honest...he ain't a one out of 4 bowlers material.....but rather a 5th bowler...but in an all seam attack you don't need a 5th seamer

Eng up and against it now

KPF, what was that? Our last 3 wickets added 73? Seriously? Thrilling, as you called, is the word! And every run unexpected! So much so that Ravindra Jadeja could now feel, that perhaps he could have trusted the guys a touch more!

When Shardul fell with the lead just in the early 20s, I was just about hoping my earlier prediction of a lead in the region of 30s would at least come through! Jadeja played a brilliant hand yet again. When Ashwin got benched for the game, people were suggesting that perhaps Jadeja could have been instead. But it was never about the 2 of them, the question was Jadeja or Vihari?, and Ashwin or Shardul? Shardul hasn't had a stand out performance with the ball though he got the biggest wicket with the scalp of the England skipper. He couldn't get a run though. Think the Shardul v Ashwin question will be answered based on conditions... But Jadeja, he can play very much as a specialist bat alone at 7, with his other 2 skills making it a fine package. Hope he'll do well with the ball if needed in the 2nd innings, and hopefully won't be needed further with the bat.

Interesting little hand from Jasprit Bumrah with the bat. Getting back to form with the ball may have given him the confidence perhaps. He was trying to survive when batting with Shami, and then swung effectively with Siraj in company. For a thinking cricketer who consistently keeps adding to his skill sets, this would be satisfying, that he was able to make a contribution with the bat and at least for one innings, provide a bit of a fix, to a long-standing issue.

Very poor opening six overs from Bumrah and Siraj, easy enough for England's openers to see off.

Could be an almost three hour long session this evening, unless the rain falls/bad light hits.

Didn't get to see a lot of that but I fear some one on here rather hexed England by declaring the Indian tail was utterly useless

Fielding apparently a bit of a shambles ? Been a bit of that this year. Bowling was better , no ? Robinson has seemingly justified his recall from the sin-bin. And clearly Jimmy is as good as ever. But if they are going to create chances for 13 wickets each innings they're going to get weary...

Tough job to come back from nearly 100 down. Not impossible but you wouldn't be rushing to the betting shop.

How's the forecast ?

Duty281 wrote:I'd never thought I'd see <insert batsmen here> make such a high total, but England have made it possible.

Today it's Bumrah's turn. This is a almost a match-winning lead now. England need 300+ in the second innings (unlikely) or sufficient quantities of rain.

Bumrah's finally out. Deserved five-for for Robinson - though he and Anderson took some time to get going, they've been the pick of the bowlers. Broad and Curran rather blunt by comparison.

I thought the Surrey boys had copyright on that one in the Domestic thread.

alfie wrote:How's the forecast ?

Might have some rain in the next hour. Tomorrow isn't filled with promise of a dry day.

Ah, there's the rain. The England openers have started with a solid and watchful platform, albeit India haven't done a lot with the ball so far, but I think they'll be happy to be going off in these murky conditions.

Could be the end of the day with further rain possible and the inevitable light issues.

Ha . Wetness returns. Good excuse to retire for the night...

That could probably be it for the day. India not quite on their A game with the ball, and already a decent start for the English openers. No early soft wickets and no Joe Root early. That means the Indian bowlers will have to work that extra hard...
But overall, India will take the day they've had. Form 112-4 behind by 71, they'll happily take the 95 run lead. KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and the bowlers with the bat, doing a fine job.
Hope will get substantial play in the rest of the match, and India can drive home the advantage.