Prior is out. Says he’s stepping down for fitness reasons and hopes to be back. But he does acknowledge that he may have played his last game for England.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jul/21/matt-prior-break-england-fitness
Someone at work today mentioned that England haven’t won a Test since they pissed on the pitch at the Oval while celebrating winning the Ashes in 2013.
Karma?
Maybe not but a pretty funny observation.
The Cricket fates work in mysterious ways.
I was going to say that yesterday was finally a day where England fans could be unequivocally happy, but of course that’s not quite true as Cook just failed to reach 100. Still, it’s much better to be 247/2 with Cook out for 95 than 167/6 with Cook on 105no. And you’ll never get 100% agreement from cricket fans anyway - even if Cook made a chanceless 220no, no doubt someone would say that his style wasn’t to their liking, or he scored too slowly :).
No doubt Cook will be disappointed to get out at that time (indeed he said as much, while acknowleding that if someone had offered him 95 before the game he would have “snapped their hand off”), especially to such a poor ball, but a great day for England anyway. Now, if we can avoid most of the middle order getitng out to silly shots (it could happen, hope springs eternal…), it should be an imposing total. On the other hand, will we be able to get India out? Taking 20 wickets without a spinner looks a tall order.
Ashwin must still be wondering what he has done to upset the Indian selectors. The loss of Sharma is a big blow to them but perhaps replacing him with another batsman was the right call on this wicket. We will see.
England have put this match firmly in win/draw territory. Ballance’s wicket was a howler, but their position is so strong I doubt even that will upset them too much.
Ian Bell gets to 150. It’s great to see him back in form and scoring.
I suspect they’ll keep going today, bit more tomorrow and then get India in with the score over 550, mayb 600 if they get on with it more. Look to bat once.
I guess they scored faster than you anticipated? Can the Indians bat for three days?
Unknown, though I’d say they have the potential. They have gone with the extra batsman in Rohit Sharma. Pujara and Vijay I think definitely have the ability to bat for long periods. Kohli probably can. Rahane had a great innings at Lords. The tail has been making runs. At this stage I’d say draw. Hopefully it will be an interesting one.
Not a bad morning for England so far, 104/3 just before lunch. Can they get a big first-innings lead? If we were to get India all out for 400 by, say, tea time tomorrow, it would be an interesting decision as to whether to enforce the follow-on or not. You’d have to think they would, as it would mean we could be more agressive chasing the second set of 10 wickets. Still, it’s all very hypothetical at this stage.
It’s a 200-run margin for a follow on in Tests so the target is 369.
I doubt they’d enforce it though. Modern theory and practice is to bat again if for no other reason than to give your bowlers a rest. Woakes and Jordan are fresh but Anderson and Broad wouldn’t thank Cook too profusely for making them start again after five sessions of graft. Either way, if India make it to tea tomorrow from here, a draw is pretty much certain.
2 wickets this morning isn’t bad, especially as they were Pujara and Vijay. Apparently a good appeal against Rajane was denied as well. If England want to win they need to be looking at getting the rest of the wickets by the first hour of tomorrow’s play at the latest, bat for a couple of sessions to let the bowlers rest and the pitch deteriorate, then put India in for a tricky hour in the evening and the rest of the fifth day. A full-time spinner would help enormously though.
Getting the rest of the wickets today should be the target though, and it doesn’t look impossible from here.
Much faster. Lovely cameo from Buttler, and Bell was also getting on with it, to give the English some time at the Indian batsmen yesterday evening. And they even got a wicket.
India are 6 down as I type this, still trailing by 331. This new ball will be crucial, I think, if India can get past it then they stand a good chance of getting over 400 and forcing a draw. If England can get a wicket or two here, they will start to sniff a victory.
Oh yes, forgot about the 200 margin. Good analysis all the way through - England will be pleased to get 7 wickets today (so India are 8 down overnight), let’s hope the rest of it plays out as you have predicted. Draw still looks likely to me, if getting the first 8 Indian wickets was tough then the remaining 12 will be even harder.
I’d say England are favoured to win at this stage. If they can wrap up this innings quickly tomorrow, they’ll almost certainly win. India’s only hope is a tail end partnership that lets them get somewhat closer. If they can somehow put on another 100 runs and get the lead down to below 150, they’ll be in with a good chance to draw.
I caught 10 mins of TMS in the car,and it’s only fair to say that Michael Vaughan, who knows perhaps a little more than me, was in favour of the follow on. His thinking was that the pitch wasn’t good enough to rely on getting 10 wickets and England would need all the time available to them. Asked about the bowlers, his attitude was that if they want to win, they’ll cope.
I’m no expert, but it seems to me that a lot of those in favour of enforcing the follow on were not taking into account the potential difficulty of batting on a fifth day pitch, especially if (say) 150 were needed. In my view, Cook has sensibly given that task to India. He has now declared 445 ahead, with himself unbeaten on 70. He must have been tempted to bat on to try to get 100, but would rightly have taken even more flak had he done so - this is a good team decision (and also serves to increase his average compared with getting out :)). My only reservation is that he didn’t declare quite quickly enough to avoid the tea interval being taken now, but that must have been deliberate - perhaps he wanted to be able to give a proper team talk and ensure the bowlers are fired up and raring to go.
India will do well to draw from here but it is by no means impossible, especially as England have no top-class spinner (he says for the umpteenth time).
Yes, a good quick scoring 2nd innings and a good declaration. It feels like it should be enough time, but India can bat quite deep…
…and as I write, Vijay is run out by Broad.
3 down now, with an hour to play tonight and all of tomorrow. Looking very good for an England win now, I think. Any news on a weather forecast for tomorrow?
Ok. Series 1-1 now, and India have again performed the public service of allowing their opponents the opportunity to get up, dust themselves off, and knock em about a little, all in the interests of a more competitive world order I guess. Maybe they don’t like the way the BCCI operates.
Good cricket from England. Nothing special, just professional. Hopefully they will get a well deserved victory on day 5. In front of a crowd of four men and a dog.
And there it is - impressively, all wrapped up before lunch. My reverse mockers on Moeen paid dividends with his six-wicket haul, well played to him, the team, and Cook in particular.