England in strong position. Cook continues to be thorn in Indias flesh.
England spinners looked better than Indian spinners.
Dar the umpire has been crap. Cook was plumb lbw, not given by him. Also Zaheer was not out when he gave him out. India has to blame themselves once again for not adopting DRS.
Well done Cook and Pietersen. This is why the man frustrates me (and much of the English cricketing fraternity) so much. He can play spin, he can play within himself, he can play patiently but I never feel I can totally trust him.
Even today his strike rate suggest a little more eagerness than was needed and with that comes increased risk.
I don’t know, I still wouldn’t have picked him but when he plays like this I find myself softening to him again. I am only human after all and when he shines he shines very brightly indeed. Probably why his (all too frequent and unnecessary) failures hurt so much.
Fascinating day in prospect tomorrow.
Wow. Exactly what I was worrying about happened, that India would effectively be into the tail as soon as a wicket fell, given that both Bairstow and Patel are unproven in these conditions. But it didn’t matter, due to Pietersen’s 186, and Panesar’s second five wicket haul of the match.
I just hope India’s last three wickets don’t eke out another 70 or so runs. I’m sure we all remember Abu Dhabi.
England’s game from here on in. Dhoni’s demands for a turning pitch have come back to bite him right properly.
Well, what a turn-up. Monty and Swanny take the last three and then Cook and Compton knock off the runs before lunch. That’s the series evened up!
Brilliant win for England. A win by 10 wickets? on the morning of the 4th day? after losing the toss? In India? On a turning pitch? After being so dreadful in the first test?
All square in the series now and If India have no other pitch options for the last two venues then they will be concerned to say the least.
Will India continue to pick Tendulkar? He’s been plain terrible recently and it’s sad to see him bow out like this.
Good match. Good series.
Funnily enough, I don’t much feel like expending 800+ words after this test match. They did what I asked for - more thoughtful selection and better application with the bat. I’m still not wholly convinced by some of our bats (Trott looks in awful nick, Bairstow and Patel in the lower middle order looks weak out in India too) but they are starting to come together a bit.
It does rather raise the question though - WTF was that selection in the first test? Monty should have been in the team from the off. Utter brain fade from management. Also, KP’s knock was great and set up the match winning position - but Monty should have been given Man of the Match, if only to remind the selection committee that they are capable of lunacy.
On the DRS system from above: I understand that the system is not perfect and full testing has not been done. Obviously there is a but coming, so here it is. But, the system is the same as for tennis where the stated margin of error is around 3-4mm. Given that over half the ball has to be hitting the stumps when the fielding side has an appeal turned down, I, personally, feel like it’s probably accurate enough to do its job - which is not to get every decision absolutely A1 correct. It’s to remove the howler of the decision from the game. I also have a feeling that any testing of the equipment would result in the BCCI shifting the goalposts once it has been done. Whatever level of accuracy is provided will simply not be enough because they don’t want the system in the game.
I don’t understand, if the Hawkeye is not agreed upon, why some other elements of review can’t be used either. It seems an all or nothing proposition, which I find odd. Aleem Dar missed Ojha basically middling one onto his pad and up to Trott in the 2nd innings today. It didn’t matter but surely some middle ground can be reached to prevent stuff like this happening?
Great show by England, in particular Swann, Monty, Cook and KP. Hope it wakes India up.
Few things to respond to what you’re saying on DRS.
a) I don’t think Tennis and Football tests for margins of error of technology are directly applicable. That is a far simpler case - it merely involves ball tracking. Cricket, and the LBW in particular, is a far more subtle beast. What should be directly applicable though, is that the managing organisation for Football has commissioned
b) I appreciate that you feel the system is probably accurate enough to do the job. In all honesty, I also think Hawkeye is probably accurate. On the other hand, I’m reasonably certain that Hotspot is poppycock. I’ve seen it mess up a number of times. But my point is, we have no real facts to base our opinions on. We see it on TV, which is what the system was designed for, and we sometimes think it works. But that’s what it was designed for. To give couch warriors like us a pretty animated graphic, not as a decision support system.
It is not at all an unreasonable position to take -that before the technology is codified into the rules of the game, it should be tested and verified by an independent agency. Mind you, I’m not saying that’s necessarily the BCCI’s position.
c) I completely agree with you that DRS shouldn’t be an all or nothing proposition, and if you’ll see what I wrote earlier, I support a partial DRS using video playback to eliminate the worst of the howlers - inside edges and the like. And as soon as independent verification of the margins of error in the technology is carried out, I support their inclusion as well.
TL;DR - As of now the BCCI’s position is not necessarily unreasonable. Instead of beating on them for being a stick in the mud(which they are being), there should be more pressure on ICC to do what is right and proper, and what they should do regardless of BCCI’s opposition or support - establish standards and independently verify that the technology meets those standards (or vice versa). After that, if the BCCI shifts goalposts, they won’t have a leg to stand on.
Congrats England fans! You guys may make a trip to India at this point as your team has a good chance to win the series and weather is also good these days.
Pietersen, Cook, Panesar and Swan were brilliant. BCCI should get something added in Cook’s food so that so cant play in next test because the bowlers cant get him out.
Dar has taken his revenge from India for argument with Dhoni in 1st test. Thankfully he wont he umpiring in last 2 matches.
Feel sad for Sachin if he has to retire on a low. So hoping that he makes some big score and helps India do well…
Perhaps Cumbrian, but I bet you had a fair proportion of them drafted in readiness! (I know I did)
So selection is now the key. Monty is back where he belongs after a great performance and rightly so however, lets not forget Swann. He did far more than just support Monty. His match figures were 8-113 at just over 2 an over, a brilliant display. Monty was 11-210 at just over 3 an over. Those aren’t surprising as we know how good a stifling bowler Swann is, and Monty does tend to be more expensive. The big picture to me suggests that Swann shouldn’t be forgotten, especially as he got Pujara out both innings.
Still, who can blame us if we give Monty all the plaudits. He’ll be forever a favourite of mine after his stand with Jimmy Anderson during the 1st test in 2009. I was on holiday in France and couldn’t get a decent enough network signal for anything other than intermittent updates on my mobile phone.
That was a very long 40 minutes.
So, Broad out, Finn in?
Congratulations lisiate, NZ beat Sri Lanka to draw the 2 test match series 1-all. Again the fast bowlers were very effective. Williamson and Taylor scored centuries.
Another good day for England. India scratched along to 273-7 on a pretty benign looking pitch.
I’m wondering if India have veered away from a real turner of a pitch and run headlong into Jimmy Anderson instead. I don’t know though as I didn’t catch too much this morning and don’t know if he was getting much movement.
It’ll be a bit of a nightmare for India f they’ve managed to choose a pitch that will take spin and pace!
(though regardless, we still actually have to bat for it to mean anything and that’s no guarantee)
Still, good day for England and a fairly fresh ball for tomorrow.
From what I saw of the evening session before I went to work this morning, there wasn’t necessarily loads in the pitch pace wise (maybe a touch of seam movement) but England had got it to reverse in the air, which caused a few issues.
On balance it was a good day for us but we need to get the last 3 wickets quickly tomorrow morning. Allowing India to eke out another 50-60 runs could make things a lot more tricky. I am fully behind the selection but we’re not batting as deeply as in the recent past, so keeping the opposition targets manageable will be key.
Fantastic result in the last test, and another fine day for us. Despite my expectations, this is shaping up to be a competitive and interesting series. India are in a real quandary, as right now we have the superior spin attack.
Btw, after his match-winning century Pietersen had the grace to thank the England management and his team mates for getting things sorted out.
That’s my concern as well, if Cook and Pietersen fail, who is going to put the runs on the board? Compton has been useful, without yet making a significant score.
saw the dismissals, batsmen got out on good balls except Fatwag. I hope Indian bowlers are also able to bowl wicket-taking deliveries. Kohli doesnt seem to know how to score runs in test matches. Disappointing from a prolific run-getter in ODIs. Good to see Sachin get some runs, he batted well and looked tight.
Well, England had a good day. Tomorrow is crucial. If England bat all day on Day 3, you’d think they’d be in a position to build a big enough score that they can force a result on Day 5. Didn’t look to be a load in the pitch today - batting has looked relatively straightforward - so having use of it on Days 4 and 5 when it might start breaking up has to be uppermost in England’s minds. KP might be decisive. If he comes in, stays in for a bit and does what he did in Test 2, then India are going to be in mighty big trouble.
Cook looks awesome. Just in blinding nick at the moment. Compton on the other hand, well, I’m glad he’s playing for us, let’s put it like that. If he played for the opposition, I would be bored to death by him.
Compton’s doing OK, it’s only his second match. I seem to remember Graham Gooch having a pretty shitty start to his career and turned out OK.