Driving to work today with “The Grandstand Cricket” podcast on (Ed Cowan, Corbin Middlemas) who were also much of the mindset expressed above, I had a thought.
Same match scenario, but 10 overs earlier in the day.
Jadeja and Washington each now have their hundreds, 20 overs to bowl til scheduled stumps. No realistic chance of a result. IND decide to keep batting to put more overs into the ENG bowlers legs with their eye to the short turn around to the 5th Test.
Does that change your thinking?
Not mine … but I’d be a bit more sympathetic to the ENG dissent.
Fifth test very delicately poised. Pitch has eased up considerably and England have the best opening pair in recent times so anything under 400 is gettable.
Jokes aside, anything under 350 would favor England.
Just realized the two chaps at the crease right now batted the whole day for twin centuries in the last match.
A very fun blast from Washington Sundar takes the lead to 373. India favourites - Crawley and Duckett can knock a big chunk of those runs quickly but it’ll need more than one strong partnership to get this done.
India favourites, yes, but it’s not impossible. But we are a batsman down, and Woakes is a decent hitter sometimes. Crawley getting out in the last over hasn’t helped.
The odds changed only slightly at the Crawley wicket. I was surprised, but I guess the smart money doesn’t over-weight a recent good knock and probably had him as worth another 20-25 runs at most.
It was India -200 before that wicket, and went to -225 (so 66.7% to 69.2%).
I can usually see the result of a wicket falling in the odds before Cricinfo even posts the dismissal and definitely before the “live” streaming video shows the dismissal ball.
The commentariat all seem gung ho of ENG chances in the chase and their attitude. That’s genuine and good. Looking forward to how it plays out at the end of a very good series. But it’s Day4. Is anybody seriously consider the Poms or anybody else for that matter could bat out 2 days for a draw?
Unless Siraj can pull a rabbit from the hat, ENG to win about lunch tomorrow.
Do they? I’m not so certain of our chances. It won’t go for a draw, because it England bat for 6 sessions we’ll get the runs, but my own suspicion is an Indian victory just before close tonight.
Reckon you can get through based on Gill’s captaincy.
He’s going to over bowl Siraj.
And if that doesn’t snag the wickets his Plans B & C will leak runs without risk. Then his fielding plans will go haywire. They will burn through their reviews frivolously. Gambir will be sending the 12th man out with a drink and a message every couple of overs countermanding whatever he’s doing. Will end up a near meltdown.
Nice redemption for Siraj at the end. That drop (I guess technically it’s a drop?) of Brook would’ve haunted him. I think both sides probably felt like they should’ve won the series, so the series draw is probably the right result.
My Pakistani friends are in an uproar over the Indian players going over to Woakes at the end. The BBC description made it sound like they were consoling him or commending him on his courage. But my Pakistani friends seem to thing they were sledging or taunting him.
The footage made it clear they were being positive, showing respect for his coming out to bat and commiserating. Unlike other matches, this ended with shows of respect from both sides and no obvious bad blood. E.g. no send off for Atkinson etc
Not totally sure but it looked like they were giving Atkinson the single at the end of the over rather than trying to bowl at Woakes. (Although with a definite plan second time to bowl a wide and go for the run out at the strikers end.)
Yeah, I was watching live and it was clearly not sledging. It was obvious that Atkinson was always going to go for a single on the last ball of every over, but I wonder what would’ve happened if he nicked the ball for a 4. Would Woakes just have lined the bat up in front of the stumps hoping the bowler would not hit the stumps 6 consecutive times?
so anything under 400 is gettable.