How many til we declare?

Strauss is a very good cptain, of that there is no doubt.
However somethimes he can be a little conservative, therefore what would be a decent score for him to declare at today?

I'm not Bopara's biggest fan, but it would be a little unfair on him if he didnt actually get to bat once!

Little point in delcaring so long as the runs are coming. There is rather an arrogant assumption that Englands batting will continue in the vein of yesterday of course.
There certainly wont be a decleration till after lunch, there would be no point.

You call it conservatism, othe rpeople call it agressive intent. Pile on the runs, tire out the opposition, break their will and back your bowlers to do the job again. If you dont beleive the England bowlers can bowl India out across 2 days plus then really why turn up as a captain. By declaring early you are releasing the pressure on India, they dont want to be out their fielding and the longer it goes on the more crushed they will be.

plenty of game time left. no point declaring in a hurry may aswell get som more runs on the board.

ideally i think you'd bat until tea. Thats about another 240 runs assuming we can score at 4 an over. That gives us a lead of 470 and seven sessions left in the game to bowl india out/chase down a small total.

As fans we can speculate, however i hope the team are just focusing on short term goals, get through the first half our this morning etc. Sport has a habit of biting you in the bum when you start making assumptions.

I would bat all day today, post around 700,800 and have 2 days to bowl India out. Day 4 and 5 will be a spinner friendly surface so certainly bat all day.

Vaughan has just suggested 20 overs at the Indians before the close.

Sounds about right to me, if we go well. I reckon the afternoon session could be explosive!

Mind you, apparently it's muggy up there this morning, so it might be hooping round corners...

bat the day get lead of 450 plus

Cowshot wrote:Vaughan has just suggested 20 overs at the Indians before the close.

Sounds about right to me, if we go well. I reckon the afternoon session could be explosive!

Mind you, apparently it's muggy up there this morning, so it might be hooping round corners...

Would agree 15/20 overs at the Indians end of today, would hopefully have a lead of 450 ish, can't see the Indians making 350 let alone 450.

Think it will depend on whose on what though, this is a stage where you can let someone get a milestone if they are near, say Cook is on 270 (hyperthetically) you would let him try and get 300 same with Morgan IF he gets to 175 ish.

They don't seem to be pressing on as much as I thought. Still "only" a 350 lead. Who is to say the Indians couldn't score 500 and then give us a scare (maybe unlikely but not impossible)

The first priority is to make sure the match is safe. If they have to bat through till close tonight (assuming they can) to make the match safe then so be it

well a lead of 454 i dont expect them to bat too much longer, maybe a message to Cook saying speed up a bit for your 300 then were declaring