India v England, Second Test, Wankhede Stadium Mumbai

First topic message reminder :

So the 2nd test of the 4 match series between India and England is getting underway at Mumbai's Wankhede stadium from tomorrow. The hosts are leading the series after their win in the first test at Ahmedabad.
The track is expected to have assistance for spinners, but the possible bounce from the track and proximity to the sea might offer something for the seamers as well. The pitch was previously used in a Ranji match where Sachin Tendulkar and Ajinkya Rahane had scored hundreds.
The weather is expected to stay good.
Both sides have injury concerns going into the match. Fast bowler Umesh Yadav is unlikely to be risked as he's not fully recovered from the back problems that necessitated calling up Ashok Dinda as cover for the 2nd match in a row. However Dinda, who had covered for Ishant Sharma is unlikely to make it to the playing side, Ishant should be the prefered option. This will be Virender Sehwag's hundredth test. India probable side.
Virender Sehwag
Gautam Gambhir
Cheteshwar Pujara
Sachin Tendulkar
Virat Kohli
Yuvraj Singh
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Ravichandran Ashwin
Zaheer Khan
Ishant Sharma
Pragyan Ojha.
As for England Ian Bell is unavailable for selection as he's on paternity leave. Stuart Broad has some fitness concerns. Tim Bresnan had a shocker of a match last time round, continuing a prolonged form slump. Steven Finn continues to be unfit. Cricinfo seems to think that Eoin Morgan, and Jonny Bairstow is likely to make it to the side in place of Bell.
England probable
Alastair Cook
Nick Compton
Jonathan Trott
Kevin Pietersen
Eoin Morgan/Jonny Bairstow
Samit Patel
Matt Prior
Stuart Broad?
Graeme Swann
James Anderson
Monty Panesar.
In 2006 England won at Mumbai on the back of an all-round performance from captain Andrew Flintoff and good bowling performances from James Anderson and Shaun Udal. The last test at the venue produced a very exciting match that finished as a draw with the scores leveled.

thing is i just come back from new york-- but for some odd reson my lag has gone the other way!!!

new ball available

Excellent first hour for England. Not only are kp and cook still in, but the scoring rate has been excellent this morning. It seems that India are very downbeat in the field. They weren't expecting this type of performance from England.

yeah it really does look like england are at home v some really b type bowling- but then when cook and kp are in there are as good as any! so its tough to tell how easy or hard it is out there!!

great to see england playing with composure

Brilliant first hour for England, 78/0 already in just 16 overs. Well done to both Cook and KP for getting their 22nd Test Hundreds. That 249 I kept speaking about? It's down to 171 now!

morning duty!!

249 pfft-

249 lead will be nicer

The new ball may help the spinners more , odd though that seems ; but these two are well set. If they can carry this on for another hour or so it will give the less experienced players still to come a decent chance of making runs themselves.

Not getting carried away yet...one wicket could still bring a clatter.

yeah alfie it would be nice to now that our long tail could actually perform the way seemingly bad tails perform..

broad, swann etc should be good for a few runs potential wise!!

Well I was actually thinking of Bairstow and Patel , roakey...would hope Broad and Swann would be able to relax and whack a few by the time they get in.

These pitches are not easy for tailenders though , even fairly good ones. A good eye and some confidence can take you a long way on many English, Australian etc pitches , but these really test the technique.

well I have high hopes for barstow!

and as i type !!!time to see him

great stuff cook!!

Just woke up to see Cook out....but WOW

Get the knighthood ready

Aargh...Cook gone.

That came rather out of the blue. Top innings

But now the tension comes back...big 35 minutes to follow.

Seems odd that they are still behind in the game, and somehow you dont even feel secure they ll get a solid lead. I just dont trust England anymoe...especially looking at this middle order

England need to bat sensibly for a few minutes now, to calm the indians down again. Would have almost prefered kp to get out, just coz i think cook is more likely to bat according to the situation.

And now the new ball is taken...hmm. Slightly surprised. Would have expected a couple of overs at Bairstow with the old soft one to start , but we shall see...

Funny thing is , I was definitely a Bairstow man , but now that Cook has gone , in this situation , part of me wouldn't have minded seeing Morgan to keep the left/right thing going...silly really. Will be a test for Bairstow , but that is what he's here for.

i Dunno living...its nice to have a player in who can keep the runs coming whilst the others flounder a fish around for the ball

Hes milking gently, not being silly

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Seems odd that they are still behind in the game, and somehow you dont even feel secure they ll get a solid lead. I just dont trust England anymoe...especially looking at this middle order

well mr pessimit!! i certainly feel confident

looks lik aus will wrap this up soon! 51/4

You are right psw he does seem to be batting quite nicely. It's true that it is good to keep the scoreboard ticking over, I was just thinking that kp is always likely to give the opposition a chance with an attacking shot and the last thing we want is to help them take wickets in clusters. But so far so good from kp after the wicket.

prior is allways someone to trust down the order- so is swan for a quick 25- i reakon worst case scenario england get a lead of 70.. hoping for a 200 lead mind

sadly i think its been reaffimed that england need kp- how else could we get a session where we score 4.5 an over on the 3rd day of a test match!

he is the difference between winning and losing!!

not disputing that cook isnt just as important- we would have nothing without him either- but take one away and where are england!!

we need to get our other batsmen working in the medium term

trott is decent enough but he cant push the rate up!!

I think if it was most other teams in this situation we would be expecting them to get a sizeable lead of 100+. The problem is that we have seen England collapse so many times we are always expecting the worst.

Bairstow out ...a lead of 50 is most likley

effectively 5 down with patel in next

oh jeas

mystiroakey wrote:prior is allways someone to trust down the order- so is swan for a quick 25- i reakon worst case scenario england get a lead of 70.. hoping for a 200 lead mind

Getting a bit ambitious there roakey Another 230 ? Suppose if KP were to get 250 ...

Bairstow gone on the stroke of lunch

Still England 's session , but that wicket keeps the match more or less even, with England batting last.

Another important session to come.

50 plus isnt a good enough lead- we need min 100 to stay ahead in this match

mystiroakey wrote:looks lik aus will wrap this up soon! 51/4

19 runs in 19 overs since Amla was dismissed one and a half hours ago. Painful for SA.

120/2 in that session at 4 an over. For me, that's a good session for England but losing Cook (good ball) and Bairstow (poor shot) will hurt. 298/4, 129 more runs will give us that 100 lead, KP needs to continue what he's doing and Patel needs to prove why he's in the team.

duty i think your spot on your predo-

I think we will get more than a 50 run lead. That is only another 80 runs and we still have kp, patel, prior, broad, swann plus the last two. I expect we will have at least one more 50 run partnership, but I guess the size of the lead all depends on how long kp stays in now.

It's actually quite good for england to see that there is still turn and bounce in this pitch when the ball is in the right place. I have England slightly ahead at this stage, but two wickets would swing it back in India's favour.

Only thing I'm worried about is will a 100 lead be enough? India need only make 250 and England have a tricky chase of 150 batting last in the subcontinent.

Linebreaker wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:looks lik aus will wrap this up soon! 51/4

19 runs in 19 overs since Amla was dismissed one and a half hours ago. Painful for SA.

ouch!! thats some bolwing mind

I think our spin bowlers are actually better than theirs, so if they can get 250 in the third innings I think we can get 150. The problems will start to mount if the 4th innings target starts growing above 180.

well cook is in such form that i think we could be ahead chasing 150

Reckon the mental side of it will be key. A smallish lead may see India bat fairly freely , and set a nasty target.
On the other hand , if England can bat really well and get 120 ahead , a couple of early wickets might see India unravel under pressure.

I am not game to predict. Except that it should be fascinating to watch.

I suppose the lead is some what immaterial- its all about getting at least 4 of there players out before they get to our total!!

Bairstow wicket was a mistake....Indians decideing if they are going to recall him a la Bell

No dishnour in sticking by the decision, poor umpiring but thats the breaks

Its great to see KP back playing so well. I was kind of hoping for similar first innings scores but if this keeps going, England could get a tasty lead

I disagree actually I think if as it appears Doni was given the opportunity to recall Bairstow but declined then it is very poor sportsmanship.

KP 150, what a way to bring it up as well

patel is doing ok so far- KP looks almost superhuman!!

the lead and still only four down (should be three).

Lead....wow!

Patels riding his luck imo...6 was a horrible shot

that was a lovely shot by Patel!

i think he looks good PSW

Yeah, i also think that Patel looks ok.

look at kp-- being the daddy out there..

They are asking the question- Who does KP remind you of..

Pfft.

There is only One KP!!!

In the other game- SA seem to be protecting the wickets- Is a draw on the cards!

can they get out of jail!?

great shot kp

LivinginItaly wrote:I think we will get more than a 50 run lead. That is only another 80 runs and we still have kp, patel, prior, broad, swann plus the last two. I expect we will have at least one more 50 run partnership, but I guess the size of the lead all depends on how long kp stays in now.

It's actually quite good for england to see that there is still turn and bounce in this pitch when the ball is in the right place. I have England slightly ahead at this stage, but two wickets would swing it back in India's favour.

Well there is the 50 run partnership I predicted.