England v India First Test Trent Bridge

First topic message reminder :

The 5 test series cramped into a 42 day schedule gets underway at Trent Bridge tomorrow. The 2 middling sides have a lot to prove. Hopefully we'll get to have some exciting cricket.

Yeah, not really much in it for the bowlers. Counties are more concerned with getting 5 days in for the amount of money spent getting the test.

pathetic pitch. why England don't use home advantage when playing at home and prepare pitches their players would like (rather than pitches which could be tailor-made for the opposition, as they have been this year), is a mystery beyond my comprehension.

A half-century for Murali Vijay.

India would be happy with a draw also to start the series.

though shami will get a lot of reverse on this pitch

Issue is its far too expensive to bid for a test. We get these bland roads to try and stretch the game out to maximise revenue instead of entertainment.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:pathetic pitch. why England don't use home advantage when playing at home and prepare pitches their players would like (rather than pitches which could be tailor-made for the opposition, as they have been this year), is a mystery beyond my comprehension.

I reckon people often overrate the ability of groundsmen to produce pitches to order. Weather/climate/drainage etc have a big say. English pitches have been trending this way for a while . Though I expected a bit more life in Nottingham...

TB isn't usually a minefield tbf, it does more damage through the air. On a beautiful day like this, thats minimised.

alfie wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:pathetic pitch. why England don't use home advantage when playing at home and prepare pitches their players would like (rather than pitches which could be tailor-made for the opposition, as they have been this year), is a mystery beyond my comprehension.

I reckon people often overrate the ability of groundsmen to produce pitches to order.  Weather/climate/drainage etc have a big say.  English pitches have been trending this way for a while .  Though I expected a bit more life in Nottingham...

I agree to a point, but you can do a bit more about it, leave more grass on, etc.

Good point about the drainage, Broad raised the same point the other day, said that basically because all the Test grounds had great drainage systems to have as much play as possible they were becoming flatter.

pitch not helpful admitted...but Cook fallen very very quickly to plug the runs approach.....field spread out and bowlers instructed to bowl wide or short and not let the batsmen get runs.


but how's he gonna get wickets ??

good session for India, they'll be hoping to bat long and use the pressure of the scoreboard. Nothing in the pitch, think Cook has done OK really, he started off attacking but switched to the straighter fields when he realised nothing was happening.

30 overs bowled, which is good, and Prior has kept very nicely so far, but no other positives for England.

Yes I don't think Cook could do much else : arguably he might have deployed a third man early on instead of one of the front of the wicket fieldsmen , which would have saved a few runs.
Given the lack of life in the pitch , strangling the scoring to hopefully induce an error seems a sound approach...just hope he is ready to attack again when a break is made...

Dhawan will be cursing his luck.

alfie wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:pathetic pitch. why England don't use home advantage when playing at home and prepare pitches their players would like (rather than pitches which could be tailor-made for the opposition, as they have been this year), is a mystery beyond my comprehension.

I reckon people often overrate the ability of groundsmen to produce pitches to order.  Weather/climate/drainage etc have a big say.  English pitches have been trending this way for a while .  Though I expected a bit more life in Nottingham...

You are right alfie. Only three test match played here in the last four years, and each time first session belonged to the bowling team. Well weather is playing a big role here. I hope to see some swing as the game moves to further days.

India will be looking to cross 300 today.

when the pitches are not doctored Eng attack is pretty docile.

when the pitches are fast and bouncy.....Eng batting appears fragile.

that said Indian team is no different...same frailities as Eng

Anderson magic straight after lunch ! Fantastic catch Ian Bell   

...and softly : does Cook get any credit for the field placing ?

India have got their 1 for the session out the way early. Time for Vijay to accumulate to his 100

ball is reversing and its a differnt ball game
Kohli will also get better in concentration as series progresses
someone else needs to stand up now

One more wicket and Eng are into India's tail

Broad in on the act ! Bell again...bit easier   

Kohli for one is just what they wanted .

Anderson now bowling hand grenades ...put another slip in , yes...

Claps all round the field after Jimmy completed the over. I must say that was a great observation from Cook. Pujara was placing in that area. Slower from Jimmy and thanks to Ian bell for this awesome catch. Well done Cook-Jimmy-Bell.

OOPS..Whats going on??? Kohli gone.. But a nice come back from England

What happened in those 30 minutes of Lunch. Trent Bridge revived its character.

subhranshu.kumar.5 wrote:What happened in those 30 minutes of Lunch. Trent Bridge revived its character.

Well up to a point ...reversing now ; and an interval combined with some clever bowling has brought a break , followed by one man nipped out early...

But it is still a good pitch for batting. Just the pressure has come back on the batsmen.

alfie wrote:

subhranshu.kumar.5 wrote:What happened in those 30 minutes of Lunch. Trent Bridge revived its character.

Well up to a point ...reversing now ; and an interval combined with some clever bowling has brought a break , followed by one man nipped out early...

But it is still a good pitch for batting.  Just the pressure has come back on the batsmen.

Yup Pujara's wicket was a moment of sensible and and thoughtful cricket. I must say, it was a good observation from cook, well implemented by Jimmy with his slower.

this is the type of pitch on whihc they won the ashes in Eng......Eng are missing Swann at the other end when Broad and anderson are reversing on the other side

A nice burst but Vijay will take the game away in this session.

KP_fan wrote:this is the type of pitch on whihc they won the ashes in Eng......Eng are missing Swann at the other end when Broad and anderson are reversing on the other side

Very true , KP f ...unfortunately Swanns don't grow on trees...can't see Ali doing that job ; or anyone else England might name at the moment.

India haven't scored much in the 40 minutes after lunch. Coupled with the 2 massive wickets, they are right on the backfoot in the game, after dominating the first session very well.
Not sure not scoring much and getting stuck is the right approach here.
One more wicket, England are into the lower order.......

msp83 wrote:India haven't scored much in the 40 minutes after lunch. Coupled with the 2 massive wickets, they are right on the backfoot in the game, after dominating the first session very well.
Not sure not scoring much and getting stuck is the right approach here.
One more wicket, England are into the lower order.......

yeah we want 5 bowlers...and then we are concerned at the lower order being exposed so fast.
but don't worry....dhoni and jadeja and Binny will all give 30s and 40s one of these two playing have to play a big one.

Inspite of press and commentators talking about slow pitch etc..........350 would be an OK score to hang in the game

KP_fan wrote:

msp83 wrote:India haven't scored much in the 40 minutes after lunch. Coupled with the 2 massive wickets, they are right on the backfoot in the game, after dominating the first session very well.
Not sure not scoring much and getting stuck is the right approach here.
One more wicket, England are into the lower order.......

yeah we want 5 bowlers...and then we are concerned at the lower order being exposed so fast.
but don't worry....dhoni and jadeja and Binny will all give 30s and 40s one of these two playing have to play a big one.

Inspite of press and commentators talking about slow pitch etc..........350 would be an OK score to hang in the game

By selecting Binny as the 5th bowler, we ended up having not a 5th bowler and not a top 6 batsman. Rohit Sharma anyways wouldn't have made much of a difference in the batting department, so the idea of going in with the all-rounder is a good one. But The selection is the problem.
A dry pitch should give Ravindra Jadeja something to work with, and Shami could be very handy with his reverse swing.

16 runs in 14 overs and 2 more wickets down, India are going nowhere after lunch. Well and truly stuck. And I have a feeling this is going to play into England's hands, they really need to change the approach pretty soon.

Binny is not a 5th bowler....but rather the 6th batsman who can bowl a bit.

350 would be a good working total...ishant, shami and jadeja will be the key bowlers and the other two will simply distribute the work load

on a pitch like this....dry and gripping Cook has given ali only two overs so far.......that indicates a problem in Eng composition

James Anderson has bowled 13 and Stuart Broad 12 in the 44 overs so far. Cook should be careful not to overbowl them to the ground.

18-2 in the first hour after lunch. Certainly England's hour.......

India has a better attack for these conditions

msp83 wrote:James Anderson has bowled 13 and Stuart Broad 12 in the 44 overs so far. Cook should be careful not to overbowl them to the ground.

Agreed. Sort of had to bowl Jimmy for a good spell then , after the breakthrough , as he is the main threat. But he'd better rest a while now , so Stokes and Plunkett will get a good workout...and Ali as well shortly , I think.

Bit of a war of attrition right now...not much scoring : England hoping for a bit of impatience from a batsman to yield a wicket...

Problem is England won't really want to bowl Ali on a flat day 1 pitch against batsmen well practiced vs spin.

GSC wrote:Problem is England won't really want to bowl Ali on a flat day 1 pitch against batsmen well practiced vs spin.

problem is Eng has included a spinner and only spinner that their captain does not have confidence in

And that is due to a greater problem that theres a lack of quality spin option right now. Might as well pick a part timer that can hold his own as a batsmen than pick an inferior spinner.

GSC wrote:And that is due to a greater problem that theres a lack of quality spin option right now. Might as well pick a part timer that can hold his own as a batsmen than pick an inferior spinner.

yes that makes sense

watching stokes.....i see he doesn't plan his bowling...just runs in puts it where he impulsively feels like during the run up

Plunkett......does some limited planning.....has a plan-A and that's all that he does

Braod is clever and can think and vary but is not always on top of his fitness

and anderson is a master...plans, schemes reads the batsmen, the game the pitch.....top class operator

India getting back in control again ....Vijay has played very well   

india's soft underbelly is in dhoni, jadeja and rahane who arre all capable of 30s and 40s but if exposed to the new ball they might struggle to get to double figures.

so if these two do not see off the new ball...India could still be rolled over for a sub-300 score

So India go to tea at 177-3. Vijay on 92, Rahane on 32. The 2 of them have put together an unbeaten 70 run partnership, but the 2 early wickets and only 73 runs in the session means that England can claim honors.
So that's one session each for both sides.......

anotehr even session India pulled it back their way after Eng had the first hour after lunch owned by them

good for Dhoni he has 20 overs of old ball.....now that rahane is gone....he should get 45 odd in 60 balls or so

These session breaks not going well for India really.
Will be interesting to see how Dhoni goes about. He had said that he would go for his shots in England as he doesn't have a good enough defensive game to thrive in these conditions.

Vijay showed what he could do overseas when he scored that 97 in T2 in SA
and he converts today
and when he has gotten hundreds...they have been big ones and all against Aus if I recall right

I am right...when he gets 100 he makes them count

167 473 361 23 2 46.26 1 caught 2 v Australia Hyderabad (Deccan) 2 Mar 2013 Test # 2076
153 412 317 19 3 48.26 1 lbw 2 v Australia Mohali 14 Mar 2013 Test # 2081
139 433 310 14 2 44.83 1 caught 2 v Australia Bangalore 9 Oct 2010 Test # 1973
100* - 214 18 0 46.72 1 not out 1 v England Nottingham 9 Jul 2014 Test # 2128