England v India 3rd Test, Ageas Bowl

First topic message reminder :

Lets get in the thread early enough.
India 1-0 up and now is the time to keep up the leel of intensity.
For England a few careers might depend on a quick turnaround in fortune here.
The pitch is reported to have some green on it and is expected to be in between the ugly pathetic track for the Trent Bridge and a lively track for the 2nd test at the HQ.
Not many reports on the England xi, but there are indications that Stuart Binny will be out for India, and by reports coming in now, its Rohit Sharma who might come in.

well Rohit Sharma has got one, though it looks like a bit of a rough decision for Ballance, ball just clipping the back leg on the way through to Dhoni. Lovely knock from Ballance though .

Umpire Tucker having a nightmare. 

Triggers Ballance for 156. Maiden Test pole for Rohit. 

Third incorrect decision by Tucker, normally a very fine umpire.

Ballance out to a bit of a shocker.

More in this pitch than India have made it look like IMO. They've been very poor again this morning. Strange.

Somebody will have to explain how you can have Pankaj at mid-off/on to a spinner as well. That's village from Dhoni.

the turn out there does make you wonder if Jadeja was right to bowl quite so negatively yesterday, and also of course whether England should have picked a specialist spinner.

Everybody should use DRS or nobody should.

very good session for England, Bell and Ballance played very nicely indeed, and have put England into a very strong position.

another decision which was OK with the naked eye and an evidence that these marginal decisions even out.
these are digestible within human error limits.
Its inexcusable when DRS messes up these decisions.....

so its been pretty decent old fashioned "neutral umpires" during this series.

Excellent session for England, postive and proactive - not words associated recently.
 
Glad to see Bell back into some form. England really need him to gel that middle order toegther and he really needs to turns his wonderful ability into more big scores on a consistent basis.
 
India, pretty poor. Kumar has basically reduced their attack down by 1 and Jadeja has been attacked which has made Dhoni think again regards tieing down an end.
 
England need to keep going in the same vein. Aim for another 100+ in this session and completely wear out the India fielders. Then maybe bat for another 1 hour or so and have a go at a weary India tonight. India's aim should be to spend as little time in the field as possible - so take wickets.

Another poor decision by an umpire and another arguement for DRS. Not only does DRS get these decisions right more often, the umpires seem to get more right under the scrutiny of the system.

eng will take 2 days out of the game by batting .
and another half day atleast when batting 2nd.
so India needs to bat out 2.5 days with 20 wkts

Yet another poor decision not reversible because India refuse DRS.   

England will either declare an hour before close, or be all out by then, I would think. Excellent knock from the impressive Ballance, and some much needed runs from Bell.

liverbnz wrote:When have we ever taken risks? It's not an English thing to do and we're especially not going to do it in our current vein of form.

The Sri Lanka situation was/is different. The pitch is a spinners paradice on the 5th day and they are more than equipped to make use of it. Plus they are coming off one of the biggest Test results in their history.

England 4 runs an over first session 

SA draw 

 

haha! Touché.

About time Root gets a go when there is no pressure on him. Normally he has to grind it out at 5 and save the teams blushes!

It will be interesting to see if he can play his natural game.

I thought Ballance's was a poor decision and unlucky TBH. He played down the line, even slightly withdrew when he saw the ball spit past him, and missed it by a good couple of inches. Usually when a player gets a poor decision I am tempted to point out that he made an error in playing the ball, so has only himself to blame, but on this occasion I think Ballance played it as best he could.

Anyway, given that the ECB has vastly contributed to the set-up at the ICC which is why DRS can't simply be imposed, I have very very limited sympathy.

England should IMO be looking at 500+ with about an hour to go and delcare tonight IMO. The pitch looks like it may crumble a bit, and I'm not sure that the follow-on will be in England's thoughts.

Tbh I'd just keep going. Grind India into the turf for a change and look to bat once

In that case you want 600, maybe even 650. Probably bat out the rest of today and half an hour or so tomorrow?

Not saying it's wrong. My main issue with that is that with England relying mainly on 4 seamers it is imposing a heavy workload on them again.

I would prefer moving the game along more quickly.

On another topic, I think Dhoni has had a terrible couple of days. Team selection, tactics to Cook (leg slip?), letting the game just drift with Jadeja bowling negatively, no third-man to Bell even now, often deep square-leg out to the seamers as a matter of course... Not a good test so far for the Indian captain.

Come on Joe.. Dont get all bogged down on this.. Or maybe it is getting tougher out there!(which is good signs!)

GSC wrote:Tbh I'd just keep going. Grind India into the turf for a change and look to bat once

No. I agree with Mike. Batting once on this isn't a great option - the bowlers will need a rest between innings , unless they absolutely skittle India (unlikely) so time will be more important than runs after a certain point,
Best chance is surely to score quickly this afternoon, make inroads tonight against tired Indian bats , and let scoreboard pressure work tomorrow. Then bat again (probably won't need to bat too long) and hope to finish the job on a deteriorating pitch last...
Of course if India bat for two days it doesn't really matter what they do . But the Indian bowlers will be tired enough anyway ; no need for England to kill their own bowlers too. Remember the next Test isn't too far away.
Looking at this I wonder if both sides might be thinking a real spinner could have been handy...

Mike Selig wrote:In that case you want 600, maybe even 650. Probably bat out the rest of today and half an hour or so tomorrow?

Not saying it's wrong. My main issue with that is that with England relying mainly on 4 seamers it is imposing a heavy workload on them again.

I would prefer moving the game along more quickly.

On another topic, I think Dhoni has had a terrible couple of days. Team selection, tactics to Cook (leg slip?), letting the game just drift with Jadeja bowling negatively, no third-man to Bell even now, often deep square-leg out to the seamers as a matter of course... Not a good test so far for the Indian captain.

In fairness though 2 of the seamers are relatively fresh. With Englands noted fragility when put under pressure with the bat, I wouldn't leave it to chance. Bat once and put India on the floor physically.

We'll get about 520ish anyway, batting once. We need to take 20 wickets, so get them in tonight.

fair enough- he wasn't scoring quick enough- time to really up the rate.

Root fails for once, tried to get after Kumar but nicks through to Dhoni. India bowling their seamers in one over spells since lunch, looks like they're just sitting back and trying to take time out of the game.

Dhoni shuffling his pack regularly; to no avail at present.

Think India missed the boat yesterday - they didn't have the best of luck at times , but became very negative way too early , IMO. There was something there for the pace bowlers ,especially seen just after lunch , and again this morning ; but Dhoni didn't seem to really want to press (admittedly his bowlers , apart from the rather unlucky new cap , rather let him down.)
Team selection followed by tactics : they surely can't be looking to draw three Tests to preserve a lead ?

Ah now there's a break - Root misses out. Surprised

Never looked at it today Root.

Root looked strangely fidgety out there, and was struggling to get going. Took a risk for the team and a nice piece of bowling from Kumar had him feeling for it a nicking off.

India have done pretty well since lunch, dried up the runs and now picked up a wicket.

Important now for Bell to kick on and make sure England do at least make that 500+. Another wicket now and that looks a way away all of a sudden.

Dream scenario for Buttler when he gets his chance.

Root gone after lunch, but Bell is cashing in on his luck and has batted very well today. He's just 15 away from that hundred, and the likes of Ali, Buttler, Woakes and Broad are all capable of scoring quickly. So even if England bat most of the day, they can push the score pass 550, and then look to bat ones on this track.
But its all down to the Indian batsmen to save the game, Vijay has to carry on the way he has been doing, Pujara has to convert those starts, Rahane has to produce yet another beautiful fighting innings, Virat and Shikhar will have to find form right in this innings and MS and the lower order should step in.
Its not been great captaincy from Dhoni so far in this game, but there hasn't been much of life on the track. Yes the ball did a bit at times, but there hasn't been too much pace on the track for the movement to be seriously alarming for the batsman and there has been no meaningful turn for a spinner.
Oh by the way Offspinner Rohit was awarded a wicket by the umpire!!. Should keep the no-hoper in the side for another 2 years!.

Michael Holding wondering what has happened to Steven Finn. Do commentators not have to follow the sport at all?

Worth remembering with all this clamour for Ashwin to play (correctly in my view) that he hasn't looked good at all with the ball in recent tests. Might not have made that much difference.

Don't know if England have enough ammo. Jordan tends to make things happen, Anderson remains class, but Broad hasn't looked fully right and I'm not fully convinced by Woakes as a test bowler.

Ali playing in  the same vein as root.

get with the program lads..

Guess we will find out a bit about Woakes in this match. Not what you'd call bowler friendly , but hardly like Trent Bridge either , so he has a chance to show us what he offers.
Think Moeen Ali could be a factor in this match , especially if it comes down to an Indian fourth innings ; not expecting five wickets , but he might be a constant threat with runs on the board.

Was Plunks Injured or just dropped?

I thought plunks was getting better and better and he has true pace.

somewhat off from India, rotating their seamers throughout that hour, in just one over spells. Must be thinking that in giving them two over breaks it's easier to keep them on for a bit longer, but not sure that will be helping their rhythm. It's a good hour for India at any rate, kept good control and picked up the wicket of Root.

Bell purring along now. Belts Jadeja back over his head for 6 to reach his century, and then caresses one through extra-cover for four. Lovely batting .

What an over!

Bell- wow

Bell has his hundred and he's taking on Jadeja. The Indian batsmen will have to settle for a 600+ score on the board to be countered.

Ian Bell reaches his hundred in classic style with a majestic straight six   

...and celebrates with 4-6-4 : 21 from the over !

  

Scoring rate moves over three ; and Bell over 7000

Bell is such a lovely player to watch when he gets going. And still England's best middle order player.

Interesting to see what Dhoni does now with Jadeja.

Ok Buttler in. Interesting!

what a good catch that is. Moeen on the hook, hits I think the toe of the bat and goes to second slip who takes it very nicely indeed. Another for Kumar in a pretty decent session for India so far, and Moeen's problems against the short stuff continue. Now then, Jos Buttler, what have you got?

Ali out again to a short ball - although this time playing a shot not passively taking his eyes off it. Great catch   

Nice situation for Buttler for his first Test innings , you would think ?

Jadeja continues

I think you can overanalyse that dismissal as an issue against the short ball, because of Ali getting out to it twice earlier. In this case I think Ali actually was in a decent position and played the shot OK except the ball got stuck in the pitch and he was through it too early.

Not saying his struggles against the short ball aren't a real trend, just that I don't think this particular dismissal really contributes to that trend.

Excited to see how Buttler goes now.

impossible to tell if that was in or out tbh. tech isn't up to it yet. we need 4k!!

Buttler escapes. For me the correct call, I think Kohli has one hand under that but for me there's a piece of the ball which makes contact with the ground too. And he's off the mark next ball!!

should Dhoni have gone for that one?

Rahane not Kohli. I think it depends on what replay you watch, the one from behind the fielder I think it bounces, the final one when slightly zoomed in looks out, but "looks out" is not really enough is it?

I think we have to accept by now that those are probably going to be not out nowadays.

another good session for England, and for Bell in particular. Buttler to have a go after tea, could be very exciting!

over-rate a little below par for India in that session, just 26 overs bowled, though there were a couple of wickets and the delay for the Buttler "catch".

Mike Selig wrote:I think you can overanalyse that dismissal as an issue against the short ball, because of Ali getting out to it twice earlier. In this case I think Ali actually was in a decent position and played the shot OK except the ball got stuck in the pitch and he was through it too early.

Not saying his struggles against the short ball aren't a real trend, just that I don't think this particular dismissal really contributes to that trend.

Excited to see how Buttler goes now.

Well yes : I didn't really mean to paint it in too negative a light - hence the contrast with the previous dismissals. I would prefer his approach today ; as I think it's a given other teams will seek to work him over. I wonder though how his getting out today while taking it on will affect his thinking in future innings ?

Buttler may have been lucky there ; but he is set up to attack after tea.

Some lovely batting from Bell today   

205 runs for three wickets. Another good day so far. The hard part is to come.