England v India 3rd Test, Ageas Bowl

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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.

78/1. Bit of luck for Cook earlier , but if he can get going again after lunch he has a chance to quiet the wolf pack down for a while...

Decent session for England with only the one down. Batting first seems the correct call on what we've seen .

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-2706988/SIR-CLIVE-WOODWARD-Forget-Alastair-Cook-time-archaic-cricket-power-captain.html

I lol every time Woodward speaks cricket.

England's morning, then.

My faith has never diminished in Alastair Cook; I hope he carries on in the afternoon!

Good session for England and a good start for Cook, let's just hold on the calls that he's back for the moment folks, long way to go yet...

alfie wrote:78/1.  Bit of luck for Cook earlier , but if he can get going again after lunch he has a chance to quiet the wolf pack down for a while...

Decent session for England with only the one down. Batting first seems the correct call on what we've seen .

Not sure the Indian attack can be considered a "wolf pack". A clique of angry poodles maybe...

Oh, you mean the press and certain posters on here are like wolves?   

Fifty for Chef   

I understand that is his first half century since the invention of electricity , or thereabouts   

At least it's a start...

Hi all,

Didn't see any of the first session was listening on the radio (just like old times)!

Agree with alfie on Robson. Not sure why the knives are out just yet, although I suspect I know the reason in jimbo's case. For me Robson has looked OK, not great but OK. He does seem to get out on 20ish having done the hard work and seen off the new ball. Then again his predecessors had similar issues. He is at least a better fielder than Carberry.

India have had a decent passage after lunch. Important that Cook and Ballance can stick in there as things will get easier.

First look at Pankaj: looks a good strong repeatable action. Strikes me as more of a workhorse than anything else, but does look like he will run in all day for you. That may be very handy here on a pitch which looks fairly flat (although nothing like Nottingham was).

Ballance survives a caught behind appeal. I think there's daylight between bat and ball personally. Good decision by Rod Tucker.

I think Ballance was incorrectly given not out earlier, but, in fairness, it was an incredibly difficult call for the umpire.

And now Cook opens the face for four more.

Did Dhoni have a flutter on Cook scoring 100 today? That would help explain the strange tactics...
The leg-slip is an example IMO of unnecessary tinkering. I don't mind him so much now (albeit that unless you're bowling at the batsman's ribs with a leg-slip you're pretty much guessing) but he was in far too early - Cook's issues clearly outside off and India should have stuck to that for a lot longer.

Mike Selig wrote:Did Dhoni have a flutter on Cook scoring 100 today? That would help explain the strange tactics...
The leg-slip is an example IMO of unnecessary tinkering. I don't mind him so much now (albeit that unless you're bowling at the batsman's ribs with a leg-slip you're pretty much guessing) but he was in far too early - Cook's issues clearly outside off and India should have stuck to that for a lot longer.

Especially considering he edged one to Jadeja early on as well

I reckon there's just enough in this pitch to keep the bowlers interested, just a bit of nibble, though it is good for batting. Maybe more of a 300-350 pitch than a 400+ one...

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be will be,
Cooky shall have a ton by tea,
Que Sera, Sera.

Gary Ballance, too, has settled nicely.

Alastair Cook edged his first ball short ofslip, and was then dropped on 15 by Ravindra Jadeja of Pankaj Singh. That was the bit of luck that the England skipper needed, and he has rediscovered his massive appetite to feast on Indian bowling. This is going to be a long, long day.
Perhaps offspinner Rohit will run through England in a matter of overs!.......

Now Cook gets away with a run-out chance!. Going to be his day, the 26th hundred on the way, how many of those have come against India?

Ballance is an amazing find for england. another solid performance

When you're off form, you really do need a smidgen of luck. I remember coming off a horror 2010, where runs were lean (not even one fifty), I'd gone to national u/17 week, but that was probably more because of reputation, and the fact that I double up as a handy off spinner. First ball of 2011, I skyed an off drive, mid off made a mess of it, then I got dropped on 14ish, and scored a very scratchy, slow 70-odd, in a game we scored 340ish. Scored four double hundreds in six weeks that year... Funny how quickly things change.

so what level do you play at Kingraf?

Rohit Sharma enjoying a nice long bowl before tea on day 1. India do look very flat. England need to keep their concentration and not offer them a way back into the match - we know how easily things turn around.

Dhoni seems happy to sit back and wait. Not sure that's a working strategy against Cook (who will now obviously get out to Rohit Sharma top-edging a huge slog-sweep).

semi pro, I suppose, Oakey. My team was runner up in the national championship (second to my university, funny enough), and I was our leading run scorer this year. Always felt I could have made it pro in a weaker district, but scoring 4 double hundreds in six weeks means not one jot when there are guys scoring 395*.

Ermm- whats going on with your bowlers at that level!!!

But well done for getting to that level anyway- SA 2nd best team in the world so its not exactly easy is it.


You probably missed the boat by not moving to England earlier  

Jadeja is keeping the runs down effectively, but Sharma is bowling some utter filth.

Not quite sure what Dhoni's strategy is; the game is drifting, and he seems relatively happy to wait for an English mistake.

No Ishant no drama it seems.

He was the differnce

In the words of John Cleese: "More rubbish, dear, more of that bloody rubbish."

Eight runs for Ballance off the last over, capitalising on some average Indian bowling.

India being absolutely outplayed here. Ballance and Cook very much In control, India left to wonder where the next wicket would come from.
First time in the series they are being completely outplayed.

Nothing wrong with the bowlers, or at least not much. The season just starts in the winter, so the pitches are quite flat in the beginning of the season, and a lot of the bowlers are head hunters. Very easy to put away in the winter... becomes very different in the summer... which explains why the lads got out for 68 in the national finals.

This is some overrate from India. Seems that's the only thing they've done right in the day!.

Back onto the Tests, Ballance might get to triple figures before Cook, absolutely racing at the moment.

ballance's average is going to be going over 60 by the looks of things.. 

great start to his carrer

Ballance doing most of the scoring lately. Cook probably happy enough to just go along at his own pace for now.
Probably happy just to be there after recent matches   

alfie wrote:Ballance doing most of the scoring lately.  Cook probably happy enough to just go along at his own pace for now.
Probably happy just to be there after recent matches   

that's all we wont from him anyway.  When cook gets in and plays to his pace and the other batsman is keeping the RR up its when he is at his best.

It took a couple of games coming, but are India back to their 2011 self? They have given up already?

Easy session for England.

Well done to Cook who, when he could have hidden away, elected to bat and lead from the front. Those runs he has amassed in the first four hours of the match will have rapidly restored his confidence. Ballance has been positive, and has scored at a fair pelt.

England in control, they must not let this promising position slip.

I do love me some Gary Ballance, what a playa

Ballance seemed to have moved up a gear after reaching his fifty. Good stuff, I think it's important that England cash in on some tired looking Indian bowling here.

As msp points out, fantastic over-rate by India there, helped by bowling so much spin, which is an odd choice given the ball has wobbled around a little bit for the seam bowlers, whereas it's doing nothing whatsoever for the spinners.

Very comfortably England's session. In fact England's day so far.

Fine partnership , this. Balance going beautifully , and Cook back in runs at last ...and called it right at the toss , too : there were those saying bowl first , could be tough for batting early. Tempting to bowl in those circumstances when you have been struggling for runs ; but he made the right choice.

They've bowled in 63 overs by tea!. That too with 3 seamers bowling....... So yet again it gets clear that bowling a decent number of overs within the stipulated time is very much possible.......

Strange session from India. They had a good first half hour, Kumar and Pankaj looked relatively dangerous and then things went completely flat.

Cook is not the type of batsman to be bored out easily. I have no idea why Dhoni thought his tactics were a good idea, but they weren't.

India missing their 5th bowler already. This has not been a good day for them. Although their over-rate has been very good indeed.

England need to make sure they don't give India a way back into the match. Both of these batsmen really need to push on and score big.

Lol, India really winning fans over with this brand of cricket... Talking about the over rate, of course.

To be honest, there's really no cause for them to slow it down. England aren't exactly blitzing them, so they don't really gain much in that respect. Anyways, good session for England, Cook will be feeling very good about himself. Didn't realise this would be his eighth too as captain, not Smith numbers, of course, but that's quite a bit

India's chances in the game already rest on the batting, if they can score 450+, then they are in the game, England are set to score 600 by the look of things. Unless something dramatic happens and happens pretty soon, India will have to already play for the draw from session 3 of day one.

Jadeja really flying through his overs and he hasn't given anything away so far. Can't ask a lot more than that from your spinner on day on such a track. But Jadu, that drop is costing the side very, very dearly indeed. Time for the seamers to put in a bit of extra effort. The new ball is 14 overs away, we need 2 new batsman to be attacked with it.......

Hahahaha!!!

Even after Jadeja dropped Cook on 16, on a flat pitch, he still fails to get 100.

Gone for 95.

Good innings from Cook, some signs he's back to form

Olly wrote:Good innings from Cook, some signs he's back to form

Good signs that he scored runs on pitch that's as dead as the dodo?

Oh, Cooky.

Still a good effort, though, and he has set a nice platform for the middle order to push on. I'm sure he would have taken that at the start of the day.

The strangle down leg must get as many wickets as any other method of dismissal in cricket.

Gerry SA wrote:

Olly wrote:Good innings from Cook, some signs he's back to form

Good signs that he scored runs on pitch that's as dead as the dodo?

Well scoring 95 runs is better signs than scoring the 10/20's he has been scoring...

Cook goes to a short ball down the leg-side off Jadeja of all things. Shame, hopefully those runs will somewhat galvanise England and help his captaincy as well.

Ballance needs to carry on now.

Potentially an important last hour coming up. If India can prise a couple more out tonight they'll be delighted.

Pity he got out to that leg side filth after doing all the work...

Never mind : 95 or 101 : really no difference. Still a serious score and sets his team up for a good score. Hope that settles his mind a bit and he can go on from that innings.

Would be nice if Bell could get some runs now...

Pankaj with the new ball.
India in desperate need of a couple of wickets with the new ball. Bell hasn't scored yet, but he has middle most of what he has faced so far. Not looking good for India.

And Bell is one of the best when it comes to consolidating a top order platform and England most certainly got one today.