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.

Wonder if Cook's thinking of giving Anderson and/or Broad another quick burst to Rahane.

Shikhar Dhawan out to Root, think that's it for him in the test side for a while.
Rahane in, someone has to bat at least 300 balls if India are to save this one, looks like a finish by lunch tomorrow.

When Cook, Ballance and Bell got starts they all made big scores, nobodys done that for India.

If Shikhar has to be dropped, the man coming in is Gautam Gambhir. Used to be a real favorite when he batted with determination up to the beginning of 2011. But the problem though is that he has never looked the same player after the South Africa tour of 2010 and the 2011 World cup. He brought the drop upon himself through some very ordinary and inconsistent performances and then ones dropped, never really earned his recall. Young Jiwanjot or KL Rahul are thought to be not quite ready, so Gauti became the only realistic choice though I would still have gone for Rahul or Jiwanjot.
Hope Gauti comes in and bats like the Gambhir of old.......

GSC wrote:When Cook, Ballance and Bell got starts they all made big scores, nobodys done that for India.

You mean when Ballance and Bell where aided by Umpire Tucker they fluked a few runs?

msp83 wrote:If Shikhar has to be dropped, the man coming in is Gautam Gambhir. Used to be a real favorite when he batted with determination up to the beginning of 2011. But the problem though is that he has never looked the same player after the South Africa tour of 2010 and the 2011 World cup. He brought the drop upon himself through some very ordinary and inconsistent performances and then ones dropped, never really earned his recall. Young Jiwanjot or KL Rahul are thought to be not quite ready, so Gauti became the only realistic choice though I would still have gone for Rahul or Jiwanjot.
Hope Gauti comes in and bats like the Gambhir of old.......  

I disagree MSP. 

Rohit should open and Ashwin should come in at 7

Gerry SA wrote:

GSC wrote:When Cook, Ballance and Bell got starts they all made big scores, nobodys done that for India.

You mean when Ballance and Bell where aided by Umpire Tucker they fluked a few runs?

Slow day at the burger van Gerry?

Virat is not one to play the time game, he likes to feel bat on ball and in fact its this urge rather than any major technical issues that has been contributing some of his dismissals in this series as England skillfuly used this particular aspect of his game against him. Hope he continues to play his natural game, nothing dramatic or hyper aggressive, but he has to cash in on scoring opportunities, otherwise he's not going to last long.

GSC wrote:

Gerry SA wrote:

GSC wrote:When Cook, Ballance and Bell got starts they all made big scores, nobodys done that for India.

You mean when Ballance and Bell where aided by Umpire Tucker they fluked a few runs?

Slow day at the burger van Gerry?

Your girlfriend wasn't there so I gave it a miss today...

Get in.....

4 wickets down. 6 to go

The freedom fighter gets gifted another wicket. 

Pathetic batting in the face of rather village bowling.

Moeen! What a man!

Gerry is 4 posts away from getting ignored again.

Some CS level wit there

Moeen Ali, part time, all the time

Four down, England having a rather good time of it!

Alis in danger of becoming a part time batsmen

Gerry SA wrote:The freedom fighter gets gifted another wicket. 

Pathetic batting in the face of rather village bowling.

He'd have had another if that village umpire had given that plumb lbw

Well caught Buttler... just.

Root's enthusiasm in the field is nice to watch. If there's one thing which I will by hypercritical of the last part of Flower's reign it's how they messed Root around. Now back in the middle order (where IMO he is more suited) and enjoying his cricket again - great to see.

Mat

Gerry SA wrote:The freedom fighter gets gifted another wicket. 

Pathetic batting in the face of rather village bowling.

He'd have had another if that village umpire had given that plumb lbw

Blame South Africa...

Mike Selig wrote:Well caught Buttler... just.

Root's enthusiasm in the field is nice to watch. If there's one thing which I will by hypercritical of the last part of Flower's reign it's how they messed Root around. Now back in the middle order (where IMO he is more suited) and enjoying his cricket again - great to see.

What you're really saying is

Root was exposed by Johnson to the extent that he was dropped because he had a log in his pants

He run down the order to hide from the new ball. 

Typical cowards mentality.

Gerry SA wrote:

msp83 wrote:If Shikhar has to be dropped, the man coming in is Gautam Gambhir. Used to be a real favorite when he batted with determination up to the beginning of 2011. But the problem though is that he has never looked the same player after the South Africa tour of 2010 and the 2011 World cup. He brought the drop upon himself through some very ordinary and inconsistent performances and then ones dropped, never really earned his recall. Young Jiwanjot or KL Rahul are thought to be not quite ready, so Gauti became the only realistic choice though I would still have gone for Rahul or Jiwanjot.
Hope Gauti comes in and bats like the Gambhir of old.......  

I disagree MSP. 

Rohit should open and Ashwin should come in at 7

Offspinner to open Gerry? He's completely useless!.

Got so much love for Moeen what a guy

Well Cooks luck has turned

Rohit getting runs in a loss is the last thing India need from this game for it to be a total calamity!.
Come on England, get him packing!!.

GSC wrote:Well Cooks luck has turned

Let's see what his 'lucks' like at Manchester when the clubman is banned.

Rohit surviving by the edg of his bat stuff!.

msp83 wrote:

Gerry SA wrote:

msp83 wrote:If Shikhar has to be dropped, the man coming in is Gautam Gambhir. Used to be a real favorite when he batted with determination up to the beginning of 2011. But the problem though is that he has never looked the same player after the South Africa tour of 2010 and the 2011 World cup. He brought the drop upon himself through some very ordinary and inconsistent performances and then ones dropped, never really earned his recall. Young Jiwanjot or KL Rahul are thought to be not quite ready, so Gauti became the only realistic choice though I would still have gone for Rahul or Jiwanjot.
Hope Gauti comes in and bats like the Gambhir of old.......  

I disagree MSP. 

Rohit should open and Ashwin should come in at 7

Offspinner to open Gerry? He's completely useless!.

I'm not sure he's totally useless. 
He has a good technique something which Dhawan, Dhoni and Jadeja lack.
He opens in ODI cricket. 
And he's a decent slip fielder. 
Gambhir averaged 14 last tour of England.

And Gerry joins KPF on ignore

One burst of Anderson. Wonder how much fight India will have tomorrow

GSC wrote:And Gerry joins KPF on ignore

What took you so long?!

I'm a patient guy Duty, you know this

Clubman back into the attack.

Clubbie drops a dolly

Gerry you don't have talk some utter guff.

hampo171 wrote:Gerry you don't have talk some utter guff.

I think he's jealous of James Anderson; he can't get past a day without mentioning him, it seems!

He is getting very uptight today that's for sure. His local cost cutter must have run out of tampons.

Come England , it could be our first win in ages.. And you will make me a ton at the same time. So get on with it

Excellent day for England then. Really need to make sure they don't waste this and finish it off tomorrow.

Got the last two Indian wickets pretty much immediately, then did pretty much as planned in their 2nd innings, with Cook looking increasingly comfortable, and good cameos for Ballance, Bell and Root, who seems to be enjoying his cricket again. They would have liked 2, maybe 3 wickets before the end of the day; 4 is a very good result, especially as they include Vijay and Pujara who can bat long periods. Although the wickets went to the spinners (and a bonus run-out) I thought all the seamers bowled pretty well, although Jordan still looks off colour.

Cook had another very good day as captain. The runs have surely helped, he just looks so much more comfortable in the field.

For India, nothing really went right. It was a no win situation for them with the ball: on this pitch with this personnel there was no way they were going to roll England over. Unsurprisingly they lacked intensity in the field, but it's tough when you've been fielding for two days solid, then have to come out and do it with nothing really to gain. Shami continues to lack rythm, and Pankaj again fell away after a decent start.

Vijay's run-out was schoolboy stuff, I'd be angry with that from one of my juniors. Pujara looked very nervous, and both he and Kohli desperately need runs. Dhawan gutsed it out, but watching him struggle against decent part-time off-spin was painful for someone so good normally against the spinners. I guess there is the option of moving Rahane or Pujara to open, but Rahane looks good in the middle order, and Pujara is hardly performing at 3 (and Kohli at 3 would be a risk as well surely). I guess it's a straight swap now, but Gambhir has his issues outside off as well.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that India somehow mount a rearguard action, but at this point in time it does look unlikely. The odd ball is going through the top of the surface and keeping low, whilst there is also a bit of reverse starting to happen.

Gerry SA wrote:

msp83 wrote:

Gerry SA wrote:

msp83 wrote:If Shikhar has to be dropped, the man coming in is Gautam Gambhir. Used to be a real favorite when he batted with determination up to the beginning of 2011. But the problem though is that he has never looked the same player after the South Africa tour of 2010 and the 2011 World cup. He brought the drop upon himself through some very ordinary and inconsistent performances and then ones dropped, never really earned his recall. Young Jiwanjot or KL Rahul are thought to be not quite ready, so Gauti became the only realistic choice though I would still have gone for Rahul or Jiwanjot.
Hope Gauti comes in and bats like the Gambhir of old.......  

I disagree MSP. 

Rohit should open and Ashwin should come in at 7

Offspinner to open Gerry? He's completely useless!.

I'm not sure he's totally useless. 
He has a good technique something which Dhawan, Dhoni and Jadeja lack.
He opens in ODI cricket. 
And he's a decent slip fielder. 
Gambhir averaged 14 last tour of England.

Gerry, Rohit hardly went pass 14 in most of the overseas innings he has had. He might have a decent technique, but his temperament is rotten and is a bit of a motor mouth, that is particularly unacceptable when you waste away all that talent he has got for years and years.
If the management decides against bringing Gambhir in and then if Shikhar has to be replaced, then it will be Pujara who would step up to open in all likelihood with Ajinkya coming in at 3. But I don't see that happening.

Anderson acting like a clown at the end, he's much better off when focusing on his bowling.......

Rahane is the Indian root IMO. Gritty, has loads of shots, not a massive hitter, calm, could also play opener.

India even during the peak days of Dravid, Tendulkar and VVS would mostly give up on such 5th day situations more often than not. They just bat with a negative mindset, might try to go into a shell and end up giving away their wickets.
The new lads had a possible match saving situation at hand in South Africa, and ended up making Robin Peterson look like Shane Warne and Murali combined!!.
So Very much resigned to a huge loss in this game.
Or perhaps Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Pankaj Singh might put up a hundred partnership for the last wicket and bat out 45 overs to save the game!!.

Anythings possible. But England look too good this test tbh. All working well together. A 20/1 shot at a draw IMO as the weather is going to be fine.

The only possibility for India to get away with a draw was the weather. Now that there is no chance of some much needed rain arriving tomorrow, there is no chance to protect the series lead!.

You have a shot. Just

msp83 wrote:Anderson acting like a clown at the end, he's much better off when focusing on his bowling.......

He didn't do anything wrong, certainly nothing wrong with a little word to the batsmen but the umpire made a massive deal out of it. If it's getting to the point the players can't sledge then cricket has gone mad.

D4 observations:

--Ind will lose tomm...not a big defeat but by about 20 overs to spare I guess

--sadly they could not stretch and squeeze Eng in any of the 3 opf 4 possibilities they had:
couldn't stretch Eng to bowl about an hour+ this morning
couldn't keep the RR to about 3.2-3.5ish to extend the declaration
and then kept losing the wkts at their standard rate....showed no extra spine.

--alternatively they could have tried to bat positively and go down fighting trying to win

--Even Cook cannot mess this one from here.

--Next game Ashwin comes in place of Rohit if he flops tomorrow...and gambhir for dhawan
or in place of Dhawan...if Rohot suceeds ( and Pujara will open)

Ishant replaces shami if fit else Pandey comes in

the series is still alive and India has to look to fix their bowling combination

Great Test so far. Cook has captained and batted well. Bell has found some form and Ballance continues to impress.  With the ball the attack as a unit has performed as well as it has since last Summer.

To cap it all off, not had to put up with Graeme Swann on TMS!

I hope England can finish it off tomorrow and if they don't at least one Indian is going to have to play a memorable innings.

India are not out of it. They need only look at South Africa surviving 94 overs on the final day vs Lanka a day ago to know what's possible. Okay, our situation was a little brighter overnight, but that's countered by this being a way better batting strip. Does India have the discipline to bat out a day though? A guy like Duminy faced 130 deliveries, for his six runs in the SSC tests (both innings). Do India have that sort of players in their ranks? Just feel with Dhoni, Jadeja types in their ranks, they're gonna go down swinging in a test they have no chance of winning and fall way short*.

*Assuming everyone's favourite #9 is out of miracles.

kingraf wrote:India are not out of it. .

every indian knows that ...but nobody wants to jinx that possibility by talking about it.
so a safe option is to assume defeat and rejoice if it's otehrwise

hampo171 wrote:

msp83 wrote:Anderson acting like a clown at the end, he's much better off when focusing on his bowling.......

He didn't do anything wrong, certainly nothing wrong with a little word to the batsmen but the umpire made a massive deal out of it. If it's getting to the point the players can't sledge then cricket has gone mad.

1 match ban for talking to the other team
5 match ban for saying a naughty word
Fined your match fee for not eating your lunch

Tiff toff tiff toff