England v India 4th Test, Old Trafford

First topic message reminder :

With the Anderson/Jadeja spat in the rear view mirror, we can all move on.

England name an unchanged squad, I'd be surprised if Plunkett didn't play, whether its at the expense of Jordan or Broad is the biggest question. Imagine they'll have planned on resting Broad at some stage.

Ganguly told Holding this morning....." This is English conditions"....and Indian batting stars have been ripped open.

all hangs on how rookies Pankaj and Aaron 1 test experience each will ball.......given that Bhuvi will be at worst steady and at best ripping throuhg

Tch Tch...even one legged Prior would have taken that.

one half in me tells me......this is a very dificult pitch to bat one.......if our bowlers get their line and length right

and the otehr half tells...me they will blow up and concede 500

we need luck.....flash hard......catches flying over slips and drops in the cordon...and byes and leg byes.........soon Cook will spread the field

These two have batter very well but england's line and length has been abysmal since lunch. So poor. They seem to have an obssesion with banging the ball into the pitch, when it's obvious the length is to pitch it up and get the batsmen driving. Obviously Buttler should have taken that catch but the length was perfect. If England aren't careful India will get over 200 at this rate.

You Indian fans have been a bit too pessimistic today , I think. Rotten start , but a decent recovery ; not too surprised as I really rate Ashwin as a bat...

Oh sorry ...I've hexed him ! Out .

Good forty though.

Poor shot from Ashwin, especially with the man out there on the pull. Cheap wicket for England and hopefully now we can wrap this up in the next 20 mins.

More than useful 40 from Ashwin.

Good recovery from India as conditions have improved, England need to keep chipping away

Ashwin showed he's a better asset than Rohit Sharma to the test side, but the way he got out, it had Rohit written all over it, pretty poor way to go after getting a start on such a track in such a situation.......

England needed that. Still three to get ; and Kumar has been stubborn this summer.

Dhoni will be hoping he sticks with him now , or he might have to start swinging...

Not sure the track is bad, conditions favored England first thing and they took advantage. They've improved since and it hasn't looked a bad wicket.

As I said earlier, bowl them out for under 200 and I will be happy...even when taking into consideration the 8/4 start.

It is still a good batting surface, and one that the English will be confident of amassing a score in excess of 300 on. Such a score should (should!) be enough for victory, if India are out for under 200.

Fifty for MSD   

Good fighting knock.

Agree , GSC ...reckon this is a decent strip to bat on. Was swing mostly that did the early damage.

The track certainly seems to have settled down, but there is some life there.
But the Indian's would be coming in to take the field with a defensive mindset, the bowlers would look to conserve energy from ball 1 as they would be expecting to be on the field the next 2 days.
The score of even 170 looks far away.
Of course sides can recover from such situation, but India, when playing away, is not of ten the one do that or even believe in that.
The only bowler who believe and make things happen in such situation is the veteran Zaheer who isn't here anyways.......

No Kumar innings today...Broad does for him with one that nips back.

How much over 150 from here ? Dhoni will go on the attack...

Nicely done, Tom Felton! He has four wickets in the innings, England are two away.

Englands main adversaries Kumar, Vijay and Pujara all gone for 0

Pretty incredible, only 4 batsmen have got off the mark so far

well that's the end of a rather ugly, but so important innings from Dhoni, with an agricultural heave to deep backward square leg. Gutsy knock, to ensure they at least have some sort of total.

5 for Broad, deserved that, he's been superb today .

Captains Innings from Dhoni. Doesn't quite make up for sticking his side in, but important.

Can't imagine these 2 will be the latest century 10th wicket partnership.

I think India have done well to get a score from that start.  I wonder what Dhoni would have aimed at after deciding to bat?

England, I think, will be relieved they were asked to bowl and did well to take advantage of helpful conditions.

And Pankaj departs for 0 as India become the 4th team to have 6 ducks in 1 innings

152 all out, in the context of this morning its workable, unless conditions deteriorate badly over tea, in the context of this pitch it looks pretty below par.

6-25 for Broad, career best?

Broad 6-25, well bowled .

India all out for 152, and really that's all down to the start, you rarely recover well from 8-4...

Over to you, batsmen.

India's bowlers need to be extremely careful they don't try for too much here. There's a bit of life in the pitch, but nothing excessive, and if you try too hard you'll go for runs. England's wickets almost exclusively were off good-length balls (except Ashwin and Pujara).

GSC wrote:6-25 for Broad, career best?

he took 7-for against NZ last summer IIRC.

Good innings from Dhoni, and all India would shudder as to where they would be in this Test but for their captain's valiant endeavours.

Broad has been the star of the day: he finishes with six wickets, a superb effort. England were clinical again, although Woakes will be disappointed. Cook will be delighted at his team's efforts today; somewhere between Adelaide and Melbourne 2010, were England today.

On a good batting surface, against a demoralised opposition, with the everlasting threat of rain, 300 and upwards will be the target for England to truly assert their dominance in this test and, indeed, the series.

Great day for Broad ...England will be happy with getting them for 152 after losing the toss.
Think the pitch looks OK for batting ; but I guess we'll have a better idea after England have batted on it.

I'm off to get some sleep so I hope you fellows can make sure they don't lose to many wickets tonight...

A large part of the collapse was conditions. The pitch actually looks good.

India will have to bowl well and England bat badly to make a good game from here I think.

Woakes probably needs a few wickets in the second innings to stay in the side for the Oval.

Cook looks in pretty good touch so far, amazing how one scrappy knock and then some cheap-ish runs can give you confidence. Robson looking scratchy, had a couple of slices of luck there against Kumar. If Dhoni isn't going to go for those edges (and that one was very catchable), then he simply has to make sure first slip is closer...

Could be a long 2 days in prospect if India don't make inroads tonight

Time for bell to move up the order and bring Taylor in.

Robson fails again....

No surprise to see Robson depart early, given the way he was scratching and poking around. Cook appears, thus far, to be setting himself well. Would be surprised if he doesn't make another half century, at least.

to be fair to Robson it was a very nice piece of bowling by Kumar, who was swinging it away, and then swung that one back in sharply. Robson misjudged it, but it was lovely bowling.

It was however a rather scratchy knock from Robson.

There are batters that have really impressed in there short career and are worth sticking with like root and ballanace- Robbo sadly has done nothing . Taylor showed more when he got his chance , I dont understand why he hasn't been given another shot.

I have no idea why the england selectors are trying to hard to find an opener- In the modern game you dont need to have a natural opener to open. You use the best batsmen and slot them in. Bell is mature enough to take the role on.. then we can bring forward another real talent in the middle

India fighting back

I do love just watching someone run in and try to bowl as fast as they can. Always a great sight.

Duty281 wrote:No surprise to see Robson depart early, given the way he was scratching and poking around. Cook appears, thus far, to be setting himself well. Would be surprised if he doesn't make another half century, at least.

Oops.

You were saying?

I wish we stuck with Root to open, but no he was replaced, bizarrely in my opinion, for a short-term option in Carberry.

And that's poor from Cook. I'm a tad surprised that he became impatient.

Root is not a test opener. Fine where he is

trebellbobaggins wrote:

Duty281 wrote:No surprise to see Robson depart early, given the way he was scratching and poking around. Cook appears, thus far, to be setting himself well. Would be surprised if he doesn't make another half century, at least.

Oops.

You were saying?

Quelle surprise!

Root was shifted because he never really looked at home at the top of the order. He looks a much better player at 5, and should stay there.

Aaron bowling with real pace and troubling Bell, but guilty of striving for the magic ball with that last one, and easily put away for four.

Why make two problems out of one? Leave Root to score runs at 5. Robson deserves the whole series at least anyway.

JDizzle wrote:Why make two problems out of one? Leave Root to score runs at 5. Robson deserves the whole series at least anyway.

yep. Robson has done about as well as Compton and Carberry did before him, but offers obviously more than either through being younger and a much better fielder.

Robbo over the oldies yes. But there are better options for me..(bell and Taylor)

Eventually I think root will be the opener. He has the temperament and the shots, but for now it's best to take the pressure of him.

Still another hour and a bit for England to bat today, before they can reach the sweet sanctuary of the pavilion.

Grit and determination is the key; no more than three wickets down at stumps is the target.

We need a big partnership from these two and/or root in order to give the likes of Ali, buttler, woakes , broad and Jordan more freedom to bat aggressively and take the game away from India very quickly tomorrow afternoon.

Yep. If we can get beyond there target with one of these and joe in. That will take the pressure off the bigger hitters

Twenty-five runs off the last four overs = sod grit and determination!

England nearly halfway to India's meagre total.

England have to ride out the storm. With 150 on the board India have to come out swinging.