England's Indian Summer - T20s, ODIs & Tests

First topic message reminder :

T20s

A three match series between the 2nd (India) and 4th ranked teams in the world https://www.icc-cricket.com/rankings/mens/team-rankings/t20i

Fixtures

Tuesday 3rd July 2018 17:30
Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester

Friday 6th July 2018 17:30
Sophia Gardens Cardiff, Cardiff

Sunday 8th July 2018 14:00
The Brightside Ground, Bristol


Squads

England: Morgan, Ali, Bairstow, Ball, Buttler, Curran S, Curran T, Hales, Jordan, Plunkett, Rashid, Root, Roy, Willey (Malan in as cover for 1st game, Stokes may join for 3rd)

India: Kohli, Chahal, Chahar, Dhawan, Dhoni, Karthik, Kaul, Kuldeep Yadav, Kumar, Pandey, HH Pandya, KH Pandya, Rahul, Raina, Sharma UT Yadav


Key Men

Jos Buttler - move up the order during IPL has given him much more time to have an impact. While only ranked 26 in ICC rankings, this will improve now he opens.
Alex Hales - Formerly top ranked batter in T20s, has dropped a bit (to 7) and finds his place in the England side under threat.
Rashid/Ali - Englands spinners have thrived in the one day format, but will find the Indian batting lineup a tough test.

Virat Kohli - probably the best batsmen in the world across all 3 forms of the game. Some injury issues recently.
Chahal/Kuldeep Yadav - India look like going with two wrist spinners. England often struggle to score quickly against good spin.



ODIs

Fixtures

Another 3 match series between the the top two ranked sides in the world.  Both teams will be wanting to lay down a marker before next year's world cup.


Thursday 12th July 2018 12:30
Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Saturday 14th July 2018 11:00
Lord's, London

Tuesday 17th July 2018 12:30
Emerald Headingley, Leeds


Squads

England - Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Mark Wood.



Test Series

A form of cricket in which the visitors have been much better than the hosts. The series goes deep into September as India seek to avenge the series defeat in 2014. In a manner we have become used to seeing from touring teams around the world, that series India capitulated in the final 3 tests  having won the second test to take a 1-0 lead. India however look strong enough this time out to put pressure on a faltering home test team.


Fixtures

Wednesday 1st August 2018 11:00
Edgbaston, Birmingham

Thursday 9th August 2018 11:00
Lord's, London

Saturday 18th August 2018 11:00
Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Thursday 30th August 2018 11:00
Ageas Bowl, Southampton

Friday 7th September 2018 11:00
Kia Oval, London

India now on top as Bairstow is bowled.

India could be batting tonight at this rate.

Buttler gone as well

Go out for a half hour and we lose three wickets - what happened??

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Go out for a half hour and we lose three wickets - what happened??

Root ran himself out. Bairstow chopped on. T20 hacker Buttler missed a pretty straight ball.

LondonTiger wrote:Chuffing brainless yorkies


mutter

To be fair, it was excellent fielding by the former Surrey man - well, he appeared in our marketing literature!

More seriously, the second run was always asking for trouble. Even if Kohli's throw had only been to the bowler and not a direct hit, Root would still have been struggling.

And from there, it goes from bad to worse. As Sir Geoffrey might have warned - 230/6 now and it looks a very different game from 20 minutes ago.

Good lord...a man takes a nap for a hour or so and all hell breaks loose...

Ironic I was praising Root and Bairstow for their running earlier - and I see they overreached and handed India a gift

...and one brings two. Or three in this case. Gone from a position of strength to one of ...considerable peril. Need Stokes to marshal
the tail now.

Time for a Rashid hundred I reckon lads

Watched the replays now...

YJB looked to misjudge the length a bit and dragged that on. Was he fretting over the runout , I wonder ? Any loss of concentration at this level can be fatal. The run out was certainly down to unnecessary risk taking - though it was also excellent fielding from Kohli.
Buttler just missed the ball. Bad batting but I guess sometimes players just fail...but the first two are examples of the way England tend to play : enterprising ; but prone to error.

Can't help thinking what has been gained on the swings of ODI from a change of philosophy , has been somewhat lost on the roundabout of Tests ...if I may venture a rather tortured metaphor. A little more care mixed with the aggression might be in order in a game where 400 is often no more than par...

All not lost yet. Stokes will still play aggressively and could if he finds support see the score towards respectability ; and I don't think this pitch is a complete road so one need not assume India will make the
600 that was customary in the last series when they were home.

But both Root and Bairstow will be thinking they've given up centuries that were there for the taking.

Aargh. Stokes pokes a harmless ball back to Ashwin...

243/7 and they really are in a hole now.

Hope Olly's optimism re Rashid is justified...

Aargh - as Alfie screams!

Not sure if there could have been a bit more gamesmanship from Sam for Ashwin's caught and bowled of Stokes - he moved to his left to get out of Ashwin's way as he took the catch. If he had stood his ground as he was entitled to, he would have been clobbered by the bulk of Ashwin but might have prevented the catch.

Great - or similar - minds! Athers and Lloyd now discussing this.

Will be lucky to get 300 now. Astonishing after the start England had made.

India sitting firmly in the box seat now with England reduced to 250 for 7. India could be batting by close of play with less than 300 on the board for England with the pitch still playing perfectly well.

Lloyd suggests Curran would have been guilty of obstruction but Athers confirms - per the laws - that the non-striker is entitled to hold his ground. Not sure it would have saved Stokes (Athers also confirms that Ashwin was entitled to push Curran out of the way to attempt the catch) but Sam did the opposite of helping his partner.

India need to stop the English innings as soon as possible. However England would like to take the score to anything above 300 to put a mental pressure on the Indian team.

I think India will go on to score 380-390 on this pitch with a near about 100 run lead. Second inning will be crucial.

guildfordbat wrote:Aargh - as Alfie screams!

Not sure if there could have been a bit more gamesmanship from Sam for Ashwin's caught and bowled of Stokes - he moved to his left to get out of Ashwin's way as he took the catch. If he had stood his ground as he was entitled to, he would have been clobbered by the bulk of Ashwin but might have prevented the catch.

From being competitive to start discussing about some tactics not related to game, just to be in the game. English cricket is going good man.

These leaking of runs can harm India.

subhranshu.kumar.5 wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:Aargh - as Alfie screams!

Not sure if there could have been a bit more gamesmanship from Sam for Ashwin's caught and bowled of Stokes - he moved to his left to get out of Ashwin's way as he took the catch. If he had stood his ground as he was entitled to, he would have been clobbered by the bulk of Ashwin but might have prevented the catch.

From being competitive to start discussing about some tactics not related to game, just to be in the game. English cricket is going good man.

Hi Subu - not sure of your point there, my friend.

guildfordbat wrote:

subhranshu.kumar.5 wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:Aargh - as Alfie screams!

Not sure if there could have been a bit more gamesmanship from Sam for Ashwin's caught and bowled of Stokes - he moved to his left to get out of Ashwin's way as he took the catch. If he had stood his ground as he was entitled to, he would have been clobbered by the bulk of Ashwin but might have prevented the catch.

From being competitive to start discussing about some tactics not related to game, just to be in the game. English cricket is going good man.

Hi Subu - not sure of your point there, my friend.

Nothing man, that was in the lighter note.

The board here was not very happy here on Rashid selection, however he is giving some good time to fans here.

Duty281 wrote:Will be lucky to get 300 now. Astonishing after the start England had made.

Annoying , but hardly astonishing. We've seen it all before.

Carelessness instead of ruthlessness is the main fault of England's batting. Whether because of overdoing the aggressive approach or just just no longer being used to batting really long. Or one might say it is too many all rounders instead of "proper" batsmen : although as they are having a lot of difficulty finding enough such to fill the first four slots it is hard to be too critical of selection.
Perhaps too many left handers given Ashwin's skills , but I don't think you can pick a team based on that.

Useful runs here from Sam and Rashid. There is definitely something in this for the bowlers : if that continues over the next couple of days we still may see a contest. New ball due is going to be an issue for what is left of England's batting so good they've rattled off a few boundaries.

That is Curran's highest knock in test cricket (21 not out) beating his only other knock of 20 V Pakistan earlier this summer.

CaledonianCraig wrote:That is Curran's highest knock in test cricket (21 not out) beating his only other knock of 20 V Pakistan earlier this summer.

It also exceeds his CC average this season which is a tad under 20. Not a great season with the bat for Sam.

India will not bat today. Indian bowling was good overall.

Ishant was as usual below average,putting his bet on short balls. He is not a selection material.

Umesh was not very impressive today, but the wicket of barristow brought him some praise.

Shami was lethal with a lots of variation. Ashwin proved his selection. Again Pandya's selection was just on the basis that he can bowl 130+ and can bat a bit. He was below average with ball today, don't know how much he will help with the bat.

guildfordbat wrote:

CaledonianCraig wrote:That is Curran's highest knock in test cricket (21 not out) beating his only other knock of 20 V Pakistan earlier this summer.

It also exceeds his CC average this season which is a tad under 20. Not a great season with the bat for Sam.

The way he is defending the balls from Ashwin or Pacers, he is batting better than the tail.

Finally Ishant gets a tail-ender and cemented his selection for 3-4 games.

That was an obvious out. Astonished it wasn't given on field...Kohli had to refer it. Much better than his earlier referral

Not much batting left now...who needs a new ball ?

alfie wrote:That was an obvious out.  Astonished it wasn't given on field...Kohli had to refer it.  Much better than his earlier referral

Not much batting left now...who needs a new ball ?

Well umpire might have thought that it was missing the leg stump.

This test match is over. Watch as India rack up 400+ and bat England out of proceedings.

Broad gone now...the fourth lbw of the innings.

Add three bowled - only one cleanly. Says to me there is enough for the bowlers to work with it might not be all plain sailing when India bat. Fancy Anderson to bowl well on this ; but he will need good backup. The Rashid selection will be tested...

Ashwin - and Shami - have been excellent today

Time for young Sam to give it a whack ? Unless Jimmy is up for another 81 against India

Duty281 wrote:This test match is over. Watch as India rack up 400+ and bat England out of proceedings.

Perhaps but it is always best to judge after both sides have batted on the pitch.

Duty281 wrote:This test match is over. Watch as India rack up 400+ and bat England out of proceedings.

I don't think India will go 400+. Dhawan will be walking back within 5 overs of the start. Pandya will not score runs. and 5 batsmen will take the scorecard to 350-390.

Sam taking a single off the first ball of the over and trusting Jimmy or thinking about his own average?!

Not too unhappy, sometimes I think the batting side gives up too many runs in the name of protection. Not as if Sam is a top notch batsman. 

Get every run as you can when you can - understandable here imo.

guildfordbat wrote:Sam taking a single off the first ball of the over and trusting Jimmy or thinking about his own average?!

Not too unhappy, sometimes I think the batting side gives up too many runs in the name of protection. Not as if Sam is a top notch batsman. 

Get every run as you can when you can - understandable here imo.

Sam doesn't looks like a tail here.

Curran dropped off the penultimate ball of the day and England close on 285 for 9. India's day by quite a way. England's bowlers now have a big task of digging them out of this big hole.

Ohh that drop. Karthick should have let the first slip to take the catch.

Day over.

Root's wicket was the turning point.

Fine bowling from Shami un rewarded as Karthik shells an edge from young Sam...

England back in the morning at 285/9. Clearly India's day...but I will wait and see how their batsmen fare before making any grand predictions.

Goodnight all

alfie wrote:Fine bowling from Shami un rewarded as Karthik shells an edge from young Sam...

England back in the morning at 285/9.  Clearly India's day...but I will wait and see how their batsmen fare before making any grand predictions.

Goodnight all

Alfie awake at around 3:30 in the morning for the game. We in India and England however have no worries. hahahahah

Always tricky to properly judge at the end of day one with only one side having batted but India would definitely have settled for this score at 11 o'clock this morning and England would not.

Yep India’s day, albeit they’ll be annoyed at that drop in the final over and not to be batting straight away tomorrow (I’m sure Guildford will point out the openers having a ten minute turnaround as opposed to a morning to prepare )

As has been said there is definitely something in the pitch for the bowlers, and the ball moved most of the day especially for Sharma. Whether that was just a slightly damp pitch or the pitch is offering something to the seamers we’ll see as the game progresses.

Hopefully Curran/Anderson can add an annoying 10/20 runs to the score tomorrow morning, and England can make inroads with the new ball. If Kohli is batting this time tomorrow however you’d fear for England badly...

Saw almost full days cricket live after long time and my observations

--I told ya.... Karthik will drop 2 to 3 catches per test match and did his quota of the day in last over

--Ind was not the sharpest nor most focused / disciplined with the ball and yet they did enough to clearly win the day

Ashwin had a couple of good spells and shami has one good spell and Ishant / Yadav produced some good overs...so as a sum pf parts India did enough to win the day.

Yadav and Ishant were lacking rhythm though...they are the type of bowlers.....the more they bowl, the faster and more accurate they get

Ind have to close it out tomm morning for sub-300

--Leaving Pujara out wasn't the best decision BUT that's better than leaving Rahul or Rahane out that Kohli has done in the past
I think somewhere in this long series Pujara will be back
and Pant should come in too as a WK

I would back India to overhaul 300 but not by too much, this is still an English pitch and cloud cover and ball swings / seams all day.....so 350 ish is what I'd back them to get at most....and hence not letting Eng score any more runs tomm is very important

--Eng did not look troubled at anytime and yet they find themselves 9 down for 280 odd

Cook & Root fell to great bowling and fielding
Jennings ain't good enough technically...does not play with a straight bat...is generally looking at nudging with an angled bat, and his dismissal might appear unlucky he is always a candidate for played-on

--Eng should find a way to get Ali in...he scraps and fights and Woakes is a better bat and ball then Curran
I feel these two will feature in playing 11 in the long series

as england first innings in first match of the series go, i thought that was pretty good

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Yep India’s day, albeit they’ll be annoyed at that drop in the final over and not to be batting straight away tomorrow (I’m sure Guildford will point out the openers having a ten minute turnaround as opposed to a morning to prepare )

As has been said there is definitely something in the pitch for the bowlers, and the ball moved most of the day especially for Sharma. Whether that was just a slightly damp pitch or the pitch is offering something to the seamers we’ll see as the game progresses.

Hopefully Curran/Anderson can add an annoying 10/20 runs to the score tomorrow morning, and England can make inroads with the new ball. If Kohli is batting this time tomorrow however you’d fear for England badly...

Olly - you not only learn so well but save me work. 

If Sam gets it right with the ball tomorrow, I feel his low, whippy action could bring rewards. 

Until the morrow, folks. 

Should be similar conditions again this morning. Shoukd be some assistance for Anderson Broad and Curran,  300 could still be a competitive total even if uts well short of whatbthey shouldve got before the Root run out.
As soneone pointed out above this is actually pretty good by englands first inings of a series in recently.
Pakistan 184
NZ 58
Aus 302

Same old problems though. We dont really have a top 3. Root fails to convert a good fifty. Question marks over whether a few players really are good enough test bats to justify a place on that discpline alone.
They have a habit of mass panic and falling apart when the spinners on.

India really only have two quality bowlers for this test. So Ive some optimism England can make a decent stab of their second innings and stay in this game. Overall it looks like the sort of contest we want in test cricket ...the team batting first up hasnt had it all their own way. Its the better bowlers taking wickets with some assistance but nothing that turns it into a lottery for batsmen. Those whonplayed with technique and confidence have been able to score without slogging their way out of trouble.
Proper test cricket. So well done ground staff.

As for Moeen...his batting has gone with his confidence, and hes really only ever had two genuinely succesful series with the ball...one of which was SA who are as vulnerable to any form of spin as England. Lets not worry about who bats 8 ...the top 7 is the issue.  I personaly would rather see a proper batsman who has a chance of developing into a genuine top 5 player come into the side if Malan does get dropped for the best test ...Pope, livingstone or Burns...although with Stokes unavilable I guess Moeen for Malan and Woakes for Rashid is more viable. But then its still early in this test and lots of opportunities for players to press a case and confuse the selections even more.

I missed yesterdays play but fascinated to follow it today. A very open test.

Gooseberry wrote:Should be similar conditions again this morning. Shoukd be some assistance for Anderson Broad and Curran,  300 could still be a competitive total even if uts well short of whatbthey shouldve got before the Root run out.
As soneone pointed out above this is actually pretty good by englands first inings of a series in recent years.

Same old problems though. We dont really have a top 3. Root fails to convert a good fifty. Question marks over whether a few players really are good enough test bats to justify a place on that discpline alone.
They have a habit of mass panic and falling apart when the spinners on.

India really only have two quality bowlers for this test. So Ive some optimism England can make a decent stab of their second innings and stay in this game. Overall it looks like the sort of contest we want in test cricket ...the team batting first up hasnt had it all their own way. Its the better bowlers taking wickets with some assistance but nothing that turns it into a lottery for batsmen. Those whonplayed with technique and confidence have been able to score without slogging their way out of trouble.
Proper test cricket. So well done ground staff.

As for Moeen...his batting has gone with his confidence, and hes really only ever had two genuinely succesful series with the ball...one of which was SA who are as vulnerable to any form of spin as England. Lets not worry about who bats 8 ...the top 7 is the issue.  I personaly would rather see a proper batsman who has a chance of developing into a genuine top 5 player come into the side if Malan does get dropped for the best test ...Pope, livingstone or Burns...although with Stokes unavilable I guess Moeen for Malan and Woakes for Rashid is more viable. But then its still early in this test and lots of opportunities for players to press a case and confuse the selections even more.

I missed yesterdays play but fascinated to follow it today. A very open test.

And I missed you and your clinical assessment too, Goose.

Some good points there. Certainly agree that we shouldn't be automatically out of it with 300 on the board but it should be a lot more. 216/3 was a position from which to dominate, not cave.

The pitch looks a cracker to bat on still. If India bat sensibly they should be able to post something around 400 or more. For England to get back into this they are going to need sloppy batting from India and their fielding and bowling to be of a high standard.

It's 287.

India need to play the initial 10 overs very cautiously, which is uncertain looking at the nepotism selection of the opener, however I would like to be wronged by Dhawan, which seems a rare event.

Kohli and Rahul need to fire up with their quality technique and Mr. Dependable on overseas pitches must prove his title.

If everything goes right, India will go on to score something around 380-390.

Foolish review from England early on.

India have lucked out a bit by getting to bat in what may be the best conditions of the match. The grey clouds cleared completely for now.
If they knuckle down and avoid soft dismisials then England will have to work very hard for every wicket.

Might be worth throwing the ball to Rashid early doors

44/0 in no time at all.

Maybe Adil Rashid can conjure up one of his supposedly great four-over spells that got him selected?