England's Summer of Cricket 2022 as Joe Root Steps Down

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Must be assuming Southee can't be as ineffective again.

msp83 wrote:Think this is lost. England have 64 on the board, and there is not even a sign of Joe Root!. India going to pay for their overconfident and casual approach, when they should have shown ruthlessness and determination. England are simply unstoppable, even Sir Jadeja isn't able to keep the runs down.

Calm down, fella. This is England. 59/0 to 141ao in the first innings of the first test v New Zealand.

Duty281 wrote:

msp83 wrote:Think this is lost. England have 64 on the board, and there is not even a sign of Joe Root!. India going to pay for their overconfident and casual approach, when they should have shown ruthlessness and determination. England are simply unstoppable, even Sir Jadeja isn't able to keep the runs down.

Calm down, fella. This is England. 59/0 to 141ao in the first innings of the first test v New Zealand.

They need another 300+ yet MSP! And they have no batting beyond 6 in the order. India's in the bag, England at least giving us a bit of fun beforehand

Score one for the TV umpire...I was pretty sure live that one hit the ground so glad to see the diabolical on field soft "out" signal overturned...

I think msp is attempting a jinx. The opening stand only brings it down to 300 to get, which is a lot of runs!

VTR wrote:I think msp is attempting a jinx. The opening stand only brings it down to 300 to get, which is a lot of runs!

msp shares one trait with most England fans : he is always very nervous when India appear to have a game in the bag

This has indeed been an excellent start ; but I will hold off getting even slightly hopeful until these two have added at least another hundred !

But that warrants a cheer at least : a fine fifty for Lees

alfie wrote:Score one for the TV umpire...I was pretty sure live that one hit the ground so glad to see the diabolical on field soft "out" signal overturned...

They have to do away with soft signals - the umpires are literally guessing when doing it, if not they'd have given it out or not on field!

Look at Zak, playing those beautiful cover drives and drawing me in like an ex-posting a thirst trap on instagram

98/0. England now odds-on favourites and have nudged ahead on WinViz. But add two wickets to the score...

Think India will be starting to feel the first fledglings of concern. But England don't bat deep and are susceptible to sudden collapse. We saw the latter in one of these tests last year - England chasing 368, they were 100/0 and 141/2, before Bumrah destroyed the middle order and England were bowled out for 210. And that was with a much stronger tail with Robinson at 10!

Yes, a long way to go before calling this Chennai 2008 in reverse. Good to see Lees getting some runs and playing with confidence whatever happens. We still need a top 3 to emerge from somewhere

Ball change time. At the very least it will give India a lift in the field.

Nice to see a hundred opening stand !

Been here before though : Burns/Sibley ; Burns/Hameed ...didn't really lead on to regular monster starts.

But has been good to watch - and to see they are clearly playing with real intent and not being cowed by the scope of their task.

Think WINVIZ might be getting a bit carried away labelling England as favourites though !

And Bumrah time as he knocks off the top of Crawley's off-stump. His last test innings? Quite possibly unless he makes some runs in the County Championship this month.

Ah now that's a shame...Crawley had played really well ...until he chose to leave the wrong ball from Bumrah

Good bowling from the Indian skipper. That will probably change the odds rather dramatically...

Duty281 wrote:And Bumrah time as he knocks off the top of Crawley's off-stump. His last test innings? Quite possibly unless he makes some runs in the County Championship this month.

Hmm. He looked really good ; which will confirm the hopes they have for him. But he didn't make the BIG score that would more or less force his continued inclusion.

Before this innings I'd have said he had to be put out of his misery , at least for now. After today I suspect there will be discussions. We know Stokes has backed him pretty vigorously so they may be reluctant to discard him yet.

Does he have much CC game opportunity before the SA series ?

alfie wrote:

Duty281 wrote:And Bumrah time as he knocks off the top of Crawley's off-stump. His last test innings? Quite possibly unless he makes some runs in the County Championship this month.

Hmm. He looked really good ; which will confirm the hopes they have for him. But he didn't make the BIG score that would more or less force his continued inclusion.

Before this innings I'd have said he had to be put out of his misery , at least for now. After today I suspect there will be discussions. We know Stokes has backed him pretty vigorously so they may be reluctant to discard him yet.

Does he have much CC game opportunity before the SA series ?

Yeah, Kent have got 3 CC games in July (then the CC ends until September), before the South Africa series which starts in the middle of August, so a couple of tons for Kent might keep him in the side. Like you say, they do like the way he plays even if there's not a lot of return on investment.

That was England's fastest ever test opening stand.

107/1 at tea. If England continue at this pace the remaining target should be down to around 120-150 at stumps, which just highlights the enormity of the task in front of them.

Pope gone first ball. Bumrah made him look rather clueless with that beautiful delivery.

'India are right back in this test match' - no, KP, they're well ahead!

That ball change was a game changer...

First Crawley ...then Pope straight after tea. India right back in charge now.

Well bowled Bumrah

Wheels come off quickly...daft run out. Oh dear.

Can't expect Jonny to do it again Question of when India finish the job , not if.

Fun while it lasted...

Should have said 'add three wickets to the score'! Lees, never the best runner, has a horrific mix-up with Root.

Whilst I'm fine with the majority of the Indian team, Kohli is a complete moron. India would be better off being shot of him, especially with him not doing anything with the bat for three years.

That's really poor from Root.

Duty281 wrote:Should have said 'add three wickets to the score'! Lees, never the best runner, has a horrific mix-up with Root.

Whilst I'm fine with the majority of the Indian team, Kohli is a complete moron. India would be better off being shot of him, especially with him not doing anything with the bat for three years.

I guess he has to celebrate something these days

Duty281 wrote:Should have said 'add three wickets to the score'! Lees, never the best runner, has a horrific mix-up with Root.

Whilst I'm fine with the majority of the Indian team, Kohli is a complete moron. India would be better off being shot of him, especially with him not doing anything with the bat for three years.

I have a lot of admiration for Kohli ...he has done a great deal for Indian cricket , even if he may just possibly be in terminal decline now.

But some of his behaviour on the field is unacceptable. There are times when umpires should have a word.

Have to credit Jadeja with his role, as well. When NZ were bowling in the fourth innings they had no one who could stop the run flow. Jadeja's bowled a miserly spell since tea, with a negative outside leg line to frustrate England's scoring.

Run rate picking up again, but England still 202 adrift of victory.

70 minutes left in the day.

50 for Root, classic Root. Strike rotation between these two, as ever, has been excellent. India can't bowl enough dots and create pressure that way.

177 to get. Big last 50 minutes of the day, expecting to see a little more from Shami and Bumrah before stumps. And 34 overs from the new ball, which may still be a factor.

Well, well, well, it looks like England are going to do it again, in the test summer where nothing makes sense. Bairstow and Root combining with few alarms, and India seemingly unable to stop them. Run rate near five again and just 119 to get.

I suppose there'll be an initial burst tomorrow, from Bumrah and Shami, which could still alter the destiny of the test. One wicket brings out a mostly out-of-form Stokes, two and it's Billings, three exposes the lengthy tail. So a collapse is possible. But if England get through the initial burst there should be nothing stopping them. India might get to the second new ball tomorrow, but England will be very close to the target at that point (if not already there).

Worth mentioning also that India, like New Zealand, didn't quite put it out of reach. They should have pushed the lead beyond 400, but some good bowling and sloppy batting left the door a teeniest bit ajar.

India definitely still have a chance. Stokes could do anything tomorrow, in all likelihood he'll be charging down the wicket at everything. Could be out for nothing or a very damaging 30 or 40. Beyond that India have nothing to fear. Billings is probably not Test class, and Broad at 8 would have looked good around ten years ago

Good Lord ... how on earth do they keep giving us these wild rides ? Just when it seemed the ship was sinking fast , the two Yorkies produce another 150 run stand...

Hasn't been "Baz-ball" this time : more like old fashioned Test batting ; good running between wickets , pick off the bad balls ; still going at more than 4 and a half per over. Really pleasing to see they do have the good sense to temper their game to the situation despite all the sound-bite nonsense talk.

Root has been ... Root. Just totally in control. Jonny more restrained today (and has had a couple of slices of luck) : but they've put the game back in the balance - and assured the lucky people getting the free tickets for tomorrow of a live final day. Hats off to Edgbaston for following that theme from the last two games

Not calling it yet. Bats have to start again. Only Stokes really to follow : how I wish he were to be accompanied if need be by Foakes and Woakes

Will be a heck of a performance if they can do it ! Whatever happens , this has been another great Test Match...

Knew this was gone when the new ball failed to do damage. That passage around Tea give India another opening, but Vihari's drop of Bairstow meant that didn't eventually count.
Fine from Root and Bairstow. If England keep going at a positive rate tomorrow, they should be home comfortably before that 2nd new ball would be available.

I think for India to win they'll need at least one wicket in the opening twenty minutes to get England on the backfoot and open an end up. If Root and Bairstow establish themselves again, the game will run away quickly, as it did for New Zealand when they couldn't dismiss Root/Foakes from their overnight position. But if they get one wicket early then England might be wobbled.

Stokes...don't know what we'll get, if of course he has to bat! I'm assuming he will. He has played a good hand in two of England's incredible chases this year so far, but has looked mostly awful other than that. Billings produced a good support act in the first innings, though of course it's a different thing to reproduce it with the pressure of a test win on the line. Then the tail...hopeless. The last four managed 26 runs between them in the first innings, if they do that again I'll be surprised.

The new ball won't come into consideration if any of Root/Bairstow/Stokes are at the crease for a decent interval of time, but if it's a situation where Billings is trying to shepherd the tail with 40 to win, or even if it's just the tail trying to scratch out the last couple of dozen runs, then it will do.

I think the free tickets malarkey is quite concerning. Test attendances have been noticeably down, from what I've seen on TV so far this summer. Free tickets is an admission that they need freebies to fill up the seats, otherwise it'd be half-empty, and it's concerning to do this four times on the bounce. I know Birmingham is very multi-cultural/ethnic, but it seemed that the majority of fans in attendance today were the Indian supporters.

Do they also do drug testing after test matches? Because I was wondering if Kohli was trying to emulate Maradona at certain points, such as when Lees got run-out.

I'd ordinarily not favour an England win from this position, but after the last three tests... 

Anyway, looking forward to KP_Fan telling us how this was all in his script!

Can't remember having more fun watching test cricket than watching Joe Root bat these last 12-18 months - taken his game to a whole new level, and it's a total joy to watch. Ably supported here by Bairstow...with a chance to continue this ridiculous run of chases England are on at the moment tomorrow.

Like Duty/Alfie - it's far from done yet, for the reasons outlined re: long tail. You wouldn't want them needing even 20 odd with the likes of Broad/Potts et al against Bumrah with a new ball...so still plenty in the balance. But to even reach this point, is fairly unheard of for England chasing!

Duty - your point on attendances/ticketing...I think it's more reflective of wider society at the moment. Are folk really going to spend what £60-£100 on a ticket each, plus whatever extra on fuel/trains/food/drink to go watch the test, with the cost of energy/gas etc rising so much? I suspect a lot have looked and turned their nose up at paying that in the current climate.

From.almost winning position end of Day yesterday India got into almost losing position today

Why?

-complacency...we have enuf and 330 to 350 is enuf type of thoughts
So they did not apply themselves played casual and lose cricket on one hand
And Stokes created the enforcer bowling spell on the other hand

-Then they bowled not out of their skins but like millionaires, still floating in clouds thinking 360 is enuf
And tried to blast wickets

And when Eng counter attacked ....inexperienced Bumrah panicked
Blinked and spread fields

Pity how he misused world class Jadeja into a restrictive leg side line only...instead of letting him express his full range of skills on a wearing pitch

You need a strong leader who can cajole as well as kick backsides to shepherd bowlers and fielders.....that Kohli was and Rohit can, but Bumrah at least at this point can't
Strong shastri could be a proxy captain....Dravid ain't that either.

It's not a done deal yet for Eng....but from here they have to lose it

India must attack....don't give easy singles
Let Jadeja bowl left arm round to Right handers and try to take wickets one end ....and seamers on the other end

Jadeja is world class in India but his record as a bowler in England isn't particularly great, averaging over from 11 matches.

Jadeja isn't going to run through batting lineups in English conditions, who other than a Murali or Warne could do that among spinners? But he is surely a class act even in these conditions, keeping the runs down, and getting into the game as it progresses with key wickets. Don't think he has been best used in this game. Yes he did have an early spell in the 2nd innings, and after giving away a few easy runs, he had tightened up pretty well in between. But making him bowl a leg line with a view to only restrict, not the smartest way to go about...
I will be very surprised if India manage to turn this around... 245 bowled out was a terrible underperformance on this track that is basically a new ball only track for bowlers. Yes Bumrah and Shami did make the old ball do more than the English quicks did, but up against a quality player like Root, and Bairstow in his current form, this pitch is very much managable. And you are not really going to blast through lineups quickly on this one once the ball goes soft. That's why its so disappointing, that after doing all the hard work negating the new ball, even someone like Cheteshwar Pujara gave it away with some casual cricket. And then the bowlers couldn't do the job with the new ball, and when they were turning things around, the fielding let them down. Had that catch been held of Bairstow, things could still have been very different. India dropped at least 4 catches in the test, only the Bumrah drop could be considered difficult.

Nathan Lyon has always done pretty well in England, taking 45 wickets at under 32. Herath like Jadeja doesn't have a great record in England, as a rule I tend to think that spinners who perform well on the subcontinent will do less well in England and vice versa.

I still expect India to win from here, 119 is a lot of runs and there's not a lot of batting left after Root and Bairstow.

Yes I think India might have done better with their tactics...allowed Root and Bairstow far too many easy singles : looked as if they were a bit too afraid of the boundary hitting potential - with some justification of course ; but they ended up neither stopping the flow of runs nor really pressuring the bats.

Would defend Vihari a bit for the dropped catch : watching it live , ball went like a rocket ; and I think he was probably stood a bit close : did well to get hands up but those either stick or they don't. Would have been a big moment - things were pretty tight around that time.

Wonder how India will approach things today ? Obviously vital for them to break this pair early : how much will they attack with a ball 57 overs old ? No point surely in just trying to mark time to the new ball as the way England play the game could be all but over by the time it is due... Will be a tough test for the new skipper - especially as he is also the man most likely to turn the game back to his side with one of those magic spells.

At least none of India's bowlers has been overworked , with the overs shared out well. The (presumably) Bumrah/Shami burst on resumption will be key to this I think...

It's going to be gloomy today at Edgbaston, good bowling conditions I would say. India are only a couple of wickets away from exposing a very fragile tail. If they do that with even around 50 left, it's far from over

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

Duty - your point on attendances/ticketing...I think it's more reflective of wider society at the moment. Are folk really going to spend what £60-£100 on a ticket each, plus whatever extra on fuel/trains/food/drink to go watch the test, with the cost of energy/gas etc rising so much? I suspect a lot have looked and turned their nose up at paying that in the current climate.

I've got tickets for the Hundred at the oval in August, £45 each but on top of that have to pay £60 for travel in and out of London, hotel accommodation, food and a lot of alcohol. I'm expecting the day to cost over £300 in total, quite a lot for one day of cricket.

The cynic in me says the ECB thought they could put this at Edgbaston and charge whatever they want as Indian fans would pack the ground. I'm glad to see empty seats to be honest, prices to attend England matches have been spiralling for years and the calendar is completely oversaturated, especially with matches against India and Australia

VTR wrote:It's going to be gloomy today at Edgbaston, good bowling conditions I would say. India are only a couple of wickets away from exposing a very fragile tail. If they do that with even around 50 left, it's far from over

Typical doctored conditions for Clouderson again

VTR wrote:It's going to be gloomy today at Edgbaston, good bowling conditions I would say. India are only a couple of wickets away from exposing a very fragile tail. If they do that with even around 50 left, it's far from over

Especially with Bumrah. If you're building a bowler to mop up the tail Bumrah is fairly close. Quick, accurate, swings it, exceptional yorker, plenty of tricks. The unusual action with his release point being half a metre closer to the batter than most seamers must be horrible for less naturally talented batters to adjust to as well. Short of making him Jamieson's height or even quicker there's not much I'd change to make an on song Bumrah seem less pleasant to a bowler trying to have a stick.

And given that Bumrah can bowl 90mph at times, there isn't exactly much time to adjust if you do mis-judge the line initially.

I've seen quite a lot of people (not on here) posting as though England have this game wrapped up, but I still think it's very much live - slightly favour England, but it needs Root and Bairstow to get started again this morning before I start to have a bit more confidence.

India have to attack, no way around that. If Root and Bairstow are still there at 11, they've lost.

My pessimism has gradually increased since stumps. I think four against-the-odds chases, and this the biggest of the lot, is probably too much to ask for. And I think India are going to find more swing this morning than they did last evening.

Won't be an England Test Match without some nail biting

Christ, it really is miserable out there. Dark clouds, floodlights on.

Siraj to start.

Sounds like the ball is doing a lot, but these runs are coming rapidly, almost 40 runs in the first 30 mins, and quite a few of those from extras which is very poor. India need a wicket before this target gets below 50

Shami's bowled terribly this morning, no control whatsoever. Bumrah looks a bit of a danger at the other end, however. It's almost got away from India. 80 left.

They could not string together 3 tight overs in a row
too many wide, lose byes and hit me balls in the first hour

The inexperience of Yesterday continued into this morning
The team talk was the flawed blast off a wicket...instead of lets ball line, length with control and let the batsman make the mistake

Eng have to implode else its over for India and glorious history in the making for them