England's Winter of Cricket 2023/24

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I haven't seen a ball from today. Not sure I want to seeing the scorecard.

I woke up early for work, checked the score, saw the collapse, felt sad. Then didn't look again until after close.

It all looked so promising for a moment.

All very well to ask for "intent" , Olly. Hartley tried , did he not ...and got out after one successful shot. Two players gone past 15 in the innings , just four made even double figures. Says batting is tough however you try and play.
A little surprised to see India placing several boundary riders for Foakes. Not sure he's a big hitter by nature...think he will try and nibble a few more , try to get this around 200. So they are probably giving up singles here instead of going for the throat , for fear of a few boundaries. They obviously don't want to be chasing any more than they have to. Time will tell whether this tactic is correct.

Pitch is looking like gone to sleep again

alfie wrote:Gone two balls later

Have a swing now , Ben ?   India almost unbackable favourite now unless England's bowlers can induce similar panic in their batsmen...

All Duty's fault for saying England's odds attractive at 4/6

I feel its time for Stokes to really annoy Duty by declaring!

Foakes isn't the one to blast away, but he's resisting as well as he can, and Bashir playing in a more measured way than he did in the first innings. England crawling along, but this could be a chase where every run could matter. And they are batting time, meaning India will have to bat on a pitch getting older. Though about this track, predictions have been a tricky business, more than anything that actually is happening on it.

Think Rohit should have a go with his pacers. One of them, preferably Siraj just to change things around for Bashir...

Foakes trying things that don't come to him naturally and almost gets out in the process. Saved by a slight edge on review. Think he should keep on in the same way as he was doing earlier, inching along is fine for England I feel.

Foakes refusing singles... Bashir to his credit, has done a very fine job so far of just sticking it out there... India might just be getting a bit frustrated...

VTR wrote:

alfie wrote:Gone two balls later

Have a swing now , Ben ?   India almost unbackable favourite now unless England's bowlers can induce similar panic in their batsmen...

All Duty's fault for saying England's odds attractive at 4/6

I feel its time for Stokes to really annoy Duty by declaring!

Has to be a strong contender for post of the series.

Foakes is able to take singles whenever he wants. He hasn't been much challenged when it comes to farming the strike. Rohit and India not doing a great job there...

Agree , msp. : Foakes isn't really equipped to monster the bowling on this surface, defending and taking the (easily available) singles is only slowly edging up the score ; but it is as you say making sure India will have to bat completely - or nearly from the start - on a fourth day pitch. Though with this funny pitch hard to say how much difference that will make !

He's gone now though... Going to need the last pair to try and nudge this over 200...

Ashwin having a very good day

A rather purposeless inning from Foakes
Would have been meaningful if this was last session in D5 and draw round the corner

Jimmy joins Pope with a pair for the game...

Bit of a freakish way to get out but India won't care. Sharp work from Jurel who's having a great day

192 to win. A walk in the park ?

1 brings 2 and Jimmy brings reverse , his pet shot to spin and falls to reverse.
India needs to bat positively and knock off 30 to 40 runs for no loss today

From where England started the day to defending 191 can really only be termed a disaster honestly. 2 day tests the future?

Not sure this is an easy chase all the same

Lot of damage done in the morning session. India really should not have been allowed to get within 46 runs. One dropped catch proved very costly ; and I felt they were just a little too passive at times. Ball wasn't doing much , to be fair ; but perhaps they could have pressed the batsmen a bit more. Ancient history now...

Really disappointing innings then. Not that it was reckless batting - the usual accusation levelled at them. Just didn't cope with very good bowling from three very different spinners on a pitch that was definitely giving a lot more help this afternoon.

You'd think India will have this chase covered unless they lose early wickets and the nerves take over. They've certainly started positively enough here : a quick thirty now will kill any pressure. I think I'd have opened with Anderson not two spinners.

India cruising. Easy rapid thirty runs and haven't looked like getting out. Root and Hartley are no Ashwin and Jadeja

Stokes used his bowlers well yesterday ; but I think he's pulled the wrong string a few times today. Full tosses are gifting vital runs... Think a few exploratory overs from the seamers before letting the spinners loose would have been a much better choice.

So India go to the close at a comfortable 40/0 . Game is over I'm afraid... Which will be a huge disappointment for England ; but they've consistently failed to take advantage of their good positions - usually on day three. They've played pretty well in parts ; but India are very hard to defeat at home . And as we so often see , the stronger team usually manages to prevail over the long haul. Full credit to India for a terrific team effort today

The Indians, regardless of pitch and conditions, would never underestimate old man Anderson. Poor tactics from Stokes not to open the bowling with him. Hartley kept bowling legside and bowling full-tosses, at least with Anderson, you'd not get easy runs...

The last half hour of the day, the Indian batting went a long way towards moving game in India's favor

150 to get tomorrow and Indians know they can do in 15s and 20s with all wickets in hand.
.and batting down to 10.
No big innings needed.

Eng helped Indian cause, by bowling easy pies with too many full pitch deliveries from spinners.
So many boundary riders means easy singles and put the rubbish balls away.
Anderson should have bowled and held one end tight. There is much greater chance of him nibbling one and getting a nick.

This pitch is just unpredictable but what is there is a bit of uneven bounce with a few balls keeping low. Not much spin otherwise, and the bit of turn available is slow. The pitch in general is slow, so a batter defending well, should be able to deal with the low bounce with a bit of luck.
It was important for England to not let India score as much as they did today even if they didn't take a wicket. That's where Anderson wasn't deployed well, he should most certainly have taken the new ball...
Early wickets tomorrow can do funny thing to the mindset of the rest, so England should believe they aren't out of it by any means. Afterall, they could reduce India from 85-1 to 177-7 in the first innings.

R Ashwin in his end of the day interaction, hinted that he hasn't been at 100 percent with his knee acting up a bit... Regardless of that, he finally produced a performance that India would have expected of him throughout the series. Must say though, that he still didn't seem at his absolute best after those new ball overs... The knee may have something to do with it...

Can only think Stokes wanted to ensure Jimmy got a nights rest before bowling. But yes , was essential not to allow a runaway start so he should have taken one end at least for the first few overs. Plenty of time to deploy the spinners tomorrow...or there would be if India weren't already within 150.
May not have made a difference, of course : we can never say for sure what would have happened "if" - which people often forget when ranting . I reckon Stokes gets it right far more often than not : but I do think he got it badly wrong this evening. Not that my opinion is very meaningful in this context : easy from the sofa and our choices never get tested.

Still a sliver of a chance for a contest tomorrow I suppose...one brings two , bit of nerves in the dressing room ... But I'll be astonished if India mess this up from here.

Can't see any contest tomorrow really, its not a big enough target in the end, and it's always far more likely that England collapse to India's spinners than the other way round. Could actually see an 8 or 9 wicket win, which would look comfortable but has been anything but at times

alfie wrote:Can only think Stokes wanted to ensure Jimmy got a nights rest before bowling. But yes , was essential not to allow a runaway start so he should have taken one end at least for the first few overs. Plenty of time to deploy the spinners tomorrow...or there would be if India weren't already within 150.
May not have made a difference, of course : we can never say for sure what would have happened "if" - which people often forget when ranting .  I reckon Stokes gets it right far more often than not  : but I do think he got it badly wrong this evening. Not that my opinion is very meaningful in this context : easy from the sofa and our choices never get tested.

Still a sliver of a chance for a contest tomorrow I suppose...one brings two , bit of nerves in the dressing room ... But I'll be astonished if India mess this up from here.

Hope this isn't too much of a mini-rant and tbf I did earlier emphasise that the clutter of England wickets was going to deprive our bowlers of valuable rest BUT Jimmy can have a good kip from tomorrow until T5 starts on Thursday week if he wants.

Although the preparation was far from ideal, we needed Anderson bowling tonight.

That's not just being said with hindsight. Being open and honest, I would have opened with him and Hartley; on paper from the armchair, that would have been a nice mix of seam and spin with Jimmy's skill and experience to accompany Tommy's developing maturity and low economy as shown in the first innings. As it happened, Hartley's inexperience shone as he bowled like a drain and got clobbered. However, probably all the more reason to have Anderson at the other end. Far from convinced that Root should have had first dibs with the new ball; having bowled one solitary over in India's first dig, he sent down 4 non-threatening overs which, although not as expensive or awful as Hartley's, were still somewhat milked.

Ashwin didn't open the bowling just because he's a spinner but also and significantly because he's an experienced and canny operator. Often you just need to go with your best bowler. If Bumrah had been available to Rohit, I think that he would have opened alongside Ashwin. As Alfie says, we'll never know what would have happened if Anderson had taken the new ball but I doubt that our chances would be worse than they are now.

alfie wrote:Lot of damage done in the morning session. India really should not have been allowed to get within 46 runs. One dropped catch proved very costly ; and I felt they were just a little too passive at times. Ball wasn't doing much , to be fair ; but perhaps they could have pressed the batsmen a bit more.  Ancient history now...

Really disappointing innings then. Not that it was reckless batting - the usual accusation levelled at them. Just didn't cope with very good bowling from three very different spinners on a pitch that was definitely giving a lot more help this afternoon.

Actually think nowhere near enough intent was shown - they let Kuldeep settle in and once Crawley went it, everyone was waiting for the ball with their name on it.

The Robinson drop earlier in the day the costly moment - albeit I do think in this instance a lot of credit needs to go the Indians way today. Jural batted superbly and Ashwin/Kuldeep then produced a couple of great spells in the afternoon to restrict England. Far more credit to the Indians for simply being better than England I think today, than what happened in the previous test

Also it may seem a bit of a vendetta, and admittedly today was a tough situation to do some boshing in...but I do think it should be noted Ben Foakes debuted 6 years ago now, and has not developed (or seemingly even tried to) his ability batting with the tail at all.
It's a key part of most, if not all, wicket keepers roles at international level and is a real issue in his game.

VTR wrote:Can't see any contest tomorrow really, its not a big enough target in the end, and it's always far more likely that England collapse to India's spinners than the other way round. Could actually see an 8 or 9 wicket win, which would look comfortable but has been anything but at times

Yeah, that would definitely be a shame. A bit like T2. Although we lost that by over 100 runs, we were the frontrunner at times and IF (ok, the ''if'' is biggish but not world shatteringly massive) Stokes had batted second dig another hour or so for 16 or 17 overs when he was just starting to get going with Foakes riding side saddle, the result could have gone the other way. Certainly not as comfortable as the final score suggests.

And while I am criticising players, it's a bloomin disgrace that Robinson was again bowling 120mph dobblers at tops and barely getting the ball to the wicket keeper - what exactly has he been doing all winter?

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Also it may seem a bit of a vendetta, and admittedly today was a tough situation to do some boshing in...but I do think it should be noted Ben Foakes debuted 6 years ago now, and has not developed (or seemingly even tried to) his ability batting with the tail at all.
It's a key part of most, if not all, wicket keepers roles at international level and is a real issue in his game.

Hi Olly - if it is a vendetta, you know you're not alone. I note KP_f referred earlier to Foakes' ''rather purposeless'' batting.

Yes, it wasn't easy today but we still should have more power and better placement from someone holding down the number 7 role.

He partnered Bashir for more than 12 overs but scored just 11 during that time in a partnership that really went nowhere and amounted to only 12. Towards the end of their grind, the former skipper in me (Sunday seconds, anyway) was half-tempted to turn to seam to try and blast a wicket. However, Rohit correctly reckoned that no damage was being done and a wicket would arrive.

Incidentally, I thought Rohit handled his bowlers well. In particular, not using Deep at all second dig. Not because I don't rate Deep - quite the opposite, he impressed on the first morning and deserved his three wickets. Simply because he wasn't needed whilst the introduction of pace might have upped the scoring rate, whether through design or, more likely, an accidental edge. Nonetheless, the temptation to turn to his debutant must have been there for Rohit and it was to his credit and the team's good that he resisted it.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:And while I am criticising players, it's a bloomin disgrace that Robinson was again bowling 120mph dobblers at tops and barely getting the ball to the wicket keeper - what exactly has he been doing all winter?

We're pretty much as one today although I would have called them legside dobblers.

Re:Foakes, I assumed that England had tasked him with taking the innings into day 4 so that England would have the choice of roller used overnight - or is that not how it works? If that wasn't the case then I agree that it was a very odd innings.

Robinson's showing this Test has been very poor, he's always been medium-fast rather than fast-medium but hasn't even been Sam Curran speeds this Test, but without the latter's left-arm angle or hooping swing, and even without Robinson's usual accuracy. It's surprising giving how well he bowled in Pakistan on less helpful pitches.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:And while I am criticising players, it's a bloomin disgrace that Robinson was again bowling 120mph dobblers at tops and barely getting the ball to the wicket keeper - what exactly has he been doing all winter?

Two things that made me laugh at and think about this issue.

The first, my dad mentioning that England did pick 3 spinners after all and the new offie Robinson is getting lovely drop on his arm balls.

The second, a friend noting that Robinson's speeds in this Test have been closer to Joe Root's bouncer than Robinson's pace when he's good.

I generally think that the speed gun gets too much focus. Especially in England where bowling seam a bit slower sometimes elicits more movement. Robinson is an insanely talented bowler that's bowling Collingwood speeds though. It's embarrassing. I don't see how it can be anything other than a lack of conditioning again. Go for a f***ing jog during the winter mate.

Yas Rana from Wisden looked up the Cricviz data. Apparently Robinson in the first innings was 5mph slower compared to when he was excellent against SA and in Pakistan. Depressing.

James100 wrote:Re:Foakes, I assumed that England had tasked him with taking the innings into day 4 so that England would have the choice of roller used overnight - or is that not how it works? If that wasn't the case then I agree that it was a very odd innings.

This was my presumption. The batting side at the start of the day chooses the roller. Prevailing wisdom is that the light roller settles Indian pitches for around an hour, whereas the heavy roller just breaks up the top surface of these dry tracks and makes it much tougher to bat. When I saw the RR with Foakes and Bashir, I presumed that they were just trying to bat until close, get the heavy roller on in the morning.

I haven't seen a ball today either live or in highlights due to work. I had the cricinfo scorecard with their text comms on at times, so was following it live at times. From their usually reliable commentary it sounded like Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep bowled very well.

I'll likely watch the highlights at least as I'm a glutton for punishment apparently. It's a very dispiriting scorecard to read just when it looked like they were in the driving seat to go into a decider a 2-2.

Batting has looked easier in the morning of D2 and D3. Likely because of that light roller settling it. I fear it's as good as over given Jaiswal's form, scoring rate and playing of spin.

Highly disappointing day from England, after so much good work to get ahead in the test. Looks like I did jinx them. That's what I get for optimism.

England fell into the old trap with Jurel. They gave up on getting him out, gifted him easy singles, and put all their effort into dismissing the tail. But Yadav and Deep, Yadav especially, provided sterling resistance.

I'm absolutely tired of Robinson. Numerous chances, numerous warnings, numerous everything, and still he trundles in half-fit, despite not playing a test yet this tour. It's disgraceful. I've said before I would drop him permanently because he's really not worth the aggro, and this is why.

With the bat, aggression was the right approach, because it's the type of pitch where you can just get one that leaves you beaten, and so Crawley and Bairstow were correct. But Root got stuck again, as did Duckett. Pope got a very good delivery, as did Stokes. Bairstow's dismissal was disappointing. I understand criticism of Foakes' mentality, but you can't expect a glass of orange juice to become Coca Cola.

Even so, defending 192 put the game in the balance, on that pitch. But Stokes made another captaincy blunder. His choice was:

a) Bowl Bashir. A proper bowler, who took five-for in the first innings and was the best for England in the innings.
b) Bowl Root. A part-timer, with a test bowling average of 45.

Stokes chose option b and surrendered the initiative immediately. Anderson was also worth a go with the new ball, but going for Hartley was understandable.

Is it all over? Not quite. Three or four wickets can fall very quickly on this. 40/0 can easily become 65/4 and a different game. But India are certainly ahead after those first eight overs. They'll look to get this done in the morning session.

If England do lose this test, it'll be highly disappointing. To go 3-1 down after four, against a much weaker Indian side than three years ago, and in this one missing Bumrah, and after being in such a commanding position, will further underline that England haven't made steps forward under the new regime.

king_carlos wrote:

James100 wrote:Re:Foakes, I assumed that England had tasked him with taking the innings into day 4 so that England would have the choice of roller used overnight - or is that not how it works? If that wasn't the case then I agree that it was a very odd innings.

This was my presumption. The batting side at the start of the day chooses the roller. Prevailing wisdom is that the light roller settles Indian pitches for around an hour, whereas the heavy roller just breaks up the top surface of these dry tracks and makes it much tougher to bat. When I saw the RR with Foakes and Bashir, I presumed that they were just trying to bat until close, get the heavy roller on in the morning.

I haven't seen a ball today either live or in highlights due to work. I had the cricinfo scorecard with their text comms on at times, so was following it live at times. From their usually reliable commentary it sounded like Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep bowled very well.

I'll likely watch the highlights at least as I'm a glutton for punishment apparently. It's a very dispiriting scorecard to read just when it looked like they were in the driving seat to go into a decider a 2-2.

Batting has looked easier in the morning of D2 and D3. Likely because of that light roller settling it. I fear it's as good as over given Jaiswal's form, scoring rate and playing of spin.

Hi James and Carlos - I have to admit I hadn't thought about the roller. Not mentioned on comms either as far as I'm aware. You could of course be right but there were something like 22 overs left in the day when Foakes and Bashir came together. Would they really have been playing from then for stumps so as to get the call on the roller in the morning? I very much doubt it. Such a lengthy and drifting approach (which never seemed to change) doesn't sit comfortably with perceived views, rightly or wrongly, of Bazball.

And yes, India's spin trio bowled very well. Best of all for me was Ashwin at the start although Kuldeep's consistency and control were admirable.

Do force yourself to watch and suffer the highlights. You'll at least adore Jimmy's dismissal for Ash's fivefer. A wonderful reflex catch by Jurel. Astute and funny cricket.

India has one hand grip on the game and finger tips of the other hand too.
Tomm not the cliched 1st session or first hour, but the first 40 minutes will be make or break for Eng.

Rohit & Jaiswal are Ind's two best hitters and since they have 10 wkts in hand, they will continue to attack and hit over the top.
If they bat 40 minutes they would have added 35 to 50 runs leaving required between 100-115ish, which then will be accomplished hassle free in auto-pilot mode.

Eng on the other hand have to get 1 in first half hour and 2 in the hour minimum to make a game out of it....and make it 70-2 -ish at the end of first hour.
Then Indians will go in safe mode, pushing, nudging scratching and accumulating and lose more wickets. Even in this case I think Ind will win by about 4 wkts ....but the game will be on the edge with a "you never know"  hanging in the air until the end.

And for Eng to do that their last & only throw of dice has to be Anderson & Bashir for the first hour
(unless Stokes will unleash the promised spell of 140kph reverse swing )

The pitch would have been light roller rolled again tomm morning which will settle it for another hour, i.e 15 odd overs in addition to 8 overs under the effect of roller today.
And if the two openers bat the hour required runs will be down to about 80 odd.
If when chasing smallish 4th inning total a team gets about 25ish overs of pitch settled by roller than then it's not as difficult as a 4th inning chase normally sounds on a worn wicket.

I don't get excited or concerned by MOM award generally......but here if India go on to win, MoM should be Jurel...it was a solid, sensible stroke filled inning under tremendous pressure.
Otherwise it will be one of Bashir or Hartley that would have collapsed Ind to a defeat.

I'd be very surprised if Foakes was playing the way he did because of the roller factor. It was too far away to give them a realistic chance... Don't think he has the game to blast away as I noted earlier, but he could certainly been proactive... Think England is reaching a point wherein they have to think beyond Foakes and Bairstow both sooner rather than later. The latter may have some credit in the bank, but when Brook returns, he'll have to be fit and conditioned enough to take the gloves, or else they'll have to think of someone else for that role. Noticed Smith and Rew being mentioned. Might have to take a punt on them sooner... What about the other Oliver Robinson? Had a couple of scores in the A tour hasn't he? How is he with the gloves and bat?

KP_fan wrote:
...

I don't get excited or concerned by MOM award generally......but here if India go on to win, MoM should be Jurel...it was a solid, sensible stroke filled inning under tremendous pressure.
Otherwise it will be one of Bashir or Hartley that would have collapsed Ind to a defeat.

I always enjoy the MOM award but, similar to picking my side for the next Test, always wait until the current Test is finished. However, I feel it's not premature to say Jurel could be a contender.

king_carlos wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:And while I am criticising players, it's a bloomin disgrace that Robinson was again bowling 120mph dobblers at tops and barely getting the ball to the wicket keeper - what exactly has he been doing all winter?

Two things that made me laugh at and think about this issue.

The first, my dad mentioning that England did pick 3 spinners after all and the new offie Robinson is getting lovely drop on his arm balls.

The second, a friend noting that Robinson's speeds in this Test have been closer to Joe Root's bouncer than Robinson's pace when he's good.

I generally think that the speed gun gets too much focus. Especially in England where bowling seam a bit slower sometimes elicits more movement. Robinson is an insanely talented bowler that's bowling Collingwood speeds though. It's embarrassing. I don't see how it can be anything other than a lack of conditioning again. Go for a f***ing jog during the winter mate.

Yas Rana from Wisden looked up the Cricviz data. Apparently Robinson in the first innings was 5mph slower compared to when he was excellent against SA and in Pakistan. Depressing.

It's ridiculous, because he is so talented! You even saw it in this test with the bat - he genuinely could be a bat at 8 at test level if he applied himself and the leader of our attack post Broad/Anderson if he did the same with fitness/bowling, but just seems that penny is never going to drop for him.
I'd honestly rather see Potts in the setup going forward - someone who does give 110% and is striving to improve in all facets by all accounts (and had a great Lions tour this winter), and hope sticking him back on the county circuit will buck Robinson's ideas up (albeit, I wouldn't hold my breath...)

msp83 wrote:I'd be very surprised if Foakes was playing the way he did because of the roller factor. It was too far away to give them a realistic chance... Don't think he has the game to blast away as I noted earlier, but he could certainly been proactive... Think England is reaching a point wherein they have to think beyond Foakes and Bairstow both sooner rather than later. The latter may have some credit in the bank, but when Brook returns, he'll have to be fit and conditioned enough to take the gloves, or else they'll have to think of someone else for that role. Noticed Smith and Rew being mentioned. Might have to take a punt on them sooner... What about the other Oliver Robinson? Had a couple of scores in the A tour hasn't he? How is he with the gloves and bat?

Hi msp - yes, your opening re Foakes / the roller tallies with my earlier comments.

As posted a few days ago, I don't think Smith is good enough to keep regularly in Tests and would anyway prefer him to concentrate on his batting where I believe he has very considerable potential.

I haven't seen Rew or the other Robinson although am hoping to watch the former keep when Surrey play Somerset at the Oval in April.

I understand your doubts about Foakes and Bairstow. Not shooting those doubts down at all but it is of course important that any replacement keeper when picked is able to perform decently in the here and now even though (it's hoped) he will be even better a year or two down the line. Not often an easy balance to get.

guildfordbat wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:And while I am criticising players, it's a bloomin disgrace that Robinson was again bowling 120mph dobblers at tops and barely getting the ball to the wicket keeper - what exactly has he been doing all winter?

We're pretty much as one today although I would have called them legside dobblers.

Robinson has for me been the big disappointment of the tour. I honestly expected him to be a significant factor on this trip and was surprised he hadn't seen action until this fourth match : perhaps the management knew more than me ! OK he did play a very handy innings - which shouldn't  be ignored , of course ; but in his primary role he was very unimpressive and the lack of any pace bewildering. Surely I didn't dream seeing him bowl in Pakistan a year ago ? Plus his fielding has been basic at best - and that dropped catch looked like a less than committed effort... Oh : and that second innings bit of stupidity : why not at least try and get settled ? Foakes was in and two more bats to come ...

I don't want to give up on him - we have seen what he can do at his best. But after all the discussion about his need to work on fitness , build endurance etc  - yesterday has me scratching my head. Love to see him with a matchwinning five wicket haul today but not holding my breath

I'm not going to be too critical of Foakes for that strange innings - rather ineffective though it was in the end. Batting hadn't been easy for anyone against the spin trio so it wasn't reasonable to expect Foakes to play some kind of Stokes-like hand - reckon if he'd tried to he'd have perished rather quickly. Playing very carefully made some sense.

However : by dropping the field back instead of attacking I thought Rohit made life fairly easy for him - easy singles everywhere. What I felt he might have done is trust Bashir more and just take them whenever able - hope his partner could give the strike back and go again. Might have ended things quicker of course ; but equally could have brought more runs than they actually made. Might also have had India batting earlier which was probably not what England wanted : so really any choice had its issues and I can't blame him for failing to come up with a more dynamic plan.

The wicket keeper debate will run for ever anyway , whoever is in the job. My own view is a little "horses for courses" unless you have someone who can do everything anywhere - but I'll leave that discussion for another day.

The bit about the roller makes some sense. Trouble was once England lost that clutch of wickets before and after tea it was highly unlikely they would last to end of day however they played. Interestingly India didn't seem bothered about taking a long time to wrap up the innings : were apparently much more concerned about conceding any late runs which suggests they didn't see it as a huge issue.
The way this pitch has played generally I'm still unsure how it will behave today. Suppose it could go totally crazy - which might make the chase tricky yet. But more likely we will see more of the same with the odd ball doing something really weird (good luck if you're facing !) but mostly just a lot keeping low and some spinning more than expected. In which case I fear we will see the limitations of the young and raw English spinners - who have done pretty well on this trip I think ; but can't replicate the sort of sustained performance the likes of Jadeja and Ashwin can summon with their years of experience.

Close to a start now so getting ready to watch - more in hope than expectation , to be honest. Oddly enough I think I'd be fairly hopeful had they managed to bag one of the Indian openers last night - but that rapid forty has rather dowsed my natural optimism.

Still some odd things have happened on this pitch over the three days so if a couple of wickets were to fall early on , we might still see the tension build.

Anyway am on duty here with reports for when you home based England fans wake up - by which time it may be all over

Possibly nine overs too late but Anderson to start the bowling today...

Steady start. In- out field set , decent pace (135-138) , maiden.

Bashir at the other end. So the combination most expected last night

Bit of bounce and spin for him so somewhat promising...

Rohit is in the mood ! After blocking nine balls he's suddenly lofted Anderson over mid on for six ! Fifty up...

Rohit playing very well here as he sweeps Bashir for four...Nothing evil from the ball seen yet. Hartley replacing Jimmy. At 66/0 England really need something happening very soon or this will run right away fast.

Review now ...Jaiswal was well forward but it did look quite straight..,ah but Wilson has detected an edge so irrelevant. Looked like pad first viewing front on but the technology shows otherwise. Good over for Hartley but no joy still...71/0

Has been good cricket from these two bats. Very positive, prepared to use feet , pouncing on anything loose...and a few sweeps , which have perhaps been a little risky but so far have come off. Boundaries coming and the runs are flowing nicely so any anxiety about the chase has surely been banished already. 82/0

First 35 min, 42 runs and a short break
Indians have gone for their shots and connected.
Pitch has shown no demons at all and Anderson uncharacteristically ineffective

Good Morning Alfie