England vs India 1st test debate

First topic message reminder :

England side:

1) Andrew Strauss (C)
2) Alistair Cook
3) Jonathan Trott
4) Kevin Pietersen
5) Ian Bell
6) Eoin Morgan
7) Matt Prior (WK)
8) Stuart Broad
9) Graeme Swann
10) Chris Tremlett
11) James Anderson

India side.

1) Abhinav Makund
2) Gautam Gambhir
3) Rahul Dravid (WK)
4) Sachin Tendulkar
5) VVS Laxman
6) Suresh Raina
7) MS Dhoni (C)
8) Harbhajan Singh
9) Zaheer Khan
10) Praveen Kumar
11) Ishant Sharma

Should be a terrific match and series!

My Prediction: England to win

Series Prediction: 1-1

C'mon England!

cheers Billy, and to you.

without zaheer khan, india appear to have no match winning bowlers

well that's right but lots of batsmen.

yh i suppose lol :P

great knock from piertsen, although he was lucky, cos i thought that catch that dravid took, did carry, and he was lucky to get away with it

Controlled knock for KP , one his first for us. Only letting rip for the final 50.


Good support for him from Trott, Bell , Prior and Swann. Well done to Kumar with his fivefer. Only Broads was an easy dismissal.


I'm hoping for an unsettled weekend for India ,with plenty of cloud, mist and scattered stumps.

Unfortunately the weather forecast is looking good (as in sunny).

Good news though is that the pitch still has plenty in it, provided England bowl sensibly and will only get trickier once it starts to deteriorate.

Even so, England will have to bowl very well to come away with a 1st innings lead.

Master of the Late Cut wrote:Medium pace trundlers posing no threat to India.

Hey numbnuts - remind me who was India's best bowler?

Thats right - Kumar. No speed demon but he got 5 for 100-odd.

You don't have to be fast to take wickets.

Zaheer Khan is injured and in paine, but he has something to be happy about. There is someone emerging to support him. Praveen Kumar was long regardedas an ODDI specialist who swings the new ball. But in the West Indies series and now here at the home of cricket, PK has proved he is much more than just a new ball specialist in ODISs. 4 back to back good tests for PK, I just hope he adds a yard or to of pace while retaining his brilliant control, as Kevin Pietersen, his former RCB captain ones told him, noone can touch him.

Who was India's 2nd best bowler on the day? no Harbhajan, no Ishant, but Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He was the only other bowler other than PK who looked like getting a wicket.
Seriously, when are going to think of a life beyond the lackluster, inconsistent Harbhajan Singh?

harbajhan is too defensive nowadays

if we win this series, we should be no1, we have won a lot of series on the bounce, home and away!

England will need some early wickets tomorrow if we're gonna stand a chance of winning this. I think tomorrow could be a big day for Jimmy especially with the swing around.

Fernando
That guy is Wumming.You are welcoming WUMS?

Master of the Late Cut

Sehwag is just a Flat Track Bully overhyped by the Indians.His average in SA is 25.Average in NZ is 20.Average in England is 39.He cant bat for toffee on seaming wickets.Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel made him look like a schoolboy in SA last winter.

Guys I don't want any wumming today if there is i'll ask for this thread to be locked, so we can all just discuss the Cricket and not argue about it.

I have put a request to discuss the Wumming thing on the feedback thread.

If you are just going to allow WUMs to spill their bile, time after time after time, but not allow anyone to respond and not respond yourselves, this is not a place it is worth visiting.

And at the moment the admins and mods are giving the impression they are afraid to take on the WUMs so they tell off the people who respond to them instead.

Today is a big day for England, The win or draw will likely be determined. Anyone fancy Tendulkar for the 100?

Well said Cowshot.I salute you.

Play about to get under way

No real surprise that Tremlett and Anderson start off proceedings.

shankythebiggestengfan wrote:Fernando
That guy is Wumming.You are welcoming WUMS?

to be fair the posting style was exactly the same so the reaction was understandable.

also new ip doesn't always mean new person if he's using a proxy.

anyway, moving on. Should be a good days play. Conditions look good so i expect India are probably looking at 600 or so to set us a test.

First and most important question: Is it swinging?

First "Oooooh" of the day over the radio for that Anderson ball.

There is a bit of movement.

Down here in SW London the cloud seems to be thickening a bit.

Slice through gully! Definitely something here for the bowlers.

Sounding like more of the crowd supporting India here.

MCC toffs probably all asleep already.

Commentators just said the same.

I can understand it - I pay closer attention to England's innings as a rule. It's a batsman's game. Takes really good bowling to glue me to the airwaves. And spinners.

In fact cancel everything I said. I love it all!

yeah me too. Interesting they picked up on it. India either have more fans or they are just much more animated and, frankly, better at gettting behind their team.

decent start from the Indian openers, Mukund isn't entirely comfortable, but more importantly, he's still out there. Gautam has a huge responsibility though, one thing in India's favor is that Gambhir has often upped his game in challenging conditions.
And shanky, I hope that Sehwag comment is particular to a particular poster.

Tremlett has a bit of trouble with no balls, may be Swanny should be given an exploratory spel. I am sure he has already won the spinners contest against Harbhajan, even without bowling a ball.

morning msp.

Indian openers going well. Think it's going to be a long day for England. Still, there have been a few played-and-missed.

Gambhir gone! Broad selection looking not so silly now!

different to SL this.. everyone can bat for India not just the top 5.

Conditions looking lovely for the bat now.

fernando wrote:Master of the Late Cut is not the formerly known lebron, please do not accuse people of being something their not unless you have indisputable proof.Just because someone is a fan of a different country does not mean their all the same, everyone has different opinions weather you agree with them or not , if you don't agree you debate their comment welcome to the board Master of the Late Cut hope you enjoy your stay

Maybe so, but calling England's bowling "village green" standard and "medium pace trundlers", not to mention all the other disparaging comments he's made, I'd call him a pure Wind Up Merchant.

Seriously, look through his posts. I don't think there's a single one which doesn't have deliberately provocative comments. He's not interested in sensible debate - all he does is post comments trashing England and bigging up India. Basically he's the kind of poster that used to infest the old 606.

Great wicket Cowshot!

Gambhir gone - nice one Broad!

Just the start England needed. Hopefully that'll put a bit of doubt into the Indian batsmen's minds and we can start to put them under pressure.

Morning lads, hows the cricket been?

Gambhir goes, huge blow for India. and a wicket for Stuart Broad, who has pitched more balls up already than he did in the entire Lanka series.
Morning cowshot

valorous: chuckle. Can't take credit, I'm afraid. Still think it's going to be a long day for the England side. But the prospect of Tendulkar transcends national boundary and I'm hoping for some magic.

of course with these boys you always know that the top three are good but then.. then you've got the Tenderiser to deal with.

morning eirebilly:)

Cricket has been good, tense high quality stuff, from what I can hear. Tremlett perhaps a little disappointing.

Ok, cheers cowshot. Is it swinging out there?

A tad disappointing but he did ping one of the openers to the floor. I hope he does that with all these old batters too !

Jimmy could bowl better here too , he's trying hard but his bowling from the pavillion end wasn't that sharp.

Is it swinging out there?

chuckle. That was my first question, too. Yes, a bit, from what I can gather. But no-one's been talking about extravagant swing, so far. I don't have the impression that it's boomeranging around.

England no-ball problem suggests to me we are trying too hard in general.

Broad seems to be bowling the best of the three at present.

Mukund plays on! Second for Broad!

bit of a come back from the young man here.

Like Lloyd says. he has all the facets of a great bowler but her has to get his head right.

Wow - Broad's on a roll today!

Mukund gone 1 short of his 50. Unlucky, but great bowling by Stewie!

Game on!