England in India - Oct to Jan 2012/13

[War]

Swann's bowling on day one reminded me of Warne's effort on the 1st day of the 2005 ashes test @ the oval. Where he single handedly lead aus attack on a flat pitch while the fast bowler were listless.

He is on the verge of big 5-wicket haul here & this series will go a long way in defining his legacy in the history of English spin bowlers.

Seems a typical indian pitch so far, although the bounce was alarmingly low - made Sehwag look good. When England bat its obvious already they need to play straight vs the spin, horizontal shots should be banned.

England already misisng Finn, since on a wicket like this were even reverse-swing is not being generated to date, you need somebody who can take the pitch out of the equation. Can't have Bresnan struggling to hit 80 mph - in hindsight maybe Meaker should have played.

Interesting next couple of the days in the making.

 

[Owzat]

BBC saying Cook may rue leaving out Panesar.

That and a tickle down the leg side from Sehwag off Anderson that was dropped by diving wicketkeeper Matt Prior were the only chances England's trio of pace bowlers created on a slow, low pitch that is already taking turn.

Indeed, the signs of deterioration and the fact the impressive Swann got through 32 overs may cause new captain Alastair Cook to rue the decision to leave out left-arm spinner Monty Panesar[/blue]

BBC Sport - India v England: Virender Sehwag punishes tourists in first Test

0/39 off 14 is "tidy" as I said, but not penetrative. I'm very surprised he didn't turn to KP with the seamers toiling away at around if not more than 4 rpo and with both spinners under 3 rpo.

England will need early wickets and apply some sense batting as suggested by War. While England's lower order may appear strong on paper, on paper isn't in India generally so what Prior, Broad, Bresnan and Swann might do on a pitch in England, even in Australia, South Africa or West Indies, doesn't mean they'll repeat the trick here.

Makes it important they don't concede many more, while we might think a score of 400-450 is par, that isn't factoring in how much our lot can struggle against spin. One too many sweeps and they'll be brushed aside before you know it.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

for me, getting in to bat is more important than the score, they'd be better conceding 150 runs over a session and a bit than they will trying to grind india down and only getting an hour at the end. the pitch will start spinning more and they want post runs before it gets too bad.

 

[animefan8241]

I know that it's easy to make judgements in hindsight, but I'm not sure that England have learned anything from the UAE in leaving Panesar out.

After the first test there, where they had one spinner in Swann, their batting crumbled in comparison to the Pakistanis, after which commentators were clearly saying "Look at the opposition. If they're playing two spinners, you play two spinners, especially if you're grossly unfamiliar with the conditions when compared to your opponents." (paraphrased)

Now I know that in itself isn't a compelling argument, but they fared so much better in the field in the 2nd and 3rd tests and were it not for their batting order imploding in the 2nd innings of the 2nd test, they would have won that.

Likewise in Sri Lanka, where the 1st test was lost on account of batting. It should be evident that when your opposition scores 318, a reply of 193 simply isn't good enough. The 2nd test was won on account of a KP special and another 94 from Cook, not because of Bresnan's inclusion, no offense to him.

Again during the buildup to this series, Ganguly said that the biggest advantage England have in this series is that they have two world-class spinners in Swann and Panesar, whereas most other teams only have one, if any. Yet Panesar is not playing, even though India are using two specialist spinners who clearly work well in tandem.

When I think about teams which have quality spin attacks, it comes in this order:
1. Pakistan 2. India 3. England 4. Sri Lanka

Don't make the bowlers suffer for the batsmen's failures.

 

[War]

Good god, i'm now realising the seriousness of this media boycott in this series. Major photo agencies aren't even on the ground. Where do these bcci clowns get off now, this has got to be unprecedented in cricket history.

 

[SaiSrini]

Idk how that justifies anything, but okay...

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That's stumps, pretty happy with what we've got so far, I'll take 324/4 after a days play every day of the week. Important we push on tomorrow though, look to pile on the runs before the pitch crumbles, which I predict to be later tomorrow or the day after.

I am not happy! Considering the way we started, we should have been 2 less wickets down, with atleast 20-30 runs more ahead..... Can't blame Sachin's approach against spinners, but I felt he could have given Swann a little more respect (also considering that he already had a boundary off that over).

England pulled the game back after that blitzkrieg first session. Even though India won the day, it was by just... One more wicket would have made the day even.

 

[barmyarmy]

for me, getting in to bat is more important than the score, they'd be better conceding 150 runs over a session and a bit than they will trying to grind india down and only getting an hour at the end. the pitch will start spinning more and they want post runs before it gets too bad.

Yeah I agree. How they play spin is ultimately more important they how they bowl. I'm worried about Bell tbh.

 

[Cricketman]

I'm a little disappointed too. I know I shouldn't be too greedy but seeing how the pitch was behaving I really think we could have capitalized more for the loss of less wickets. On the plus side, it is good to see Swann getting such assistance already on day 1. Ojha and Ashwin should be extremely potent.

 

[MUFC1987]

We were so sloppy again in the field, which didn't help. Would make for a great Test Match if the pitch stayed like this for the first 3 days or so, but I just imagine it will break up and turn square sooner rather than later.

We should be playing Panesar, but it seems like we didn't because we were worried about Broad breaking down or something, which is just bizarre. We should have picked Panesar over Broad if there were any doubts about his fitness. Bresnan bowling first change is on a hiding to nothing against Sehwag on that pitch.

 

[Aalay]

Hundred for Sehwag and a century stand for Sehwag and Gambhir. Very well proves that the two are indeed the best opening duo India has!

I agree on Sehwag part. I think he really looked good but can't agree about Gambhir. Gambhir was looking really scratchy throughout his innings. He was looking very uncomfortable against Swann even though he is the best player of spin in the Indian team. He couldn't adjust to the bounce and also looked confuse about which one was spinning and which one was going straight(arm ball). That tells me that Gambhir is still horribly out of form but one positive is that he spent some time on the crease which will surely boost his confidence.

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I don't know why people are saying that they are not happy with the score. We were scoring over run rate of 4 because of Sehwag. We all knew that as soon as Sehwag gets out, nobody will score that quickly. Pujara being no 3, you certainly can't expect that as he is just like Dravid. He will take some time to understand the condition of pitch and even after he has settled down, he won't score as quickly as Sehwag but he will slowly build his inning.

 

[SaiSrini]

One thing we need to do is try to bat out the day tomorrow. Probably by end of tomorrow, the pitch should do a lot more for the spinners. If Swann can do this well on Day 1, Ashwin and Ojha and that too, against ENGLISH BATSMEN, might probably be licking their lips... But we need to get 500+ which would mean we bat out almost the entire day 2 and then put a tired England in for a few mins on Day 2.

 

[Cricketman]

I'd like to see Dhoni declare after tea time tomorrow. Any score over 500 will be sufficient. Hopefully Pujara, Yuvraj, and MSD can get us there. After that, I would like to get into the England line up.

Interested to see how Compton fares on debut - Strauss has left big shoes to fill. I also wonder how captaincy affects Cook's batting.

 

[puddleduck]

Well so far Cook has generally done well in terms of batting with the extra pressure of being captain. Certainly in terms of the ODI team. Will indeed be big shoes for Compton to fill, although as long as he averages over 30 he'll have provided as much as Strauss did in the last 2 years of his career

I think India shouldn't be in any hurry to declare and instead should look to keep England in the field for as long as possible. The pitch will only get harder for England to bat on, and the more it becomes about survival rather than run scoring the better for India

 

[Epic]

What a blunder by the 3rd umpire, ball hits the boundary rope straight on it's a 6...

 

[SaiSrini]

Doff the hat for Chintu Pujara and his excellent hundred! He is very rapidly gaining some kind of a reputation in international cricket now for the kind of batting he has been doing in the tests that he has played after Dravid's retirement. Though both hundreds have come at home, still the technique he has displayed will hold him good stead for tougher challenges abroad.