England in India - Oct to Jan 2012/13

[RoboRocks]

The problem with Compton is he seems to get stuck. Like a lot of England batsmen in the Sub Continent, he doesn't have the ability to rotate the strike. 29 off 90 is too slow on pitches with turn and bounce. You should have at least 40 by then.

 

[vorgaphe]

KP looking good! Would love a big score from him today.

 

[aditya123]

This is a problem with loading your side with spinners. One will get underbowled and it tends to become one-dimensional when it doesn`t work. Has Dhoni forgotten Zak? The ball is now old and its well worth trying Zak now in this last hour. Its been far too much of the same the whole day now.

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England are bossing it at the moment and if they surpass our total we are going to be in real trouble on this pitch.

 

[Haarithan]

Unless England get a lead of around 150+ runs, I don't see India losing this match imho. Just ask Pakistan.

 

[Adarsh]

Aleem Dar's umpiring has been atrocious this match.

 

[Owzat]

Wow, England making a fist of a total - so far.

And naturally I highlight a player's bad form so they score some runs to prove me wrong Long may it (the partnership) continue, I think it will determine how close, level or past the enemy we can sneak.

Surely we have to be aiming at 400-450? We might not get there, but I didn't buy into suggestion this is/was a 200-250 pitch and I didn't buy into the suggestion that spin would dominate bat (entirely, I did expect England to struggle against it as usual)

Shame England aren't batting first, I think that would have made for an interesting contest, assuming scores etc stayed the same as they were now/end 1st innings

 

[RoboRocks]

India's fault really. DRS would have corrected these decisions!

 

[Satan666]

India have already lost the match unless a miracle occurs and they scrap towards a draw, Tendulkar continue his downward slide over the last couple of years, he has been the weakest batsman for the year and he deserves to be dropped ASAP! Failure is he!

 

[Lee1981]

Hope i'm wrong but i expect the standard collapse within the first hour of play tomorrow.

 

[Aalay]

India v England, 2nd Test, Mumbai, 2nd day : So far so flop for R Ashwin | Cricket Features | India v England | ESPN Cricinfo

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BTW

Delhi v Tamil Nadu, Ranji Trophy, Feroz Shah Kotla, 1st day Report : Unmukt Chand and Shikhar Dhawan score centuries | Cricket News | ESPN Cricinfo

Dhawan is doing very well.

 

[War]

I was there at the Wankhede yesterday and it was one superb day of test cricket. Had action all way through and I plan to go on other days as well. Harbhajan being picked doesn`t make me want to go today when India will be mostly bowling Its been a good wicket and you could see that there was bounce and carry for the pacers as well. Anderson was okay but Broad was bowling tripe. He would have got the same treatment had it been a Perth or Headingley wicket.

On another note, Ashwin does not seem like a tailender at all. He could easily be groomed into the allrounder`s slot and allow India to play 5 bowlers overseas. Is not just the runs but also the assured manner in which he gets them. Some of the strokes had shades of VVS to them. I want India to get bowled out around 300 and that would set it up for a very interesting test match.

Noone`s talking about the pitch here so I assume the curator`s got it right. This is one of the reasons why they must restrict test match cricket to grounds with Test culture. Ahmedabad, Mohali et al. mostly cater to ODI audiences and the wickets there are slow and flat. I don`t think they should get any test match cricket at all. Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Delhi, Kanpur, Chennai should be slotted as test match venues and they should be the only places that get test match cricket. BCCI could maybe allot more ODIs/T20s to the other venues but test cricket to only these venues. Its venues like Ahmedabad that are spoling test cricket`s reputation in India. Its very simple but the BCCI would`nt think logically as always. They would just like to ensure that they get votes from each state association and that would come first for them, not the quality of test cricket in India.

As for the crowds, There was a mad rush outside the ground yesterday at the counter. The Barmy Army are here and I spoke to a few of them, they reckon around 1000 of them are here and around 5000 of them will be going to the Eden Gardens test. The Army tried to get their chanting going but the wild lung power of the Indian supporters just killed any chances of a chant. Heartening to see soo much interest around test cricket. There might have been around 20k people in the ground yesterday while about 30k tickets have already been sold out. Expect far bigger crowds on other days when India bat again and as the weekend is upon us. I have always maintained that Test cricket in the major venues in India is as healthy as in England and Australia.

Yep fully agree with the bold, those tradition venues should be the ones hosting tests in india for sure instead of grounds like ahmedabad and mohali. Even as a non-indian it is quite clear from watching cricket in india, as you said that grounds like mumbai, bangalore, kolkatta is certainly as equally healthy as fans at lords, sydney etc...

 

[Gurjot95]

Pretty Sure, it's not because fans don't follow Test Cricket as much as they follow ODI in Mohali, there are large fan following and many of them enjoy Test Cricket more. I think the main you see less crowds there is that there are no sheds in Mohali whatsoever. People can't tolerate sitting under sun for 5 hours straight. PCA have to do something about infrastructure there to attract more viewers. That said, I don't know much about Cricket in Mohali but all my friends here in Ludhiana who follows cricket enjoys Test Cricket more than ODI.

OT: KP is well back to it's form and Cook is brilliant as usual. Can't understand the logic behind selection of Patel if you would give him ball for only 4 overs out of 115. Are England seriously short of good batsman?

 

[aditya123]

Pretty Sure, it's not because fans don't follow Test Cricket as much as they follow ODI in Mohali, there are large fan following and many of them enjoy Test Cricket more. I think the main you see less crowds there is that there are no sheds in Mohali whatsoever. People can't tolerate sitting under sun for 5 hours straight. PCA have to do something about infrastructure there to attract more viewers. That said, I don't know much about Cricket in Mohali but all my friends here in Ludhiana who follows cricket enjoys Test Cricket more than ODI.

OT: KP is well back to it's form and Cook is brilliant as usual. Can't understand the logic behind selection of Patel if you would give him ball for only 4 overs out of 115. Are England seriously short of good batsman?

Yes, your friends might enjoy but teh fact is that test cricket at traditional centers like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata has been played for years and there is a culture of attending test cricket in these venues similar to waht you see at the major venues in Australia and England. I don`t deny that fans in Mohali or Ahmedabad love their cricket but do they actually flock the venues for the matches? No. Do you ever see Chester Le Street hosting a major test match or Darwin/Cairns get an Ashes test? Even Hobart does not get any major test match action. The reason for that is that MCG, SCG, Lords etc and the respective cities have a test match culture. Ahmedabad and Mohali got to host World Cup QF and SF respectively and I had no issues with that but when it came to that because the wickets there suit ODI cricket perfectly. The same wickets, for test match cricket however end up making it tedious.

Darwin, Cairns or Chester le Street might have their fair share of test match lovers but one could easily say that they do not outnumber those in London or Manchester or Melbourne. For the sake of preserving test match cricket, the BCCI must finally nail down the test match venues. Its no rocket science to find out which venues would be those. Just randomly look at tests recentl played in Mumbai or B`lore or Chennai or Kolkata. Mumbai last year we saw a full house for a dead rubber against the Windies which turned out to be a final ball thriller. Kolkata`s last test was one against SA which again went down to the wire and was attended by a crowd of 50k+ on all days. The BCCI can`t see that, they are either blind to it or don`t care about the game.

 

[Papa_Smurf]

Nice to hear an opposition fan praise an upcoming player from India.

I'm a neutral

Monty has been sensational since his comeback earlier in the year. I really do believe that Flower should stop being so conservative and seriously consider England's main attack being Anderson, Finn, Swann and Panesar for Tests, rather than relying on Broad, Bresnan, and the other county trundlers who seem to get selected for batting rather than bowling.

 

[SaiSrini]

We need to find a way to keep Cook down to low scores. Even though we have two wickets, we still have a very dangerous pair batting at the crease, and they themselves can take England past our total tomorrow if we don't react quickly. The total of 327 now looks a little too small for our liking, though it makes for an interesting test match.

India will need to set England 250 odd in the second innings for us to have a good advantage.

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Pretty Sure, it's not because fans don't follow Test Cricket as much as they follow ODI in Mohali, there are large fan following and many of them enjoy Test Cricket more. I think the main you see less crowds there is that there are no sheds in Mohali whatsoever. People can't tolerate sitting under sun for 5 hours straight. PCA have to do something about infrastructure there to attract more viewers. That said, I don't know much about Cricket in Mohali but all my friends here in Ludhiana who follows cricket enjoys Test Cricket more than ODI.

OT: KP is well back to it's form and Cook is brilliant as usual. Can't understand the logic behind selection of Patel if you would give him ball for only 4 overs out of 115. Are England seriously short of good batsman?

Adi was mainly talking about the pitches that cater to the limited overs format. Mumbai has proved to be a far better pitch than the ones recently played on at Ahmedabad or Mohali. Pitches at Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai (which worryingly is going more towards batting), Kolkata, etc have been good for test cricket.