England in India

[SaiSrini]

Its not wide open yet...but if England can score upto a lead of 200, yea...the game will be wide open. Lead of 200 will be critical for England because they will have minimum of two sessions and few early wickets can put India under pressure.

What ever the lead is, I'm sure Sehwag will try to score fast, to try to give india an early advantage. Don't be surprised (like the last test) to see Pathan/Dhoni sent up the order for some quick runs.

if England can get a lead of 200, then the game is destined to be a draw. I cant see India making a mess of it. They will definitely send Dhoni and/or Pathan up the order, but a lead of 200 definitely means a draw! But that will take some doing to get to a lead of 200!

Anything less than 160 in the final session is achievable for India! They can go for the win!

 

[BigCrickNan]

Yes anything around 200 can be gettable, looking at South Africa v Asutralia .

 

[sohum]

Well, as barmyarmy said, the only chance I see England twisting this game for a win is if they get bowled out early. I don't think they'll win if they try to set a target, becuase they'll probably spend too much time in the middle. England have shown a strong resilience when their backs have been against the walls--setting a target of about 150 with about 2 sessions to go is exactly that situation.

 

[cricket_lover]

M. Patel strikes early, Jones gone. 116/6 now, its upto Plunkett and Hoggard to hang around Flintoff.

 

[varunvgiri]

Beautiful bowling by Munaf. Reverse swing is amazing. But I think he's getting tired now. Just 2 more wickets to go now.

 

[cricket_lover]

About 40 runs added by Hamirson and Flintoff, frustrating India. Lead of 140 odd, still lot of work to be done.
Anything upto 200 is gettable, but if these two can add another 30-40, India will have a task in their hand.

181 allout, Kumble and Patel bag 4 wickets each while Chawla bags his first wicket in test cricket.

144 to win. Can India win with ease? Will England strike back?

 

[sohum]

If India lose this match, they clearly do not deserve to be number two in the world. The hard work's done. The asking rate is not difficult, they could even stick it out and win. But I hope they do so in style.

 

[alfa_beta]

144 is way too less to trouble india too much - a single decent innings (50+) is enough to win india the match and I'm sure at least one batsman is good enough to do it.

Well played india!!! They totally dominated the game from 3rd day onwards and a game, which looked heading for a draw is india's for the taking.

 

[aussie1st]

There is no way India could lose this one. Dravid is rock solid and it very hard to get out. India will just bat around him. There is a number of fast scorers too so if one lets loose thats pretty much the game.

 

[SaiSrini]

If India lose this match, they clearly do not deserve to be number two in the world. The hard work's done. The asking rate is not difficult, they could even stick it out and win. But I hope they do so in style.

Perfectly said! If India lose from here, they dont deserve to be No.2!

However, India seems to have unearthed an excellent pace prospect in Munaf Patel. If he can do this on Indian wickets, he will be quite a handful on wickets abroad where he can get pace and bounce!

Will Sehwag strike? Will Tendulkar strike? These two along with Dhoni failed in the first innings? Tendulkar has a poor history of batting when India is chasing. Will he rectify it? Well if Sehwag and Jaffer give India a good start, I wouldnt want Tendulkar to come in and score runs! The top three can finish it then!

But as barmyarmy said (England can get to a lead of 150 and get bowled out), well that has happened! If Sehwag gets going, India inch a lot lot closer to a 1-0 lead here at Mohali!

There is no way India could lose this one. Dravid is rock solid and it very hard to get out. India will just bat around him. There is a number of fast scorers too so if one lets loose thats pretty much the game.

Cant say! Unbelievable things happen in cricket (yesterday's sensational ODI is an example!)

 

[alfa_beta]

I am really impressed by Munaf Patel... with Sreesanth, RP Singh, VRV Singh, Balaji, Nehra, Khan, Agarkar & Pathan to call on, India has a decent depth in fast bowling. Never thought India wud be spoilt for riches in pace deptt.

Also, with likes of Piyush Chawla coming through, India's future looks bright.

Jaffer & India on their way with a boundary!

Boundary for sehwag as well to start his innings!!!

What's the forecast for today at Mohali? Anyone???

 

[MohdIrshaad]

I am really impressed by Munaf Patel... with Sreesanth, RP Singh, VRV Singh, Balaji, Nehra, Khan, Agarkar & Pathan to call on, India has a decent depth in fast bowling. Never thought India wud be spoilt for riches in pace deptt.

Agreed with first four fast bowlers + IKP. The rest are probably not ever going to make it though.

I think India will win this series 2-0 now, as this match is already in India's hand and i think they will go into the next match being a more confident team.

English batting is indeed very weak and simply can't match the class of Indian batting lineup.

 

[alfa_beta]

Agreed with first four fast bowlers + IKP. The rest are probably not ever going to make it though.

Agreed... but the point is that the pace cupboard is not empty anymore! There's another guy called Abid Nabi who's supposed to be fast and with Under 19s coming up well, the days of India searching for a decent fast bowler are over.

They may not be fearsome but it's a step forward in the right direction and in a few year's time India should have a decent pace battery.

India has started positively... that's the right approach to chase a low total IMHO.

 

[aussie1st]

Jaffers doing the Sehwag role, three 4s already. Unless there is a third choke in 24 hours India should win. But some werid things have been happening lately, NZ winning, that greatest game.

 

[cricket_lover]

The forecast is promising...not going to rain that much today. They should wrap up the game before tea.

India has a pool of fast bowlers, but like i always say, they need to "harness" their talents EFFICIENTLY. Khan, Nehra are all match-winning bowlers, but they could not continue, mainly due to fitness.
We don't want that to happen often, Indian pace bowlers have the history of breaking down sometime, so we need to use them in the right way.

Chawla should be given a break. I think India should go into the last test with 6 batsmen.