England in India

[sohum]

England XI struggling with 78/4 on the board at lunch. Munaf with two wickets, SS Paul with 1 and I think maybe VRV with one. VRV's been very expensive, though.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

England XI struggling with 78/4 on the board at lunch. Munaf with two wickets, SS Paul with 1 and I think maybe VRV with one. VRV's been very expensive, though.

2 Munaf, 1 Paul, 1 runout. Munaf getting Freddie. Paul has been very economical. Why isn't he up for contention?
Powar has also bowled.

 

[puddleduck]

Paul has been very economical. Why isn't he up for contention?

Paul is only a RM, the pitch prepared for this match is yet another seaming wicket so he should be reaping the benefits. Very unlikely to pose a threat on the spinning test tracks. India have certainly gone about making sure England do not get any proper practice on a spinners track, and leaving them hopefully out of their depth come the first test. I guess it's fair enough being the home side, but still a tad harsh to prepare two seamers tracks for their warmup games, only to then dump them on a raging turner at Nagpur.

I mean not like England prepare spinners tracks for away tours and then give hard, bouncy, seam friendly tracks, we do at least let you play your practice matches on roughly the same tracks the tests will take place on. Albeit if your the side touring at the start of the summer, generally on very damp versions of those pitches

 

[hondeyho]

A typical KP over : |4 6 4 4 . 4|

That really has helped England 123/4, I get easily amused by that.

 

[puddleduck]

Good to see him in the runs. Now it is only Freddie who has failed to get any decent time at the crease through the tour. If Geraint Jones gets another useful 30-50, and the bowlers can then have a days worth of practice, then the two tour games have served most of their purpose Except as I mentioned two posts ago, that they have yet to play on a single pitch resembling the test pitches they will play on.

Can't have everything I guess

 

[hondeyho]

Kevin Pietersen has retired hurt, it better not be serious because he is one of our best batsman. If Ian Blackwell can perform like he did in the second innings of the last match and Geraint Jones can get a good knock then you never know.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

VRV must have knock the stuffing out of KP, he's retired hurt!!

 

[James219]

Geraint Jones struggling for runs here, as Pieterson retires hurt for 47. Blackwell's coming in, hopefully they can build a partnership, as Jones needs to find some form with the bat. They say Flintoff is very stiff-wristed, part of his technique exposed in the sub-continent. Hopefully he can work on this succesfully, yet maintain his natural game as well.

 

[puddleduck]

Main thing for Geraint is just spending a lengthy time at the crease, I ideally want to see him last against the quicks and as long as he doesn't get out bowled when looking set, then he's made some progress

Sounds like Kevin Pietersen has done something to his back, I believe the same area he injured in Pakistan? Looked in discomfort after Lunch apparently, hopefully it is just a precautionary retirement, in the same way that hopefully Vaughan is merely missing this test as a precaution

 

[jonah]

Pietersen now? Christ, we're dropping like flies...

 

[ZexyZahid]

England was all out for 238 runs with Patel taking five wickets for 59 runs.

At one point the score was 41/0 (4.2 ov) for the Indian board. Now it's about 46-0 after 9.2 overs. Jaffer and Gambhir are looking there.

 

[harishankar]

Munaf Patel seems to have hit a good rhythm. An excellent 5 wicket haul. I hope he gets selected for the first test ahead of the jaded Zaheer Khan or Ajit Agarkar.

 

[Sureshot]

VRV must have knock the stuffing out of KP, he's retired hurt!!

From what Tim Abraham said on SSN, he didn't retire straight away and just stretched his back too much playing a shot. No physical hit by VRV.

Blackwells success is puzzling me.

 

[vibs89]

What a good score by Indian Board. So sad that Jaffer got out in 48 in short of 2 runs. The score is 92/1 end of day 1. Munaf is superb took 5 wickets haul.

 

[ZexyZahid]

Expect some reaction from this!

Ganguly dropped for Nagpur Test
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/current/story/238511.html

Also to note Piyush Chawla, the one who played for India Under-19 has been selected.