India in England/Ireland/Scotland

[BigCrickNan]

India have this won IMO.

Tendulkar's LBW was a shocker. He had full right to be annoyed. Would have been a brilliant hundred. Was great to watch him.

Panesar was played well by the Tendulkar and Ganguly partnership, was good to watch that battle. Yet again though, he gets a few tail-enders and makes it look like he was Englands best bowler.

Well he got out India's best player and an opener on 77, he couldn't of bowled that badly.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Isn't it typical that we might well need the weather to help us out of this one, but the forecast is set fair, yet when we needed the sodding bad light/rain to stay away to take one damn wicket, it arrived like the cavalry to save India?

 

[harishankar]

So what happened at the end of the day? I didn't watch the last few overs, so have England lost any wickets?

On Tendulkar's dismissal - much has been written about it, but Ganguly's dismissal was the worse decision. Let's just say that Taufel didn't have a particularly good day out there.

It's a strange innings from Tendulkar - he showed glimpses of the his glorious talent now and then, but he was so subdued for the most part - particularly against Sidebottom (who bowled really well, to his credit). As for India, I just thought that Laxman didn't press the accelerator enough when he was batting with Kumble. India could have got a 300 lead easily, but fell slightly short. Nevertheless, it's still a mountain for England to climb.

 

[aussie_ben91]

If this game had've started on time & there was still another 2 days left, I'd be banking on Pietersen making a run-a-ball triple-century & winning England the match.

 

[RoboRocks]

If this game had've started on time & there was still another 2 days left, I'd be banking on Pietersen making a run-a-ball triple-century & winning England the match.

Well its a good pitch so he has a chance. (probably put the curse of the commentator on him now )

England did well not to lose a wicket and we have to see how long this stand lasts for now.

It looks a long way away from a draw or a victory.
India just need to put the ball in the right areas and they will get something out of this surface and Zaheer Khan with experience playing for Worcstershire will be a handful.
Kumble will cause problems for the left handers with the rough outside their off stump.
If India have two good sessions today, then its game over.

 

[manee]

Here is my view on the day.

Tendulkar and Ganguly batted well in tough conditions. They managed to survive Sidebottom's troubling spells and simply defend and evade dangerous Tremlett deliveries. Both elegantly stroked runs from Anderson (who bowled poorly) and Panesar in a throwback to their younger days. I have to say that Ganguly was the more gracious of the two in this innings, but in the grand scheme of things, that is a moot point. Both batsman got shockers and were entitled to feel disappointed, Ganguly let off steam with a flurry of expletives and shouting while Tendulkar cooled off with what appeared to be an ice cream in the dressing room. In my opinion, nothing more can be said about it, Taufel is not biased and is still the greatest umpire, perhaps of all time.

VVS Laxman batted well albeit slowly and just put into perspective how well Tendulkar and Ganguly batted. His fifty was a fighting one, off 150 balls and it showed that the pitch is far from flat neither are the bowlers. Kumble's innings was fighting, but what more can you expect from the eternal fighter.

Little can be said about England's innings. India have clearly stopped the loose opening spell that almost cost them the Lords Test and they all seem to be bowling fine. Sreesanth's front arm is dropping a little bit low and without a coach to tell him this, I hope it does not cost him accuracy and pace as he currently has been the worse of the four frontline bowlers. India need an early wicket as Jaffer and Karthik showed just how vital an opening partnership can be.

 

[RoboRocks]

2 wickets per session will do for India unless rain comes along.
3 wickets per session will finish it soon enough.

England's middle order will be hard to dislodge so India will have to bowl well to them.

England need to build partnerships and do what India did and that was bat time as well as score runs and India did it brilliantly.

 

[andrew_nixon]

I asked you to keep it civil, yet I've just had to delete more posts.

This is your final warning. If I see one more post that is not discussing this tour in a relatively civil manner, I will close the thread.

 

[irottev]

The two last tailenders for India also got doubtful decisions. The first I think was clipping the stump, so thats a fair call. The one to Sreesanth was never going to hit the stump. Taufel had a bad day. It happens. They can;t be perfect all the time.

And I didn't say Panesar was poor, I just said Ganguly and Tendulkar handled him fine. They played very well and deserved hundreds. His figures got inflated by 2 questionable LBW's against tailenders. Sidebottom deserved the reward. He tried all day without luck. No matter, I just though he really deserved a few more is all.

I think the main thing is, the umpiring won't affect the match. India didn't lose much, luckily, from the decisions.

 

[aussie_ben91]

Monty had both openers out plumb LBW in the space of his first couple of overs but yet they weren't given?

 

[manee]

Monty had both openers out plumb LBW in the space of his first couple of overs but yet they weren't given?

Seems to be a problem with consistancy of umpires. Taufel wants to be perfect and make borderline decisions while How is more old fashioned and only gives plumb decisions. They need to make a decision between the both of them to bring some consistancy within a match and even a series.

 

[Eddie]

lol just heard Bell got smacked in the head by one of the youngsters on the Notts groundstaff....we got enuff problems without KO-ing our own players..

 

[Animator!]

How is a dreadful umpire. He always has been and this test match has shown it. He's given poor decisions, for and against both sides. Taufel hasn't been up to his brilliant standards either, but I suppose, like a player you've got to let him have a bad game here or there.

It'll be a very interesting day. Suns out, the pitch has flattened over the last two days. If we can survive the morning session none down then it would get very interesting, but all we can do is wait and see.

 

[Vcassano]

Lol. England have no chance of winning this one. Really, they don't; you've got to be kidding yourself if you think they will. If they bat the whole of tomorrow, they'll still only get a lead of about 60 by the end of the day. Another session to get to a lead of 200 (I'll seriously eat my hat if they get a lead of 200). Then, they'll have to bowl India out in two sessions. In fact, even if England get to 200, I'd back India to chase that in two sessions.

In conclusion, it's not going to happen. England's only hope is to play time.

If we did get a 200 run lead and had a good couple of sessions to bowl at the Indians we would win. Big if though..

I can see us drawing this incidentally, just bat slowly and waste as much time as possible. I can see Cook playing a slow 100 such as in the Ashes.

Sidebottom was ridiculously unlucky, seemingly Panesar stole his luck or something. Tremlett bowled well I thought, obviously he was a bit wide but the fact is for the majority of the day we had 2 top players in form against us and he slowed them down. And what does slowing them down do? Gives us less time to bat...

 

[m_vaughan]

The two last tailenders for India also got doubtful decisions. The first I think was clipping the stump, so thats a fair call. The one to Sreesanth was never going to hit the stump. Taufel had a bad day. It happens. They can;t be perfect all the time.

And I didn't say Panesar was poor, I just said Ganguly and Tendulkar handled him fine. They played very well and deserved hundreds. His figures got inflated by 2 questionable LBW's against tailenders. Sidebottom deserved the reward. He tried all day without luck. No matter, I just though he really deserved a few more is all.

I think the main thing is, the umpiring won't affect the match. India didn't lose much, luckily, from the decisions.

True. Those decisions shouldnt affect the match since, unless some miracle happens, India wont be losing the game. If the game is drawn you cant blame the decisions.

Also I disagree that Monty improves his figures and statistics by just dismissing the allrounders. In his very short career so far, he has got some of the finest players out and has the habit to getting breakthroughs as well.

Also the pitch was just too good for batting from the second day onwards and India are after all good players of spin.

I would expect Kumble to do better though as the pitch is going to break, although he does use the pitch that much.

I think England will lose 3-4 wickets today and the rest tomorrow.