India in England/Ireland/Scotland

[SaiSrini]

England already five down and only 109 runs scored. If England somehow loses the match it will be cause of the performance on this day.

Lets see how India bats. Its a lot becoz of the swing that the wickets are coming.

England aren't batting badly..the conditions are so good for bowling that even Ganguly looks dangerous ..lol

If conditions stay like this for the duration of the match, Inida aren't gona make many runs either..

Ganguly isnt that bad a bowler. He is a more than useful bowler.

Dravid remains the important guy. If he can stay in, India can do well in these conditions. I am also hoping on Karthik and Laxman.

 

[Eddie]

Ganguly is decent..but in "normal" conditions..he won't bowl 8-4-11-1..

 

[surendar]

India have done well today.. To a great suprise, our pace bowlers have done a great job favoured by the bowling conditions. In these conditions, like Sai, I also expect Dravid to play a key role in this match. Lets see what happens when Indian batters are exposed to these conditions

 

[sohum]

There wasn't a massive difference between the batting ranks. But I think ours were better albeit not by a massive amount, after all our batsman put the runs on the board that made it possible for the attempt at victory.

Let's compare the runs by position:

Strauss (114) vs Karthik (65)
Cook (53) vs Jaffer (66)
Vaughan (109) vs Dravid (11)
Pietersen (171) vs Tendulkar (53)
Collingwood (4) vs Ganguly (74)
Bell (29) vs Laxman (54)
Prior (43) vs Dhoni (76)

It ends up going 3-4 to India, but obviously the more important players for England (top order) meant that they looked in the better position. One cannot discount, however, that England were the only team to bat in conditions that were not conducive to bowling (on day one of the test match) which is what took Strauss ahead of Karthik. So basically it was the Vaughan+Pietersen punch versus the Dravid+Tendulkar punch that put England in the ascendancy. Otherwise, you will surely agree that both teams' middle-orders are due for a big score.

Zaheer with a beauty of a delivery. England now tottering. We need to finish them quickly. No need to keep the tailenders hanging around.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Sreesanth was swimming :laugh he dive too early

 

[ZexyZahid]

Without doubt India has got the advantage. Tomorrow sun is predicted, so with no overcast conditions batting should be easier.

 

[Skater]

Without doubt India has got the advantage. Tomorrow sun is predicted, so with no overcast conditions batting should be easier.

I'm looking forward to Chris Tremlett's 401* and Ryan Sidebottom's bright and breezy 365* as England declare on 850/7.

 

[baburao]

I'm looking forward to Chris Tremlett's 401* and Ryan Sidebottom's bright and breezy 365* as England declare on 850/7.

And i am looking forward to 3 wickets in one ball from Sreesanth.:

 

[sohum]

I'm looking forward to Chris Tremlett's 401* and Ryan Sidebottom's bright and breezy 365* as England declare on 850/7.

A 401* would certainly help Tremlett's average, which was yet to get off the mark before the match started.

 

[evertonfan]

I'm glad England are getting all of their bad batting performances out of the way ahead of the Oval Test match because if there's one ground in England that you don't want to get a low score on, it's the Oval. We need 200 minimum to stay in the game as I don't see us getting the same help India did. As I said, this pitch looks like a 'win the toss, win the game' pitch.

 

[ZexyZahid]

I've got a feeling that England will be all out within the first session tomorrow. And that being said, Ganguly, Dravid and Tendulkar have a good average on this ground: http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/engvind/content/current/story/303712.html

Of the English batsmen only Vaughan has a decent average, which is mainly high cause of his top score of 197 runs. But so far with Michael Vaughan as captain, England have won all the three matches there.

 

[dhoni dhamaka]

I've got a feeling that England will be all out within the first session tomorrow. And that being said, Ganguly, Dravid and Tendulkar have a good average on this ground: http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/engvind/content/current/story/303712.html

Of the English batsmen only Vaughan has a decent average, which is mainly high cause of his top score of 197 runs. But so far with Michael Vaughan as captain, England have won all the three matches there.

yes. but don't forget, India's top order has failed so far this series and England's have done better so we will wait and see how they deal with the ball swinging about everywhere. Our Big andexperienced three havent fired yet: Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly, but if they're all o song we hould get a decent score with a lead of about 200 (considering if india bowl out england for about 200)....

 

[cricket_lover]

India have the tendency to start slowly, and one hopes that they deliver the goods tomorrow. I wouldn't rule out big innings from atleast one of Indian top 6.

You just have to be positive, Collingwood and Ian Bell looked in control throughout their innings. Thats the way to play.

 

[Animator!]

Annoyed with out batting. Most of our players got starts. You can excuse Cook slightly because he is still young, and we rely on him too much than we should do, despite his brilliant performances before this series. He also needs to sort out his massive step across, he's a bit vunerable to anything LBW if it's moving about. Collingwood, Bell, Pietersen etc all got starts. Players of that ability and class shouldn't just be giving it away, even if Pietersen's decision was slightly debatable.

 

[Sureshot]

Let's compare the runs by position:

Strauss (114) vs Karthik (65)
Cook (53) vs Jaffer (66)
Vaughan (109) vs Dravid (11)
Pietersen (171) vs Tendulkar (53)
Collingwood (4) vs Ganguly (74)
Bell (29) vs Laxman (54)
Prior (43) vs Dhoni (76)

It ends up going 3-4 to India, but obviously the more important players for England (top order) meant that they looked in the better position. One cannot discount, however, that England were the only team to bat in conditions that were not conducive to bowling (on day one of the test match) which is what took Strauss ahead of Karthik. So basically it was the Vaughan+Pietersen punch versus the Dravid+Tendulkar punch that put England in the ascendancy. Otherwise, you will surely agree that both teams' middle-orders are due for a big score.

Zaheer with a beauty of a delivery. England now tottering. We need to finish them quickly. No need to keep the tailenders hanging around.

Firstly, winning 4-3 means nothing if we had 3 batsman pass a hundred runs and none of the Indians did.

Secondly, it was conducive to bowling on the first day but the Indian bowlers weren't on the ball (Get it? ).

Don't get me wrong Sohum, I'm not saying our batting is superior to yours, it's probably quite even. Obviously you have 3 massive names in the middle, but I wouldn't say they were in the form that made those names as big as they are.

---

Onto today...

I thought India bowled well in friendly conditions, if we can scrape to 200 tomorrow I'll be content. this isn't going to be a big scoring pitch, and I can't see us needing all 5 days. Will a team actually be able to bat a whole day on this pitch?

If our bowlers bowl well there is no reason why we cannot replicate the Indian bowlers. I don't feel that I can berate our batsman too much, none of them imo played horrific shots (Maybe barring Strauss). Prior's didn't look good, but he was playing as though the ball didn't spin, and to be fair on him and I think most of the Indian fans on here will agree with me, Kumble doesn't spin it that much.

Despite a scoreline of 169-7, I'm not actually really disappointed.

With all the talk of bat dominating this series, am I the only one enjoying the bowlers fighting it out?