India in England/Ireland/Scotland

[manee]

Yes. It is good for the bowlers to have a bowler friendly pitch. It is unfortunate that India have quite an uninspiring attack and so there are no hopes of bowling them out very cheaply (under 100). India seem to be plodding the ball on the spot, waiting for the batsman to make a mistake or for one to come off the seam or swing a bit more than usual. Fine and dandy on flat tracks but you need to take the initiative to the opposition on tough pitches.

England will surely scrape 200 here and India will have to work hard as England will no doubt take the attack to India against the fragile starters of Karthik and Jaffer. This pitch is made for Rahul Dravid to etch out a century and help India get a big lead. Tendulkar and Ganguly prefer the flat pitches, but I am not ruling out a century from one of them either.

Match is in India's control, but for how long...

 

[puddleduck]

Thing is Manee the pitch itself is fairly flat and there isn't an excessive amount of bounce so for India it will be key that their openers get a good start. If England can get in amongst that middle order early India will be in trouble, otherwise the likes of Sachin and Ganguly will look forward to a bat.

 

[irottev]

Good to see India on top. I've been waiting for England to have to bat in these conditions. They usually seem to win the tosses in these situations when the weather is bad. I didn't see any of the game, got bored of waiting from the delays. I wanna see a fighting series.

India will have to do the job with the bat.

 

[ZexyZahid]

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)....

Only one Test match has passed and India traditionally doesn't play well at Lord's. And the batsmen have already been firing in the warm-up matches.

 

[SaiSrini]

Rahul Dravid is my bet for this game. Anyone with me? I feel he is going to have a good test match with the bat. I feel Sachin will chip in with useful runs, but its going to be Rahul who will do the talking with the bat in this match.

Also my best is on Dinesh Karthick too. In these conditions, these guys are best suited to stay in and score.

 

[zub2005]

india had a goo day today. we will have to wait and see how england bowl. if india can wrap up the tail pretty quick tomorrow, and bat well. india should have a chance. there is a long way to go though

 

[mattfb]

Good day for India. Cook was the only one to show any form. Good 3 wickets for Khan and Sreesanth bowled tight.

 

[sohum]

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.

I agree that it means very little, but the point I was trying to bring across, and one that you seem to understand (but not the majority of this forum) is that England did not bat remarkably better than India. I have maintained that it was Pietersen's innings that really swung things because without a 100 there, India would have pulled really close.

And the fact that 3 of your batsmen crossed 100 but of the remaining 4 only 1 crossed 50 shows that the runs were concentrated on just a few players. For India, everyone was equally in touch (or out of touch, depends on how you want to read it ) as 6 of our 7 batsmen crossed 50 runs.

Yes. It is good for the bowlers to have a bowler friendly pitch. It is unfortunate that India have quite an uninspiring attack and so there are no hopes of bowling them out very cheaply (under 100). India seem to be plodding the ball on the spot, waiting for the batsman to make a mistake or for one to come off the seam or swing a bit more than usual. Fine and dandy on flat tracks but you need to take the initiative to the opposition on tough pitches.

I think bowling a team out under 100 in test cricket is very, very difficult regardless of the opposition (except if the opposition is Bangladesh or Zimbabwe). Cannot berate the bowlers too much because I think it would have been impossible to keep them down under 100, because we pretty much bowled the best we could to the conditions.

Batting should be interesting with our senior trio preferring to all fail together in the last game.

 

[Skater]

Being a bit more realistic, I believe England will be all out half way through the morning session today. That is, of course, if there hasn't been any overnight rain that saturates the outfield and causes a delay. So England will be out for around 180-200 at about 12.00pm.

India will then realise how poorly they did at Lord's with the bat and try to rectify it, especially the middle order of Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly. There should be some decent weather today so there will be less help for the bowlers too. India should make around 400.

 

[m_vaughan]

And the fact that 3 of your batsmen crossed 100 but of the remaining 4 only 1 crossed 50 shows that the runs were concentrated on just a few players. For India, everyone was equally in touch (or out of touch, depends on how you want to read it ) as 6 of our 7 batsmen crossed 50 runs.

Well even with the tough batting conditions, I thought the Indian batting by itself was well below par in the Lord's test. Today will be crucial as someone said that the conditions for batting will be much better than yesterday. So it is a good oppurtunity for the visitors to take a commanding lead in the game.

The England bowlers are talented but If India can get on top of them and not let them settle, the inexperience will eventually show.

I would prefer if someone actually takes the responsibility and converts the 50 into a 100.

 

[angryangy]

Good point about getting starts, then getting out. I would think the stage is set for Dravid.

 

[evertonfan]

I don't like to cast a shadow of pessimism, but in the words of Tommy from Snatch, we're proper 'insert 6 letter expletive beginning with F here'.

The only way I can see us getting back into this game is a hat-trick; and even that wont completely put us in it.

 

[Eddie]

well loosing the toss had royally screwed England..

sunny today nice for batting

however neither opener looks confident..

do india control the weather ?

saved in one match by rain..now the suns comes out for them today.

if there is any justice in the world, England will be saved by rain :P

 

[m_vaughan]

For England its important to get rid of the openers as quickly as possible, as the main batting lies in the Indian middle order.

 

[evertonfan]

well loosing the toss had royally screwed England..

sunny today nice for batting

however neither opener looks confident..

do india control the weather ?

saved in one match by rain..now the suns comes out for them today.

if there is any justice in the world, England will be saved by rain :P

As i've said, it's a win the toss, win the game pitch. Trent Bridge has a habit of producing them. Although it's the British summertime's fault this time!

Would be a shame if England lost this as it wouldn't really show who the better team is.