India tour of Ireland (2 T20Is) & England (1 Test, 3 ODIs & 3 T20Is)

[Aislabie]

This is astonishing

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Incredible batting this from England. You would expect England to lose their top order early and then the middle order to rescue them but today even they were good to start. Probably the conditions are misread by most of the experts on SKY & Sony? Or is it the overcast conditions that didn't let the pitch wear down?

I guess for sure Indian bowlers haven't hit the right spot consistently enough because there were some odd ones that stayed low.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Bumrah's gonna come back on the field with no reviews left

The one taken off Jadeja was possibly the worst reviews but the one against Shami looked pretty close!

 

[Gaurav_7]

Wow England!

 

[Ed Smith]

Who knew being good at test cricket involved just playing like reigning ODI World Champions

 

[SMMODS]

Stupid kohli should get retirement.

 

[SaiSrini]

It's been a really good test match, but this game is set and match for England!! India did incredibly well to comeback from 98-5 and dominate 3 days of the test, but in English conditions, its too often that teams find it easier to chase in the 4th innings and India have set a target thats atleast 75 runs short!

Still hope India can conjure up some miracle tomorrow, but my mind says they've lost it in their 2nd innings batting.

 

[Aislabie]

in English conditions

Until this last month, this wasn't really a thing. Amazingly, this England team has absolutely thrown conventional wisdom out of the window with regard to run-chases and who knows when this momentum will run out.

Similarly, although there were definitely mistakes made by Bumrah as captain - he did perhaps set fields to Root and Bairstow's respective reputations rather than to the bowling and match situations that were going on - in a normal setting those would probably still have left India with 180-odd runs to play with on Day Five. Instead, the scoring was so fast that he and his team are now well behind in the game.

He also wasn't particularly helped by his bowlers: all four of them were missing their lines on both sides of the wicket, leaving Bumrah to take responsibility as best he could once Root and Bairstow were comfortable and scoring.

Jadeja should have been more willing to be boring. If it meant slinging six balls an over down the leg side and offering nothing, that should have been it. But then he abandoned that plan after Root got a couple of sweeps away. Was he told to, or did he just lose his nerve?

Doesn't matter really. We have yet another fun Day Five to look forward to.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Until this last month, this wasn't really a thing. Amazingly, this England team has absolutely thrown conventional wisdom out of the window with regard to run-chases and who knows when this momentum will run out.

Similarly, although there were definitely mistakes made by Bumrah as captain - he did perhaps set fields to Root and Bairstow's respective reputations rather than to the bowling and match situations that were going on - in a normal setting those would probably still have left India with 180-odd runs to play with on Day Five. Instead, the scoring was so fast that he and his team are now well behind in the game.

He also wasn't particularly helped by his bowlers: all four of them were missing their lines on both sides of the wicket, leaving Bumrah to take responsibility as best he could once Root and Bairstow were comfortable and scoring.

Jadeja should have been more willing to be boring. If it meant slinging six balls an over down the leg side and offering nothing, that should have been it. But then he abandoned that plan after Root got a couple of sweeps away. Was he told to, or did he just lose his nerve?

Doesn't matter really. We have yet another fun Day Five to look forward to.

Flat pitches help. Bad bowling helps, there were so many balls that were too straight. The ball didn't do much. Overall I think the attitude of go out there and it doesn't matter if you lose takes away the pressure. Players getting in quickly rather than scrabbling around for 50 balls. If you get out for 20 it doesn't really matter if you faced 20 balls or 50.

I do think chasing is becoming easier in general. Stokes v Australia, Perera v South Africa, Mayers v Bangladesh. Pakistan bottled a chase of 500 earlier this year too.

If you sent this team out to Australia they'd have probably thrashed them. Imagine what they could do when you take out unpredictable English weather and the Dukes ball.

And while England has been spectacular to watch, India's first innings has the highest run rate. Test cricket might change enormously because teams will have to find a way to counter it or have to fight fire with fire.

Interesting suggestion on Wisden the other day; when Bairstow is playing like this, is there a better all format batter in the world right now?

 

[icyman]

The Indian bowling in the 2nd innings has been wayward. The lines have been mostly on the leg stump, which allows the batsman to flick it away for easy singles. Haven't seen many deliveries in the corridor of uncertainty here.

In terms of field settings, just seemed that India was okay with the English taking their ones and twos. This accumulation has dented the Indian prospects for sure.

Furthermore,credit must be given to the English, especially their openers who have been under pressure. They picked and chose the deliveries they would go all out on. And more so for the bowlers. Put Siraj under pressure and he goes right back to thinking he's playing for RCB.

I'd still like to think that India could win. But the recent attitude of 'giving up' after being in a commanding position makes me think otherwise. It's a trend that needs to be quelled.(Remember South Africa?)

Post automatically merged: Jul 5, 2022

Stupid kohli should get retirement.

If the selectors had balls, he would have been dropped. That said, high time he starts acting as a senior pro and giving inputs wherever he's required to. Happened in SA and now in Eng, just cause you aren't the captain,doesn't mean that you can't help out with suggestions, especially when the game is straying away from you

 

[asprin]

A bit strange that after being ahead for three days, we are on the verge of losing this Test. The 3rd innings has once come back to bite us bad. If the middle-lower order is able to get runs, what ails our top order?

Having said that, I feel like we did more than expected. Honestly, I didn't see us putting up a 400+ score after having been 80-5 on the first day. That played a huge factor in the game stretching to the fifth day. So in a way, I seem to be okay with it somehow. At least we didn't capitulate as before. Our top order remains a worry though.

Credit to England for playing a new brand of cricket. They deserve to win this one. Safe to say this approach is akin to 1996 WC SL's approach where Jayasuriya and Kaluwithara redefined powerplay batting forever?

In any case, congrats England for drawing the series. We missed a golden opportunity here. I'll find solace in the fact that @zimrahil isn't around to mock me on this.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

I find it suspicious that as soon as Rohit tests negative for covid India lose the plot on the field.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

I don't know but slamming India's batting performance seemed a little too odd to me. I mean 380 runs are actually enough to be defended if we take the quality of Indian bowling into contention.

I think what India are missing since that tour of South Africa is the attitude to keep coming back and bowl that hard length to keep the scoring down and frustrate the opposition batter so that they throw their wickets away because of building pressure.

Also this is more like England outperforming India than India's failure with the bat.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

I don't know but slamming India's batting performance seemed a little too odd to me. I mean 380 runs are actually enough to be defended if we take the quality of Indian bowling into contention.

I think what India are missing since that tour of South Africa is the attitude to keep coming back and bowl that hard length to keep the scoring down and frustrate the opposition batter so that they throw their wickets away because of building pressure.

Also this is more like England outperforming India than India's failure with the bat.

I do agree that 380 should in almost every instance be enough in a fourth innings. 12 months ago no one would have given England a chance barring a miracle. The criticism would be India seemingly threw away the chance to make more runs and that even if it was only 90 overs England would probably try and chase 450-500. So, they didn't need time to bowl them out.

From a series context (although as far I'm concerned India won the 4-match series 2-1, this one-off test is just to appease broadcasters) India only needed to draw.

On a pitch like this Thakur looks a little surplus to requirements, maybe if the ball was doing more. Ashwin or maybe someone like Prasidh (although I think he was struggling with the Dukes last week) might have been more useful.

It's easy to blame Bumrah as a captain but Kane Williamson had no answer to England's onslaught and he's regarded as a great captain.

If India could get Root and Bairstow in the first half hour I feel the match could swing but it certainly feels more like it's England's to lose now.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Was he told to, or did he just lose his nerve?

The latter. It happens with him many times that he loses his nerve and starts to bowl negatively whenever the batsman tries something different against him.

I think he needed to bowl a little more on the off-stump at good length.