England tour of India

[Red Devil]

for some reason I thought the 4th test started today. It appears I got up too early.... 24 hours too early

Adjusting your body clock in time for tomorrow

[Durhamfootman]

I'm worried that if I wait until the match starts I might miss it completely.... If Agnew and the papers are to be believed I might come downstairs at 6 am tomorrow to find a scorecard with all 4 innings on it

although who in their right mind would believe anything the papers say

[Red Devil]

Eng win the toss again!

Bess and Lawrence in for Broad and Archer - Bess batting at 9 and Lawrence at 7 so a very deep batting lineup now.

Both openers gone to Axar on a pitch that hasn't turned yet, and now Root goes absolutely plumb lbw to Siraj! 30-3

To be honest, I was very surprised Siraj got the nid ahead of Umesh Yadav given Umesh's home record over the last 3 or so years

[bigfluffylemon]

Oh dear. Here we go again.

[Red Devil]

Oh dear. Here we go again.

74/3 is a good recovery. Bairstow and Stokes rode their luck early on - 4 or 5 boundaries edged through slips and a gloved sweep just over slip but then they hot some loose deliveries.

On the flip side, the pitch has done nothing - think the groundsman has let all the whingeing about the last test get to him Really disappointing to have a pitch which is so flat - gives too much of an advantage on the toss

[bigfluffylemon]

Or it would, if England could bat.

[Dr Cricket]

To be fair red it better than the first test since it had help for the fast men, decent amount of seam movement.
Ashwin not bowled much yet so can’t comment on the turn yet.
Axar not a big Turner of the ball.

[Dr Cricket]

Although red you are right though, india so brave to produce this deck with the WTC up for grabs.

[Dr Cricket]

Oh dear. Here we go again.

74/3 is a good recovery. Bairstow and Stokes rode their luck early on - 4 or 5 boundaries edged through slips and a gloved sweep just over slip but then they hot some loose deliveries.

On the flip side, the pitch has done nothing - think the groundsman has let all the whingeing about the last test get to him Really disappointing to have a pitch which is so flat - gives too much of an advantage on the toss

England got sucked into India mindgames though, they literally thought it would be a rank turner because India said it will be a rank turner.
Madness to play a test match with 2 bowlers lol.
How you can only have Anderson plus leach and a bit of bess.
If Bess goes the distance England are so screwed.

[Dr Cricket]

Tbh ironic aspect now is that England need the deck to turn quick or they lost the game badly with only 1 pace bowler in the team and stokes unlikely to bowl more than 10 overs.
Surely Anderson can’t bowl 40-50 overs a day.

[backfootpunch]

Any half decent umpire gives that not out

Bairstow will no doubt feel hard done by

[backfootpunch]

Pope looks so out of form

Really struggling

Pretty pathetic effort on a flat deck so far from the top order

[sussexpob]

Just missed the straight one there Ben. Just as he was looking pretty set. Bad for England, it had looked very flat this session. Better from Stoks though, for the first time in a while it looked like an English batsman actually had a bit of a plan, and while he rode his luck a bit, I like the fact he went out and knew exactly how he was going to play.

Lawrence dropped first ball

[sussexpob]

Pope looks so out of form

I think he's always looked like a batsman who struggles when he first comes to the crease. Definitely needs time to find his footwork, even in English conditions.

[sussexpob]

Feel the next session is a real key one for the match. My guess is by day 3 this pitch is going to be different to bat on, so England need that tail to wag. 250-300 might be competitive, as not batting last could be worth a good 100 runs.