England tour of India

[westoelad]

Two wrongs don't make a right. If there's dust coming up when the ball pitches on the 1st day then it's not fit for a five day game. There's a difference between home sides preparing pitches to suit their strengths and preparing pitches which are not going to last. India are much stronger than England in both batting and bowling on turning pitches but that's a red herring.

[Dr Cricket]

So he should have asked the umpire was he playing a shot and then review

You arent allowed, Doc. Paul Wilson just got in trouble for telling Tim Paine he thought Rahane hadnt played a shot in the last series, its in the rules the umpire cannot give any details to the players before they review.

The decision did seem wrong to me, but then there is no guidance on what constitutes a proper attempt to play the ball. Considering the burden of proof is with the fielding team in this regards, can we prove conclusively that Sharma is not playing at the ball and got the shot wrong? Its unlikely, but I guess he would argue has completed a full stroke and stride into the ball to play it.

Oh wow that makes it worse then really should be like on field catches.
Umpire makes it first and then the review only determines if it hitting the stumps.


This series gonna be a Pakistan vs England series isn’t it with fights with umpires and stuff.

hopefully no cheating went on here though.

[Dr Cricket]

Think they should be more leeway to it spinner in day 1 in sub c plus icc or bcci for the matter need to invest in better curators.
Guy with no experience produced the first with no experience of producing a deck before.

It is like me suddenly being the new lords groundsman.

The sole reason for turning decks and these pitches is India are adamant they do not want to play on a wicket with no help in the first 2 days and game being decided by the toss.
India want to play test without stressing about the toss and essentially with ashwin they know he can take wickets in the first innings with any hint of turn.
Issue is hard to get a deck with a hint of turn on day 1 and last 5 days.
Not like a green deck where you reset the pitch in the middle.

[Dr Cricket]

What ever they produced it must be a tv deck screw 0-0 in a 5 match series whatever was the norm In Asia before.
massive shift though where players don’t care about low averages in India.
Don’t blame them tbh wins are what you are remembered for not what your average is plus runs are more remembered in tough pitches.
no one remembers cook 300 but they do with kp special knocks.

Tbh England should take it as a compliment since India changed their entire pitch strategy in recent years after a loss, so they obviously scared of root and Anderson.
Hopefully they remember 2012-13 season best yr of decks.
think most of the games were won by the team losing the toss, 2 England and 3 India.

[Dr Cricket]

Surely you can play a fake shot now then pretty sure pujara does that already anyway.
Bit wrong if you can’t ask the umpire if he played a shot or not.

[westoelad]

Think they should be more leeway to it spinner in day 1 in sub c plus icc or bcci for the matter need to invest in better curators.
Guy with no experience produced the first with no experience of producing a deck before.

It is like me suddenly being the new lords groundsman.

The sole reason for turning decks and these pitches is India are adamant they do not want to play on a wicket with no help in the first 2 days and game being decided by the toss.
India want to play test without stressing about the toss and essentially with ashwin they know he can take wickets in the first innings with any hint of turn.
Issue is hard to get a deck with a hint of turn on day 1 and last 5 days.
Not like a green deck where you reset the pitch in the middle.

Yes,on 2nd thoughts, probably premature to criticise the the pitch after only 2days. Doesn't appear to be much different today than yesterday. Nor did Indian batsmen appear to be too troubled in the final hour.

[backfootpunch]

How on earth we let India make 330 on this wicket I have no idea

Moeen has been gifted the pitch of his dreams only problem is he has been unable to hit it

Any half decent spinner who can hit a line and length consistently would cause all sorts of problems

Leach seems to have bowled ok without much luck but still not quite good enough

I'm seeing a lot of talk everywhere about the pitch and umpiring, admittedly both have been sub standard, and not nearly enough about how terrible England have been

Had we bowled like this on a normal Indian wicket they'd have made 600

First Post in some time just needed a rant

Being perfectly honest id have been delighted pre series if you'd offered me a 3-1 defeat. We have a very inexperienced batting line up and spinners who are knowhere near the level of an ashwin.

Let's just be grateful Jadeja isn't playing he would have been impossible to face with his accuracy and speed on a deck spinning this much.

[bigfluffylemon]

Moeen is and always has been rubbish outside of very specific conditions. Bess has been taking wickets and scoring runs. He's a work in progress, no doubt about that, needs to work on consistency, but he's got 17 wickets at under 25 in three games on this tour.

England have not been great, but let's not take away from Rohit, who has been the difference between the sides (literally, take away his runs and India's lead is about 30). He looks like he's batting on a different wicket from everyone else. Hats off.

[alfie]

Really have to applaud India for their performance in this game over the two days , although the batting was effectively all the work of just four players. Scoring 329 on this was a fine effort , for all England bowled rather poorly. And their bowlers have exploited conditions to great effect. They are surely set for a resounding win to level the series - an excellent response to their heavy defeat of last week. Full credit to them.

As to the pitch/toss matter : I agree to a large extent with the critics of this pitch in that it was "too extreme" from the start. Regardless of which side gains an advantage , such a surface is not one we would like to see every week ... you could forget about five day cricket altogether. As a one off , I don't much care : as others have pointed out , under some weather conditions in England , for example , extreme seam and swing can have a similar effect. Home ground advantage is neither unfair nor undesirable.
I do however take issue with attempts to re-write the first match as one decided totally by the toss. Certainly batting first gave England a huge advantage. But they made 600 because of some superb batting and the fact that 2 of India's five bowlers were completely ineffective (similar to the first Indian innings in this match to a considerable degree) And had India batted to their usual standard they could have got a lot closer on first innings , eaten up more time , and just possibly achieved a draw.
(Feel free to tell me that's all rubbish anyone ; as I have no interest in endless pointless arguments and just offer that as my considered view)

What I am pretty sure is a reasonable summation is that neither of these pitches are what one might call ideal for a Test Match. That ideal (given the natural limitations of the underlying soil and climate) surely lies somewhere between the two ? Would be nice if that ideal could be produced each time ; but groundsmen are only human and cannot always get everything 100% correct...

Anyway one of the charms of Test Cricket is that you see it played on a wide variety of surfaces - and some of them are a bit wilder than others. Frankly I wouldn't have it any other way.

[bigfluffylemon]

Well said alfie.

[Durhamfootman]

Ben Foakes show this morning. 3 wickets from terrific glove work. I'm sure that Buttler would have completed the stumping of Rishabh, he might even have just about managed the run out of Pujara, but I'm not sure he would have got anywhere near the Rohit stumping. It's been a real pleasure to watch his glovework this morning.

A bit of a forgotten art

[The Professor]

Ben Foakes is the first England wicketkeeper to make three stumpings in a Test:
a) since Alan Knott, v Aus, Headingley 1968;
b) in a Test in Asia, ever;
c) away from home since Godfrey Evans in Cape Town in Jan 1949.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Could do with another right now.

[Gingerfinch]

Could do with another right now.

Too late now Arthur.

[sussexpob]

Moeen snags Kohli. Foakes then drops Broad standing up, but on a ball of 82mph hes got no chance snagging a thick edge.

Foakes has played brilliant behind the stumps, but not sure even he is giving himself a minute chance of catching edges to such pace. If Broad is going to be bowling in the 80s, best to stand back