First Test: England v India at Edgbaston, 1-5 August 2018.

[Durhamfootman]

78 is the new 90

100 is so passe

[backfootpunch]

India just havent looked comfortable with this moving ball at all. 300 looking a mile off now, if this partnership doesnt stick then I can see England batting not long after tea

The tail always wags against England when we get early wickets 150-7 to 275 all out wouldn't surprise me one bit

How right I was unfortunately

Only 1 run off

[bigfluffylemon]

Bloody England. It's the Australia series again. Twice in two days got themselves into a decent position, only to hand the initiative right back. And dropping Kohli not once but twice is just insane. You can't do that.

England might still win this game, but if they do it'll be because India apart from Kohli managed to be even worse than they did. Kohli and Ashwin have kept India in the game, frankly, otherwise India have been undercooked so far.

Seen the Cook dismissal on highlights. There's no doubt it was a very good ball, spun a long way, but even so, Cook was trapped on the crease and wasn't fully in behind it. He's still obviously a good player - he hit 180 just the other day against a decent India A attack, but it does seem as though he's not quite there any more against truly test quality bowling. He needs not just one score, but a consistent run of a few to put the doubts away.

As I said yesterday, this appears to be a pretty fair wicket - something in it to keep bowlers and batsmen interested. Execute your skills well and you'll get the rewards, lapse and you'll be punished. What this means for England's innings is that there will almost certainly be cheap wickets, but there will also be players who get in - it will be absolutely critical that those players go on to make a big score. Somebody makes a hundred tomorrow, and England will be in the box seat for victory. If we get another innings with a couple of 50-70 scores and a smattering of 20s and cheap wickets, it won't be enough. The difference between chasing 200 and 300 on this pitch could well be significant.

Unfortunately, England are right at the bottom of the pile when it comes to converting 50s to 100s and above in recent years. It's not just Root (although his stats are a significant contributor) - the whole side seems incapable of going on once they reach about 70-80. Since the start of 2016, England's conversion rate of 50s to 100s is less than 20% - only Pakistan and Bangladesh are worse (India and Australia are top, unsurprisingly). England's rate of scoring hundreds overall is also 6th best - they score one hundred per 27 innings batted, ahead of only Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Indies (I don't really count Zimbabwe in test stats these days). By contrast, India score a hundred every 10 innings batted.
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=batting

So I'm not overly optimistic of someone getting a big score tomorrow.

[bigfluffylemon]

I also see that my joke about Rashid getting Kohli after he'd scored 150 over on the headline thread was pretty close to accurate

[Arthur Crabtree]

What happens next?

[backfootpunch]

What happens next?

The only things that is certain is root getting himself in then finding a way to get out like he has for the last 2 years constantly

His record would be similar to Steve Smith's if he was more ruthless

[Dr Cricket]

Nice India back in it.
A saying I had yesterday is if I get sleep India basically loss and if India do well and right in the contest, I wouldn’t get any sleep till the next test match.

Working night shift so generally start work at 3 till 11/ 2 am.
If India doing well staying up till like 4 am to catch up on the cricket and stuff.

Sounds like a good innings from Kohli.

[Dr Cricket]

Smith is basically in the middle of Kohli and root.
Smith very consistent and good conversion rate not as eye pleasing.
Root very consistent but poor conversion rate.
Kohli poor starter get out early a lot very vulnerable early 20 but makes up for it in the conversion factor and he probably the best attacking batsman of the lot he does have the swagger of viv Richards.
Do find root boring to watch though he got the game to be more expansive and probably needs to express himself maybe that the reason he doesn’t convert more since he grafts his way to 80-90 and doesn’t just score runs for free when it is merited.

He clearly doesn’t have much weakness in his game to not get hundreds

[Dr Cricket]

looking like kohli obsession with fitness is playing dividends.
england bowlers looked tired and didn't have much left in the tank and kohli took advantage.


reading reports Stokes, Anderson and curran were knackered because of their earlier spells and didn't have much left in the tank when the last 2 batsman were at the crease.

Also they need to be careful with anderson.

Some people were livid on twitter when Anderson was bowling 10-12 overs spell when it looked at the time the cricket contest was over and that he should be saved for later on and not bowl to get kohli out for Ego reasons.

Suspect he isn't able to bowl marathon spell all days like in the past and england need Anderson to be fit and firing in every test match.

[backfootpunch]

Smith is basically in the middle of Kohli and root.
Smith very consistent and good conversion rate not as eye pleasing.
Root very consistent but poor conversion rate.
Kohli poor starter get out early a lot very vulnerable early 20 but makes up for it in the conversion factor and he probably the best attacking batsman of the lot he does have the swagger of viv Richards.
Do find root boring to watch though he got the game to be more expansive and probably needs to express himself maybe that the reason he doesn’t convert more since he grafts his way to 80-90 and doesn’t just score runs for free when it is merited.

He clearly doesn’t have much weakness in his game to not get hundreds

For me atm it is

Smith
Kohli/Williamson
Then root

And for me roots issue has been that he is too aggressive, he doesn't grind out the hundreds like the other three guys do, they stay focused throughout there innings whereas root relaxes when he gets to 50 and always plays a loose shot that gets him out

He has knicked off when well set playing a big drive to a ball not full enough over and over the last two years

It's very frustrating to watch so I can't imagine just how frustrated he is getting himself, I get the feeling that when he does eventually get his next hundred he will get 5 in the next ten tests or something

[backfootpunch]

Smith is basically in the middle of Kohli and root.
Smith very consistent and good conversion rate not as eye pleasing.
Root very consistent but poor conversion rate.
Kohli poor starter get out early a lot very vulnerable early 20 but makes up for it in the conversion factor and he probably the best attacking batsman of the lot he does have the swagger of viv Richards.
Do find root boring to watch though he got the game to be more expansive and probably needs to express himself maybe that the reason he doesn’t convert more since he grafts his way to 80-90 and doesn’t just score runs for free when it is merited.

He clearly doesn’t have much weakness in his game to not get hundreds

For me atm it is

Smith
Kohli/Williamson
Then root

And for me roots issue has been that he is too aggressive, he doesn't grind out the hundreds like the other three guys do, they stay focused throughout there innings whereas root relaxes when he gets to 50 and always plays a loose shot that gets him out

He has knicked off when well set playing a big drive to a ball not full enough over and over the last two years

It's very frustrating to watch so I can't imagine just how frustrated he is getting himself, I get the feeling that when he does eventually get his next hundred he will get 5 in the next ten tests or something

[Dr Cricket]

Williamson is an odd one because of his poor record in massive series.

would have Smith/Kohli
Gap
Root
Gap
the rest

Williamson is a bit overrated because of his team and basically hardly playing Test matches and because of NZ test fixtures he can stat pad a lot.
Record in England and india plus SA is quite poor for someone wanting to be in the top tier of batsman.

in terms of ability root and Williamson should be so much higher.
Williamson should be right up there he got the time and skill to play all times of bowling and in all conditions not really sure why he goes missing for NZ in big series though.

[ddb]

Loved the last 2 days.

Couldn't contain my joy at Virat doing it over here. He had a bit of luck but was really brilliant with the tail.

Still make England favourites, all his other big 100s overseas have been in losses I think too...

[alfie]

India just havent looked comfortable with this moving ball at all. 300 looking a mile off now, if this partnership doesnt stick then I can see England batting not long after tea

The tail always wags against England when we get early wickets 150-7 to 275 all out wouldn't surprise me one bit

How about the lottery numbers while you're at it , backfoot ?

Brilliant bit of clairvoyance ...

[alfie]

What happens next?

Ha ! After reading the last twelve pages and observing the number of totally wrong predictions from most of the erudite souls on here (backfoot the honourable exception !) I reckon a man would be a fool to try and guess the future of this match

However : since I'm not a betting man might hazard a couple of possibilities :

England will surely be aiming to bat all Friday. If they can do so then I'd expect the lead to be a winning one . Indian batsmen - Kohli apart - didn't look comfortable at any point (even Kohli had a devil of a job just surviving against Anderson - and a bit of luck too) and you wouldn't think batting will get notably easier over the last two days. I don't really expect Rashid to be a major factor , more the pace men who can probably exploit a wearing pitch as well as the wrist spinner.
The fatigue issue , especially on Anderson and Stokes , could be a problem ; but I'd imagine they will be OK as long as England don't have one of their famous collapses and get them back in the field too early...

In fact that is the big hope for India : if they can grab early wickets ( especially Root) they must have a chance of inducing the headless lemming syndrome in England's notoriously fragile lineup...and if they can knock them over tomorrow then they might well power on to victory.

So which is more likely ? I honestly think it is close to 50-50 at this time. England perhaps marginally more likely to reach their target (not quite sure what that will be in terms of runs ; but I fancy batting three sessions should be enough.

This has been a fascinating contest so far ; England have twice seemed to be in a very strong position only to have India fight back through great individual efforts ; so one might say India have mostly been playing catch up ? Doesn't guarantee the same will apply days 3/4 ; but it suggests the home team should not be too rattled by their failure to nail down their advantage - they may yet get another chance.

I think we might well be in for a really good Test Match.