England tour of India

[sussexpob]

Ali again gets his length wrong. Pant nearly kills Pope as a result

[Arthur Crabtree]

Going to be quite a few overs short of the 90 today.

[sussexpob]

Going to be quite a few overs short of the 90 today.

Have to ask how that is possible when the Spinners have bowled pretty much all the overs.

[sussexpob]

Pant nearly finds Broad from a rank full toss with the last ball.

Indias day.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Going to be quite a few overs short of the 90 today.

Have to ask how that is possible when the Spinners have bowled pretty much all the overs.

And then England complain because Pant is trying to stop them from getting in another over! They should have finished bowling half an hour ago.

India's day by a mile. Hard to see England fighting back from here. Maybe seems an exaggeration after one day, but this looks like a last day pitch already.

Mo and Leach must be disappointed by their bowling.

[sussexpob]

Leach has been ok, but Moeen stunk. In these conditions going for a 100 in a day is not acceptable, there was all kinds of devilish bounce and turn on the lengths and lines he bowls on. Dropping Bess looks even more mad now unless Moeen puts in a batting masterclass.

Dropping Anderson also made no sense to me. He's bowled in two games in months, do you really need to rest him? You've won against the odds in the first test, so worry about his fitness later....now was the time to all in and put pressure on the home team

Plus he didn't bowl much in those games, and was likely in these conditions not to bowl much here either.

[sussexpob]

Great day to watch though. Pitches that offer something all the time are so much better for the game imo

[Arthur Crabtree]

Wonder of there'll be anything from the match ref on King Kohli refusing to leave the middle after being bowled.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Plus he didn't bowl much in those games, and was likely in these conditions not to bowl much here either.

Must be a case for another spinner in the XI. Though as they dropped Bess, they don't have one. They have Crane, Virdi and Parkinson in the reserves.

The squad was named for the first two Tests, so maybe changes will be made.

[Durhamfootman]

A bit of a recovery from England, presumably late in the day, but I imagine that they'll be disappointed to have conceded 300-6 from 86-3. A lobsided scorecard for India, but I doubt they'll mind that. 350 first innings might prove to be a very good score if honest Joe doesn't score big for once..... besides Pant might push India a lot higher than that

I was watching a fair bit this morning and I noticed how long it took for the England spinners to start each over. An awful lot of talking, pointing, moving, talking, moving again went on at the start of a lot of those overs.

[The Professor]

Was impressed with Mark Butcher's failure to toe the BCCI line on comms today.

[Durhamfootman]

what did he say?

[The Professor]

With the dodgy third umpire.

Indian commentators all taking very lightly. Few cracks about that's the way the cookie crumbles etc. Butcher stating was outrageous and wouldn't be brushed under carpet.

I expect he'll find his P45 on his doormat tomorrow

[sussexpob]

The Indian commentators did have a rather blasé and defensive attitude to it, but Butch wasn't out of order. Explained his point about thinking it hit the glove, was proved right...end of. About 5 minutes later they were all laughing about it. It looked very out live (I said before the review).

I like Butcher in the box. I like him in the studio too. Seems a bit of a natural, and far better than some. Although maybe he will become like Vaughan, who's slowly growing into the new Boycott

And Knight. My god the guy is a prat

[Arthur Crabtree]

Butcher's been knocking about for a few years and I think he's always been a good pundit without being annoying or too much of a personality. He's pretty shrewd I think. I'm surprised he hasn't become more of a fixture.