England tour of India

[Durhamfootman]

mistake from Foakes.

Missed an edge from Ashwin off Broad's bowling, standing up. He missed a tough stumping chance yesterday, but otherwise he's been excellent

[Durhamfootman]

Ashwin on his 3rd life after Stokesy put him down on 28

[mikesiva]

Foakes standing up to Broad.

[sussexpob]

Moeen finally getting his length right, and reaping the benefits. This looks pretty out

[Gingerfinch]

How long did that review take? Everything was clear!

[sussexpob]

Got to love Nick Knight. He was halfway through saying its impossible for the off spinner to get lbw wickets on that angle, then 2 seconds later Moeen snags him just like that.

Put it in the locker of Nick Knights excellent observations. I sometimes doubt I am watching the same matches as him

[sussexpob]

Ashwin declining singles while blocking. Got to choose one way here, its hit out time or take the runs time.

[sussexpob]

Ashwin declining singles while blocking. Got to choose one way here, its hit out time or take the runs time.

He must have heard me

[mikesiva]

Foakes standing up to Broad.

Gone back now. Ploy didn't seem to work.

[sussexpob]

Foakes standing up to Broad.

Gone back now. Ploy didn't seem to work.

Its something I have seen some really skilled pace bowlers do to good effect in India or Asia in the past, keeper comes up and the paceman bowls some cutters to get something off the turning pitch. Broad got the cut instantly, had a half chance, then proceeded to get carried away and bowl full pace after.

I am guessing thats all on the bowler.The idea is to bowl medium pace and use the cut, not thunder down half trackers that kill the keeper.

[sussexpob]

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.

Agnew rambled about this "pitches should last 5 days" stuff last night. And while I dont want to put his words in your mouth, he seemed to indicate that pitches are only test match standard when they swing on Day 1, and if they spin they are not of standard. For me this smacks of a sort of disgusting cultural superiority that more Western conditions are in some way proper cricket, while Asian conditions are not worthy of the game. I cant really see what the difference is, if you concede swing is desirable throughout a match then why not spin?

Either way, lets put some stats into this. Including matches hosted in England since India last toured in 2018, there has been 19 matches.

Total overs in the game on average - 292.5
Average wicket value - 28

This match
229 overs so far. That requires 63 overs left to be bowled to make this last the same length as the average recent test in England. In fact if England replicated their first innings length, we would reach almost an exact parity in length of match.

I cant remember a single article about English pitches being substandard or producing too short tests.

India's effort of runs in this test would be the fourth best out of 10 match totals in the last England hosted series between the teams. They have had 5 individual batsman make a 50.

[sussexpob]

Foakes misses a stumping. That one was pretty simple. Although replay shows Ashwin just got an edge that might have deflected it. Hes taken too superb stumpings so far, id have expeected him to get that.

[Gingerfinch]

Was a really poor miss, deflection or not

Will India declare soon or just get bat till they get bowled out? I'm thinking the latter

[Arthur Crabtree]

If India get to the second new ball, that will be a good effort on this pitch.

If England could bat as long in the last innings, that would be a positive to take out the game.

[sussexpob]

Considering the match situation, is it really that sensible that Broad is bowling? If England are chopping and changing pace bowlers, Id have thought it made more sense for Broad to be preserved rather than bowling, that way you might get another test out of him. Plus the spinners are having the best of it.

Not seen Leach in a while for instance. And Root has looked decent on this pitch