England tour of India

[mikesiva]

Root out now. All over bar the shouting.

Axar gets his fourth of the innings.

Make that nine down. He gets his Michelle!

England 164 all out.

Moeen top scorer with 43.

A huge win for India!

[Red Devil]

Root out now. All over bar the shouting.

Axar gets his fourth of the innings.

Make that nine down. He gets his Michelle!

England 164 all out.

Moeen top scorer with 43.

A huge win for India!

Yep, all pretty comfortable for India

Eng will be glad they are moving on and have a day/night test next.

India should still be fuming about the pitch for the first tesr

Aus will be delighted it's 1-1 - they are in with a great chance of making it to the World Test Championship final

[Durhamfootman]

Bit of fun from Mo at the end. I was rooting for him to get the fastest test fifty ever, but not to be

Comprehensive and thoroughly deserved win for India. England didn't manage to score 300 across the 2 innings and without Mo's cameo they would have barely scored 250 across 2 innings.... all at sea!

day/nighter next.... that might even out the teams a bit... different ball, different conditions

[bigfluffylemon]

From the sublime to the appalling. How do you go from last week to this?

[Red Devil]

From the sublime to the appalling. How do you go from last week to this?

Some combination of pitch, luck and momentum probably.

Apart from the Siraj drop, India were good in the field whereas they were really poor last week. India also missed Jadeja and Axar last week. Axar is no Jadeja but he did a job in Jadeja's absence here. The number of no-balls India bowled last week was a joke.

Also, India didn't serve up a pitch that was a road for 2 days, which makes a difference.

Sets it up nicely for the next 2 tests though...

[sussexpob]

Haven't moaned about the pitch either - despite one line of my earlier perfectly reasonable post about pitches and the difficulties around them being rather ridiculously quoted out of context

The post had a specific shared parallel in opinion to the article I mentioned, and quoting it felt like a good way to introduce my criticism of Agnew's point. I would have liked to think that the addition of the caveat "I am not putting words into your mouth" was sufficient to demonstrate the criticism that followed were not in anyway attached to your own; I will concede that probably wasnt clear enough. The point of the post was not to misquote you or misrepresent your opinion.

Such childish gloating along with unnecessary defaming of "all" England fans etc does nothing to make this board - or your own reputation - much honour

There is something palpably toxic about certain sections of the English cricketing press. How different people interpret this is up to them, but its suffice to say that in my own opinion the air of toxicity is very real. The fact that the biggest forum for free press coverage on the UK angle of the game chose to host an article belittling the achievements of the Indian side here, and putting in no uncertain terms that Asian conditions are unfit for the game (while promoting typical English conditions as superior) speaks a lot to me about the honesty, integrity, cultural bias and motivations of the English cricketing press. The fact that these opinions were aired by someone who in no uncertain terms has personally abused other junior journalists for posting negative takes on English cricket, and even gone as far as to claim the only mainstream non-white sports correspondent in the UK was "racist" for finding occasional fault and not getting behind the team, its suffice to say I have a major problem with the way the press conducts itself, and had a major problem with the way they presented the events at this test.

A lot of these English correspondents are bullies, and they act like it. They gloated last week about how great England's performance was, then cried foul when another team beat them fairly. So in defence of Dr Cricket, I can totally understand that frustration; its born out of consistently unfair and biased treatment in the press. There are a lot of British Indians no doubt having to suffer this nonsense through the only forums they have access to, ie the British press. It certainly annoys me, and I am not an Indian fan.

No doubt we can all articulate points in a more respectful and friendly manner than we sometimes do, I certainly include myself in that. I will take your wider point about the way points are raised on the board to mind, and happily invite you to to discuss this over PM in the future if you are not happy.

[sussexpob]

From the sublime to the appalling. How do you go from last week to this?

Both tests have tested completely different skills and strengths. The first test presented England with the challenge of having the mental willpower and application to take control of the game, and they stood up to the test. They took the score past the point of being under threat, they placed India under scoreboard pressure that has a habit of creating mistakes, and they closed out the game. The pitch had little movement in to test their techniques, so none of these problems were highlighted.

The second match tested the technical aspect of both teams game, and no matter how much you want to make a score or are prepared to grit it out, if you arent setup properly on these pitches, you arent lasting at all long.

[sussexpob]

I've just seen the Lawrence dismissal. What on earth was he thinking? Good work from Pant, but I have no idea why he was even playing at a ball fired down the leg side. He just ended up being dismissed in the only way possible off a ball like that

Lawrence worked out pretty quickly in the first innings that he couldnt block out the ball after pitching as he was all over the place, and he pretty much started coming down the pitch at everything after a few overs. Started off yesterday in the exact same way, so it was a clear tactic for trying to nullify the spin.

I like the idea as at least he is adapting his play and trying to do the right thing, but the execution was a bit off. Especially last night he charged down at a few, and its almost like the shot he would play when he got there was improvised. Its workable though, if he can back up the footwork with a plan on what to do when he gets to the ball, he might do a lot better than the rest have.

day/nighter next.... that might even out the teams a bit... different ball, different conditions

The first Day night game in India was dominated by the Indian seamers, in fact I believe they accounted for all 20 wickets (Pakistan will be an exception, but I wonder how many other teams have won a test in Asia without a single wicket dropping to spin), so maybe the dew factor might present the home team with some major issues.

Ahmedabad hasnt hosted a game in ages though, used to be famous for being bowler friendly (South Africa bowled out India in 2008 for 70 odd here) and even helping seam a bit, but after that year it turned into a road I believe, and after a series of bore draws they struck it off the calendar. First test in nearly a decade to be hosted here, so no idea what the pitch will be.

After this test I will be surprised if England dont get trial by spin. And one notable thing about the pink ball is its built to be indestructible, the fact the seam will continue to be hard and pronounced might mean if its pitch like this last one, that seam is going to bite hard into the pitch, and maybe even spin and bounce more.

[meninblue]

Very comprehensive win for Team India.

Much needed for Indian fans after the loss in first test.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Mo has decided to go home. Having isolated with covid at the start of the tour, it's quite understandable that he might be struggling. Not good timing though having just returned to the squad having elected not to be available.

About which Vaughan seems to be having a bit of a tantrum. I understand his populist style is intended to bring attention to BBC coverage, and to himself as a plain speaking pro-England voice. But I find most of his noise pretty tiresome now. Which is a shame as he is a very nuanced observer of events on the pitch.

As so often, it's not so much what is said that offends, as how it is said...

[Arthur Crabtree]

I guess a spinner will step up from the reserves.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Well done to the India team. Hard to see England coming back after being so outclassed, but it wouldn't be too hard to at least compete a little batter.

[sussexpob]

The best judge of whether a person is in the right state of mind or wellbeing to perform is themselves, so if Moeen felt he wasnt 100% and couldnt continue on the tour we should respect that decision, and his honesty in stating it, and move on. I very much hope for his sake that whatever issues or causes he has he can sort through and get back on the field as soon as possible. Of course it has an impact on the team, but in these situations a players welfare has to be respected and given primacy.

[sussexpob]

About which Vaughan seems to be having a bit of a tantrum. I understand his populist style is intended to bring attention to BBC coverage, and to himself as a plain speaking pro-England voice. But I find most of his noise pretty tiresome now. Which is a shame as he is a very nuanced observer of events on the pitch.

As so often, it's not so much what is said that offends, as how it is said...

The populism lark isnt limited to cricket, he endorses Donald Trump and others like him on twitter, moaned for 3 years about people salvaging Brexit and demanding it happen quicker, and has spent the last year increasingly flirting with Covid denial. His latest thing seems to be tweeting 19 times a day on why schools should reopen and why lockdowns dont save lives.

I am surprised actually that Vaughan hasnt been sacked from the BBC for his online behaviour. While he is free to air whatever views he wants on a personal capacity, not sure its particularly a great look for a public broadcaster employee to trawl through Twitter all day calling people "d*ckheads" for posting things he doesnt agree with. He makes me look mild at times, he really goes after some people with bad language and insults.

Used to be a decent commentator but has declined at frightening speed.

[Durhamfootman]

After this test I will be surprised if England dont get trial by spin. And one notable thing about the pink ball is its built to be indestructible, the fact the seam will continue to be hard and pronounced might mean if its pitch like this last one, that seam is going to bite hard into the pitch, and maybe even spin and bounce more.

spin and bounce more? Oh no!