England tour of India

[Arthur Crabtree]

Without wanting to hit on Ben (as its clearly a pre-defined tactical role the team have him do), these spells England have him bowl that mimic of Flower's "Broad the enforcer" nonsense really do get the lad bowling at his least effective. Get him bowling properly he can be useful in the channel with late swing, there is nothing worse than seeing a not that fast pace bowler digging in 80 mph half trackers to one of the best players in Asian conditions whos ever played. If Kohli hadnt mistimed his pull, hed had smashed three easy hits in 2 overs.

Maybe the Wagner effect. He's made a career out of taking a lot of wickets bowling bouncers at no great pace. Other bowlers are bound to notice.

[Red Devil]

what I find both incomprehensible and thoroughly irritating is that England's over rate is down to 11 despite having a spinner at one end for a third of the innings. They just don't care, do they?

They do I think, it's so slow that it can't be by accident - I can only conclude that they were deliberately slowing the game down because of the match situation - although I'm not sure it'll make any difference

[The Professor]

Well, Axar Patel was the clear star of the day. Leach bowled well and Crawley's batting was decent and it's always nice to see Kohli walk off for a fairly small score. Other than that.....all bit crap.

[Durhamfootman]

Leach in the unenviable position of trying to keep England in the game on a first day pitch.

As long as he doesn't do anything stupid, I think Leach will come away from this series a better bowler, with his reputation enhanced and his place in the side more secure. I confess his stock has risen with me.

[Durhamfootman]

Without wanting to hit on Ben (as its clearly a pre-defined tactical role the team have him do), these spells England have him bowl that mimic of Flower's "Broad the enforcer" nonsense really do get the lad bowling at his least effective. Get him bowling properly he can be useful in the channel with late swing, there is nothing worse than seeing a not that fast pace bowler digging in 80 mph half trackers to one of the best players in Asian conditions whos ever played. If Kohli hadnt mistimed his pull, hed had smashed three easy hits in 2 overs.

Maybe the Wagner effect. He's made a career out of taking a lot of wickets bowling bouncers at no great pace. Other bowlers are bound to notice.

Archer wasn't bowling with a lot of venom either. I don't know whether it's to do with humidity or something, or whether he just wasn't up for it. His comments last year about not bending his back will always raise these sorts of questions, I suppose. I don't think he hit 90mph even once today.

[Durhamfootman]

It would appear that the new stadium has posed all sorts of questions for the England management, and they haven't interpreted things very well on this occasion. They went with 4 seamers plus Leach and then lost 9 wickets to spin. Won the toss and batted first, then were bowled out for 112. They could have rested the entire team and sent Durham over to fill in for them.... Durham are equally able to be skittled for just over a hundred in the first innings of a match

[Durhamfootman]

and as Durham know all too well, if you only score 112 then no matter how well you play thereafter, you are always vulnerable to one match defining partnership from the opposition

[Arthur Crabtree]

Leach in the unenviable position of trying to keep England in the game on a first day pitch.

As long as he doesn't do anything stupid, I think Leach will come away from this series a better bowler, with his reputation enhanced and his place in the side more secure. I confess his stock has risen with me.

His problem is always going to be that England will want a spinner who bats in most occasions, and a specialist only in Asia.

[sussexpob]

Without wanting to hit on Ben (as its clearly a pre-defined tactical role the team have him do), these spells England have him bowl that mimic of Flower's "Broad the enforcer" nonsense really do get the lad bowling at his least effective. Get him bowling properly he can be useful in the channel with late swing, there is nothing worse than seeing a not that fast pace bowler digging in 80 mph half trackers to one of the best players in Asian conditions whos ever played. If Kohli hadnt mistimed his pull, hed had smashed three easy hits in 2 overs.

Maybe the Wagner effect. He's made a career out of taking a lot of wickets bowling bouncers at no great pace. Other bowlers are bound to notice.

Archer wasn't bowling with a lot of venom either. I don't know whether it's to do with humidity or something, or whether he just wasn't up for it. His comments last year about not bending his back will always raise these sorts of questions, I suppose. I don't think he hit 90mph even once today.

See comments from a couple of years ago I made. He has never been an out and out express pace bowler for Sussex, this is more his normal speed. With the tolls of international cricket he was either going to break down or have to reign it in at some point. I guess they chose the latter.

[sussexpob]

Leach in the unenviable position of trying to keep England in the game on a first day pitch.

As long as he doesn't do anything stupid, I think Leach will come away from this series a better bowler, with his reputation enhanced and his place in the side more secure. I confess his stock has risen with me.

His problem is always going to be that England will want a spinner who bats in most occasions, and a specialist only in Asia.

In a way yes.swanns record in England in the first innings made him almost totally useless. But his second innings record he was a match winner. Think you can make room for a spinner in most matches, even in England.

[bigfluffylemon]

Truly awful effort. I'm speechless.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Leach in the unenviable position of trying to keep England in the game on a first day pitch.

As long as he doesn't do anything stupid, I think Leach will come away from this series a better bowler, with his reputation enhanced and his place in the side more secure. I confess his stock has risen with me.

His problem is always going to be that England will want a spinner who bats in most occasions, and a specialist only in Asia.

In a way yes.swanns record in England in the first innings made him almost totally useless. But his second innings record he was a match winner. Think you can make room for a spinner in most matches, even in England.

Swann was a batting option. He could bat at eight. It was him v Monty and Swann's batting (and fielding) was a big factor in his favour at first. Until it was clear Swann was a better bowler anyway. Leach is the Monty here, Bess is the Swann. England will play a spinner in most games, but maybe rarely one that only offers bowling.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Truly awful effort. I'm speechless.

Tomorrow is another day. Still a chance to limit the deficit, though another spinner would be helpful.

[alfie]

Truly awful effort. I'm speechless.

Tomorrow is another day. Still a chance to limit the deficit, though another spinner would be helpful.

There is a chap called Root - but the skipper doesn't seem to want to bowl him for some reason...

Not a good day for an England fan. Clearly India read the pitch better (though from some of the comments I've seen it seems even they weren't entirely sure in advance about the merits of seam v spin options ; so no surprise England backed the wrong horse)

But in any case this pitch was no monster : all just fine bowling from two Indian spinners and abject batting (Crawley aside) from England. Mostly out playing for spin when it wasn't there rather than bamboozled by those that did turn. Footwork almost universally unconvincing ... It is sadly looking to me as if their collective confidence has been so impacted by their evisceration in the second match that they've largely lost all faith in their ability to bat normally against these two bowlers. Which is rather depressing for hopes of turning things around in the second innings. Pitch doubtless will turn more so batting will not get easier ; but I'm not expecting a minefield so good players should still be able to score runs. Problem is India have more of those in their batting line-up

Started off bowling well (especially Anderson) and I was hopeful they'd be able to do significant damage to India under the lights. But Rohit again played well ; had a bit of luck at times but fortune favours the brave etc... and I fear England allowed frustration at umpiring calls to get under their skin (always a very bad thing to have affecting you when you need pure focus to fight back in a match). Leach impressed ; and hopefully if he gets enough support on day two he might keep this Indian innings down to something short of total dominance - but it's a long way back from a situation like this.

If ever the resilience they have often shown over the last year or so needs to be demonstrated it is over the next couple of days. Hoping for a fightback . But not going near the betting shops...

[sussexpob]

It is sadly looking to me as if their collective confidence has been so impacted by their evisceration in the second match that they've largely lost all faith in their ability to bat normally against these two bowlers. Which is rather depressing for hopes of turning things around in the second innings

Is it a question of confidence or capability? I guess maybe in the case of a Stokes or Root, there is a certain amount of hesitancy creeping in. The others I am not sure ever really proved they can play this level of bowling.

abject batting (Crawley aside)

If I wanted to be uber critical, I think this innings proved why Crawley is both seen as a brilliant project for England, but also why he maybe averages in the lower 30s in CC. A couple of times he responded to good balls by forcing a shot in response, and I am not 100 percent sold on his long term capability to meet the spinning ball with his technique; but his timing and technique at times made me think I was watching someone like Brian Lara. That first boundary might just be the best shot I have seen in ages, certainly wont see better timing than that.

Started off bowling well (especially Anderson) and I was hopeful they'd be able to do significant damage to India under the lights.

I think the seamers did ok considering the window of swing was so narrow. They are going to be limited really to rotating and trying to put pressure on one end to stop scoring (which Anderson did well especially) while Leach attacks the other. Cant really see a seamer winning England the match unless some bad strokes come.