India in England Aug-Sep 2021 (& July 2022)

[Durhamfootman]

The batsmen by contrast are staying mainly fit - just can't make any runs

clearly trudging on and off is much better than running between wickets for avoiding injury

[bigfluffylemon]

The batsmen by contrast are staying mainly fit - just can't make any runs

clearly trudging on and off is much better than running between wickets for avoiding injury

Could just do a Gayle and hit boundaries to avoid having to run...

[Arthur Crabtree]

This creeped up on me. Anderson 2-5 and India in trouble. We're at 4-2.

India unchanged, but Malan and Overton in for Sibley and Wood.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Jimmy the Saint gets King Kohli for not many. 3-6.

Great fuel for Vaughan's view that Virat isn't a top quality Test bat like Honest Joe is.

[bigfluffylemon]

Jimmy is just going from strength to strength.

Shame the rest of the bowling can't back him up.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Rohit out for 19 over three hours!

The others chipping in now. Six down.

[Arthur Crabtree]

67-9! Doesn't feel like the tail will hang around as long as at Lord's.

It's a tired old observation... but if this was happening to spin in India, there would be complaints from the English journos.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Two scores in the teens, and the next best is 4. Last four wickets for no runs in six balls. Six wickets for 11 runs.

[Arthur Crabtree]

England's day.

[bigfluffylemon]

England's day.

Understatement of the year.

[bigfluffylemon]

Well, a day of rare domination. You have to go back to the Melbourne test in 2010 to find England bowling the opposition out on day 1 then going past their total without losing a wicket. Trent Bridge 2015 also springs to mind. Both were famous innings wins...

Of course, two years ago at Headingley England came back from a similarly bad position to win, so it ain't over yet.

Nice to see Hameed back in the runs after Lord's. Should do him the world of good. Let's hope it's the start of something. Malan will also be in the nice position of not coming in to bat in the third over at number 3. I don't think it was the wrong decision to drop Crawley, but he was effectively opening the batting rather than playing 3 - it can't have helped.

Apparently this is only the second time since 2016 that England have managed a century opening partnership at home, and the fourth in a decade since Cook and Strauss were together. The previous decade had 13 - the three pairs of Cook/Strauss, Struass/Tresco and Tresco/Vaughan averaged at least one home hundred opening stand a year...

[alfie]

Hmm. Only nine posts so far - you can tell England have had a good day

Seriously it really was an impressive comeback after that last day horror at Lord's. Would have been easy to let that drag the team down but they showed not just better cricket skills but also a much more positive attitude , both in the field and by the two opening bats. OK it is always easier when you get on top from the start ; but even in their good sessions over the first couple of Tests I thought there was a bit of hesitancy showing : not so yesterday. All of the seamers kept bowling attacking lines and lengths ; looked as if they expected to take wickets...it all helped to keep the pressure on the Indian bats.

And Hameed and Burns , while being sensibly restrained against the good bowling (and there was some : at least from Bumrah and Shami ; although in general the Indian bowling was well off its best) ; were ever ready to take advantage of anything at all loose - and also ran a lot of sharp and well judged singles. Played with an admirable measure of intent , I thought. Just what was required to cement the advantage after the good work of the bowling unit.
Too soon to say Hameed replacing Sibley heralds a New Order of England Opening Batting , I think : but a very nice start.

Just about everything that could go wrong for India , did. Even Jadeja (who was bowling quite well and keeping a lid on the scoring) got injured and had to go off the field , forcing a return to some rather underwhelming pace again from both ends. Summed up by a half chance from Hameed evading the slips and giving him the boundary to reach his fifty - and an overthrow off the last ball of the day...

This Indian side has shown it is nothing if not resilient. I expect them to fight back - though it is hard to see how they can turn this one around , even if it is Headingley the Home of Test Match Miracles. Let us see how well England can maintain their new found dominance - with two more matches to come the battle for supremacy looks like being ever more interesting.

[Gingerfinch]

Not often you can look at a game after day one and say it's almost certainly over.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Yes, England can't not win this one.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Must be England's best opening partnership for a while.

Maybe suggests an opportunity for India to bat long in the second innings, like England in Brisbane, 2010.