India tour of Eng, June 20 - Aug 4

[Arthur Crabtree]

Very short boundaries may have inflated India's run total.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Frustrating first hour for England, with a new ball too.

Stokes not going to be the partnership breaker this time as he bowled first up.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Enland taking bit of a caning. Looking like a first innings score typical of this year's CC.

[sussexpob]

Jadeja will be sick as a parrot getting out to that

[sussexpob]

Great partnership in the end though, took India from a bad position to a competitive one.

Been thoroughly unimpressed with Bashir this test. England really need to end this experiment with him. I seen a stat from the last test that suggests his level of turn is the worst ever recorded by a spinner in English tests since the stat has been measured 20 years ago. Just doesn't really have much to his armoury. He bowled a carrom ball a couple of overs ago, but if you don't spin the off break, it hardly batters if you can bowl the variation... not challenging both edges.

Average of 42 removing the test v ZIM. 46 if you remove Windies game. Pants performance against any half decent batting team, and he hasn't played a game against the top two ranking teams yet.

[Arthur Crabtree]

200 partnership. Thanks, but no more.

[andy]

Bad decision at the toss imo....yes it worked last game but chasing isn't always going to work....this is a road right now and will turn later on it normally does day 5 here.....I'd loved to have seen us bat first bully India and rack 500-600 inside 4-5 sessions....the bowlers probably aren't thanking stokes right now

[andy]

50 partnership and 100 up for tongue

Yes he might be good at blowing away the tail but against actual batsmen he's looked highly ineffective and goes for plenty of runs.....

As I write this Washington smashes him for 6!!!!

Huge problems for England and stokes

[andy]

Maiden test match double hundred for gill! Say what you want about his captaincy but runs in both tests suggest the captaincy is spurring him on rather than the other way round! Good player

[sussexpob]

Gill 2 ton up...

Apparently the lowest false shot rate recorded for any innings in England since 2006..... impressively faultless as hes gone on.

I don't think I have seen many batters in my life watching cricket who keep their head and body so still. Not much footwork to write home about, but he has that little trigger, shuffles into place.... and then sets like a statute.

[andy]

Just plays risk free cricket...traditional strokes and looks solid all the time...

Guy at the other end isn't bad either.... Washington gets into most international sides is a class act with bat and ball....playing to tongue incredibly well dangerous partnership this

[Arthur Crabtree]

Are we moving into a declaration zone?

[andy]

250 for Gill!

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe playing with a Kookaburra?

[sussexpob]

Are we moving into a declaration zone?

My personal take...

My aim is to get to 700 before the close of play. This would make England's follow on target 500, which creates a large scoreboard pressure for them to avoid having to bat out 3 days on a wearing pitch. I know teams dont like the follow on now, but India really don't want to end batting too long wondering what total to set a team that hunts down history making totals as a habit, and who can make 400 runs breeze by in the blink of an eye.

You have two frontline spinners..... you have to set England a huge follow on requirement back yourself in the field 3 days to get them out twice.