India tour of Eng, June 20 - Aug 4

[Arthur Crabtree]

The old boys network.

Nair, Durel, Deep, Krishna in for Pant, Bumrah, Thakur, Kamboj.

Pope bowls first.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Rehan must be knocking on the door quite loudly.

5-fer on Test debut. Lest we forget.

[sussexpob]

Atkinson starts well, Sai Sudharsan not looking comfortable out there. Woakes only manages a 4 over spell before he needs a rest... a rather ominous sign.

Poor Jaiswal looks like he's totally lost confidence in the space of a few tests.

[sussexpob]

Meanwhile as I said yesterday, the attack pointed towards a more bowler friendly pitch. A good covering of live grass, helpful overhead conditions..... not going to be a road.

[sussexpob]

India doing the right thing so far. Be patient, but miles in the bowlers legs.

[sussexpob]

Rahul edges onto his own stumps... Woakes back on and with the breakthrough

[Arthur Crabtree]

Sounds like Tongue is spraying it around. And England not having much luck in good bowling conditions.

[sussexpob]

Not exactly an inspiring 3 overs from Overton either. Gives Gill one good ball that beat him, amongst some absolute filth. Got lucky one long hop found a fielder, and another full toss didn't hit the gap, but the other three rank balls Gill didn't miss out on.

Speed clock has him 84mph on the only ball to register.... not exactly express pace

[sussexpob]

Sounds like Tongue is spraying it around. And England not having much luck in good bowling conditions.

His first over gave the impression he'd been out all night on the lash and just came straight from nightclub and on to bowl, but he's tightened it up as his spell goes on.

Woakes has been the best bowler by far and could have prized an extra wicket or two out.... but he's already bowled 9 overs of the 23. Got to think we aren't going to see much more of him this afternoon.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Rain.

Not a bad start for India in the circumstances.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Forecast for today looks dodgy. Not good on Sunday either.

[sussexpob]

Forecast for today looks dodgy. Not good on Sunday either.

Doubt we will get more play today as another belt of rain is coming in. England won't mind..... but if the rain comes and takes time away India might need to risk to lose this test to save the series.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Currently back on! Overton with ball in hand...

[sussexpob]

In the break I was listening to Vaughan and Co's new podcast show thing, and had to chuckle at the usual Ben Stokes hero worship that follows anything he does that's remotely good. Vaughan muses at one point whether there has been a more impactful player in the history of the game while everyone nods in agreement, and then it moves on to an agreement that no one has ever beat Stokes in important moments in his career, and that they couldn't think of a single example of someone getting the better of him.

I mean, he has played in 50 lost test matches where he averages only 24, I hesitate to point out that maybe somewhere in those 100 innings someone maybe bowled him out before the superhero acted kicked in. And as Ian Bishop invited us to remember at the time...."Carlos Braithwaite".... indeed, he bowled the worst over in cricket history and threw away a T20 world cup while the guy responsible for engraving the winner was already writing England's name on it.

Most impactful player of all time?

With the bat in matches England have won, he has been top scorer only twice - Once in a dead rubber game v WI, and Leeds 2019.

With the ball, he has taken a 5-for only twice in games England win, neither time is this the best figures for an England bowler in the match. In fact, the first time he did it was clearing up Australia's second innings after Broad his career best 8-18, and the second time was after Anderson had also taken 7-42, his career best. So yes, Stokes only memorable contributions with the ball in England victories is to mop up whats left after England's best bowlers of their generation had career days....So not exactly Ben Stokes coming to the rescue and winning games solo.

The idiotic hype England pundits give him is beyond silly.

[sussexpob]

Need a betting investigation for that run out, I have no idea why they thought a run was on