My dear old things, it's STW TMS!

Dropped 🙁

Looked like a draw since end of first session on day 3 really. Still love it though !

Mmmm 4 down.

Oj oj here we go

Good attempt by England – some strange bowling choices after tea though.

A bowling coach has got to get hold of Ansari and do some basic work on his action. His head is falling away too far and he has no ‘gather’ at any point in his action. He will not be consistent unless he gets a bit more compact. Having said that, a good effort from England and plenty of positives, but it sounds like the next test is being played on something more reminiscent of a beach than a cricket pitch.

3 spinners is pointless for England. They will always bowl a lot of seam, so 3 seamers/2 spinners is plenty. Get Butler in the line up. Even though they won’t, I’d leave Woakes in the team and let Jimmy carry the drinks.

A slightly strange conclusion to draw from a match where they weren’t short of batters. Not only that, it’s also a team which genuinely bats to 10 (they had a county opener there!) – I’ll accept Broad is probably a genuine tailender nowadays, even if he’d probably bat at 9 in most teams.

I’ll accept Broad is probably a genuine tailender nowadays,

True enough, but it’s good when your number 11 has a test ton to his name.

Can’t see the point of rushing Jimmy back, it’s not like there’s much doing for him on these pitches and itd be better to let him have time to recover properly. If it was going to be swinging round corners then fair enough but pace bowlers are making up numbers in the next test.

I honestly don’t see what Ansari/Batty will add to our attack over and above Ali/Rashid. We won’t bowl enough overs of spin to tire out the 2 of them.

For me the key is to let Ali be/stay as a proper allrounder and bat up the order. I remember listening to an interview he did at the end of his first season in the test team when he said he had been training almost exclusively as a bowler and been neglecting his batting. He’s too good for that – let him be a genuine batter who bowls and it leave the door open for a 2nd spinner in the UK or a 3rd in areas of the world where 3 spinners might be an asset. It would also mean a 2nd spinner would get regular test action year round which has to be a good thing.

I also like the idea of having a 4-7 in the batting line up that can be switched around at will depending on what you are facing and how much you need to press on.

Ooh look! A pigeon!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/37966268

But what does he know?

Tough Monday by Mike Smith[/url], on Flickr

Outscored Australia… by Mike Smith[/url], on Flickr
What's that in the sky? by Mike Smith[/url], on Flickr
And lunch by Mike Smith[/url], on Flickr
Good fun mornings play if your a south African

Oh dear, Australia. Oh dear.

Can we play the Ashes now, please?

😉

With 12 months until Ashes series begins, former skipper says Australia supporters need not worry about current formlines
Former Test captain Ricky Ponting says while Australia would struggle to regain the Ashes if the series was held this summer, they shouldn’t panic ahead of their 2017-18 showdown against England.

http://www.cricket.com.au/news/ricky-ponting-australia-ashes-series-2017-18-south-africa-graeme-swann-england-india-cook-smith/2016-11-15
On a side not there are some hilarious dismissals
http://www.cricket.com.au/news/match-report/australia-south-africa-second-test-day-four-report-highlights-video/2016-11-15
Warner was magic, the others were just a massive oops did I leave my bat there…
Abbot and Philander were commanding at the ends lots of great balls, Warner was lucky to last as long as he did (the ducking slip catcher was brilliant) but he was just left no reading the ball as it did it’s thing – something the Aussies struggled to do.

Is Ricky playing for Wales now?

2013 at Surrey?
http://www.cricket.com.au/news/match-report/australia-south-africa-second-test-day-four-report-highlights-video/2016-11-15

I assume it was the head scratching pic that was searched for…. there was a lot of that going on

Surrey would make sense. Wales was funnier, though.

true, but not as funny as Warner

It is key that we England supporters take time to truly revel in the current state of the Aussies.

From a 1985 squad including:

Murray Bennett
Dave Gilbert
Bod Holland

(look them up if you don’t recognise the names – but you’ll have to look hard – I’m pretty sure they all played tests in that series)

To the ‘Nasty Border’ 1989 version including:

Geoff Marsh
Mark Taylor
Merv Hughes

etc.

It didn’t take ling for them to sort their act out, and it probably won’t this time.

India v England: Second Test – text & radio – http://www.bbc.com/sport/live/cricket/37789352

Off to a great start from Broard

Afternoon, everybodeeeee.

Nice early wickets there. Does the pitch look as beachlike as earlier reports?

and one for Anderson 🙂 What a good start

Excellent.

Sadly off to San Diego for 4 days, so going to miss most of this one.

Getting to follow it all via the Beeb from HKG. On one of yours home on Saturday, Dan!

Ugh double nelson imminent

Let’s hope Cook wins another toss before the end of the series.

I can’t see much of a future for Ansari, unfortunately. Normally I am a pragmatist when it comes to bowling, Troy Cooley’s great achievement as bowling coach was to get all the seamers bowling with the seam bolt upright, whatever the rest of their action was doing. However, I have always had a soft spot for classic left armers (I grew up watching Bedi and Edmonds), for Ansari to make the most aesthetically pleasing form of bowling look awkward and mechanical is a major warning sign for me.

P.S. Cooley’s biggest sin was jettisoning Anderson because he didn’t fit the mould. Hoggard was a fine bowler, but I know who I would rather have opened the bowling with Harmison.

Christ on a bike , silly batting . Only one wicket has come
from a good ball

Good grief, this is a car crash.

Well, this is turning into quite a test match! India falling apart now!

Great fightback but too far behind

Brilliant test . Think we’ve find our opening partnership for the next 5 years

Damp fizzle in the end.

Someone needs to work on Cook’s public speaking – the ‘ummmms’ are so annoying.

too weak in batting and bowling

not many positives beyond Hameed for the englanders

actually i think they bowled pretty well – on a very flat deck first up to restrict them to 450-odd when 3 and 4 scored tons and shared a 220 run stand; and then to get them for 200 in the second. But batting was pretty woeful, the pitch was pretty decent still when we batted first and 255 was dreadful, particularly as 3 good batters got in enough to make 50’s, they need to go on and make them into hundreds.

Agree Hameed is a great find – temperament as much as ability. Not sure what Ansari is in for – I’m not overly concerned as others seem to be about natural vs manufactured actions, there’s plenty of people with successful test careers with ‘imperfect’ technique, ultimately it’s the ability to land it in the right place and spin it that’ll matter – but 4 runs batting at 9 (IIRC he has opened in the County game?), 12 overs all match and none in the 2nd innings when the ball was turning tells me the skipper doesn’t fancy him.

So do we go with the extra seamer next test (even though it’ll be another spinners deck), persist with a player the captain doesn’t want, or bring in Batty who should at least be able to bowl the control overs that Rashid had to bowl this time? But that’s hardly a plan for the future……

too weak in batting and bowling

not many positives beyond Hameed for the englanders

1. Anderson is back and looks to be bowling well.
2. Rashid has come on leaps and bounds.
3. Their heads didn’t drop after an awful first innings, and they carried on scrapping even though defeat was inevitable.

I’m not overly concerned as others seem to be about natural vs manufactured actions, there’s plenty of people with successful test careers with ‘imperfect’ technique

Agreed – that’s why I said I was mostly pragmatic when it comes to it, my point was that left arm orthodox spin is (in my opinion obviously) the most aesthetically pleasing style of bowling, so that Ansari making it look awkward rings warning bells. As you have correctly said, all that really matters is can you land it in a good spot ball after ball and spin it? Sadly for Ansari, I suspect the answer is ‘no’.

The other big disappointment is Duckett. His dismissal in the first innings of this match was abject – missing a ball on the inside like that that whilst still leaving a gate you could drive a horse and coaches through was just awful.

Otherwise, I don’t think England should be too worried – this was just a bad performance for the most part (Root’s mental aberration for example). They have an enviable raft of proper all-rounders. Most teams would kill for flexibility and depth that Stokes, Moeen, Jonny Bairstow and Woakes provide. I am particularly please and surprised about Woakes, who I didn’t rate at all prior to this summer.

And it’s the Aussies next summer – I’ve just watched a bit of the test from Hobart – they are awful!