They’re being cruelly exposed by good fast bowling, too.

lucky captain ? very close call!

They’re being cruelly exposed by good fast bowling, too.

Agree, but it’s not out and out fast bowling in the trad sense, it’s reverse swing and 80mph cutters, which is still pitch influenced. Ahmed on the first day got an inside edge to a Bumrah cutter that turned a foot and a half. They were saying, of our current crop, none of them are really rewarded for bowling that sort of stuff at county level as we don’t have pitches that’ll benefit it. Maybe a few have it up their sleeve a bit from T20 as a slower ball variation but the two named with the real skill to do it are Jimmy (not picked) and Stokes (can’t bowl).
Don’t get me wrong – India are a fine team with some great bowlers in particular currently, but this wouldn’t be happening at Headingley in early June.

[edit – and while I’m a fan of Bazball, there’s a time and place and this is just as exciting to a purist cricket lover as watching Crawley give it tap]

going to make india bat again at least 😕

ollie! ollie! ollie!

Don’t get me wrong – India are a fine team with some great bowlers in particular currently, but this wouldn’t be happening at Headingley in early June.

Sure, but fast medium bowling and reverse swing isn’t exactly novel. Anyway, they’ll probably still lose but a lot of fight shown today.

Some knock from Pope! Clutching at straws but Root’ll bundle them out tomorrow. 

Stokes one of the best run outs in test match history ! almost impossible to comprehend how he managed it

it’s been a fun watch this morning 🙂

Come on Joe, finish them off, like I said.

well bowled young man!

Wow – I was not expecting this.

dantsw13
Full Member
The gulf in class between these 2 teams is being pretty cruelly exposed in this game.

Well you weren’t wrong.

Say what you like about this England team, but they seem to find a way from lost causes……

Absolutely – very happy to be proved wrong! I still think the India team is a class above, but there’s something about the mental strength of this current setup.

Stokes has completely changed the fields he set for Hartley from the first innings. Wickets for spinners don’t always come from men around the bat. Boundary riders both stop runs and take catches.

Outstanding!!

I say. MOTM decision tricky.

they really do like trashing traditional cricket wisdom don’t they 😀

I say. MOTM decision tricky.

not really 196 on a pitch turning sideways (Root look like Shane Warne out there)

Well played the Windies too 🙂

Good win indeed there is some grit in the English dressing room.

Two of the most unlikely away wins on the same day, remarkable stuff.

Batting first (not last!!) is key in India. I think our inexperienced attack performed pretty well in their 1st innings.

I don’t think there is a better bowler in world cricket than Bumrah right now.

Going to eat some humble pie….I’m quite liking talksport. Gough and Harmison are good value and most of the commentators are ok. Even KP is being tolerable in small doses (similar to Geoffrey). It feels more like TMS that I remember in the past. They are of the sportsmen twonk mindset of everyone having a stupid bastardising of their surname – Goughy, Harmy, Manners. It’s always made my teeth itch.

Ball spinning big time even in England’s inexperienced bowlers hands. I suspect no matter how much England believe in themselves this is going to be an India victory by a minimum of 250 runs.

Nearly got the chase below a hundred, good effort.

Yes, did better than I expected. But still a comfortable victory. Pope, Root and Bairstow collectively averaged less that 20 per innings across the match. I’m not sure you win too many matches when numbers 3-5 score that much below their normal par.

Stating the obvious but Root needs to find form and JB needs moving on.

Thought we gave it a good go today,and honestly reckon we’d have have won had Crawley batted late into the afternoon and Stokes not been asleep. It’s all hypothetical though, but previous Eng teams would have scratched around with no intent and been bowled out for 187.

India’s 2 seamers totally debunked the idea that fast bowlers cant prosper in India. The reversing ball was almost unplayable at the end.

Apologies if this has been covered before but how does one listen to TMS these days, particularly in the early morning?I woke up just after 4am today and decided I’d listen to the cricket instead of ‘tropical rainfall with distant thunder’ (or similar) on the phone next to my bed. I tried BBC Sounds 4, 4LW, 4 Extra, 5 & 5 Extra and couldn’t find it. I was sleep-deprived so it’s possible there was some user error. 

BBC don’t have the rights, it’s on Talksport, which isn’t as bad as you might think.

TMS do a podcast after every days play though

Thanks – that does at least explain why I couldn’t find it.

Even if it’s “not as bad as…” I guess the Talk Sport coverage has advert breaks? My genius idea of listening to it in the small hours of the morning was that I’d either find it interesting (and listen to it) or soothing (so would fall asleep). Adverts would rule out the latter.

My genius idea of listening to it in the small hours of the morning was that I’d either find it interesting (and listen to it) or soothing (so would fall asleep). Adverts would rule out the latter.

Pretty sure the advert breaks are all in the intervals between sessions. I might be wrong but I don’t think they are even there in the drinks breaks. Which makes me wonder how they pay for the broadcast rights.

I think you’re right. I haven’t noticed many adverts.

Good day at the office today.

By the time I wake up tomorrow we’ll either be closing in on their total with wickets in hand or staring down the barrel of a big first innings deficit. Not sure I’d want to bet on the former, but fingers crossed.

Duckett is just loving the freedom he gets. For players of his height the margin for error is small.

Sit rep – need to score 550 on the drag end of day 4 and then day 5. Ashwin back seemingly and Duckett handed his wicket over. Suspect they couldn’t hold on for a draw even if they wanted to. A bit humbling this one.

I’m afraid they’ve really thrown this one away. India were 33-3 on day one and England 202-2 at the end of day two. They’re now 50-6 and need only 506 more runs.

Yeah they had a chance early on, another a few days ago and they’ve now given themselves one hell of a challenge.

Oh dear! 🙄