Bah! Back to work- sub 300 total will be hard to defend.

‘A fine sporting location, Nottingham. The City Ground separated from Notts County’s Meadow Lane by the River Severn’

Doh!

Calypso collapso!

More a Bhangra bungle. All over by the 42nd over?

Sad not to be at Lord’s today, looks glorious.

Decent start, seven an over for the first three.

A chum is there in the Pav. and he confirms such (but has liberal libations to hand).

😁

Meh- 300 looking tough now.

Good recovery, thanks to David Willey ‘s effort. Could be close.

Good comeback from England here!

Zzzzz

Give it a smack!

Afternoon, evereeeeebodeeeee.

England bowl first in the decider.

Anyone with local weather reports in Leeds?

banger. kholi gone

Good over 🙂 Raina gone.

Needed to get Dhoni.

Job done.

It’s turning, though…

PSA radio 5 now

PSA – Soul Calypso, 1025

Rashid back, despite no red ball form. Hmmm.

Anyway, always excited by the start of a test series!

I’m hoping it will be a good close series (with England winning of course). Most test series are so one-sided now. The one-day series was disappointing too.

hot dry and dusty if the ball doesn’t swing or seam you have to fancy the Indians

Warm and overcast in Birmingham with high humidity, forecast suggests it’ll be like that all week. Sounds like the ball could move a bit to me.

And I’ve got tickets for Friday so if it sets it up for a good day then all the better.

On a bloody wednesday!

yep……6000 unsold tickets apparently if I heard the news right yesterday. That 1/4 of the ground

dropped

Too soon, Chef,  too soon.

falls to a spinner early doors again!

Roots in a hurry

Utter peach of a ball. Unlucky for Cook

Michael Vaughan is so annoying. He sensationalises everything, like he’s trying to justify his own existence.

Gower, Boycs, Vic, Swannie, Simon and, of course, Aggers are all excellent but MV is just so dislikeable.

Simon Mann is the most boring comentator on the planet and sometimes you wonder if he knows anything about the game.

Unlucky for Cook

have a look at it again on the bbc site, he’s forward to short ball, he’s got a big stride in but is still a yard and a half from the pitch of the ball. Should be on the back foot,

I used to think Simon Mann was boring but now I actually quite like him. He’s authentic and provides balance to the TMS team.

Klunk – I disagree about Cook. He was absolutely right to be on the front foot but instead of pushing through he should have held his bat still and let the ball hit it. Easier said than done though because it was a great ball by Ashwin.

England need a large total. A couple of guys need to score hundreds. Take the game deep.

have a look at it again on the bbc site, he’s forward to short ball, he’s got a big stride in but is still a yard and a half from the pitch of the ball. Should be on the back foot,

I’m going to disagree. The fact it hit the stumps to me says it wasn’t a short ball. Even a slow bowler on a first day pitch with a ball that was what – 20 runs and 8 overs old – a short ball would bounce over, unless it’s short enough to be on the way down again. It’s a terrific length, one where you can’t get far enough forward to smother spin but too full to play back to, and more than that it ended up being a little shorter due to the late dip he gets on it.

It was just a great bit of bowling.

If there’s a criticism, the bat doesn’t quite come down straight but again I think that’s from the dip that deceives Cook into having to open the shoulders and push a little more with his hands at it. In the past the bat could have come straight down the line of off stump and covered the turning ball, and if it had gone straight the pads would protect leg stump – and before DRS and ball tracking umpires wouldn’t have given it.

Oddly – and I’m not admitting that playing forward was ‘wrong’ because it wasn’t. But if he had gone back he’d have been more deceived but would have possibly had chance to jab down on it.

Needed those two wickets!

Needed those three wickets!

fify 🙂

Thought I’d look in on the score, thinking:

1) England probably out early doors (check)

2) India on way to a commanding lead (nope)

Happy to be wrong on at least one count!

Now it properly feels like summer

ffs! catch the bloody ball

I can see this ending today, not sure who will win though

Sub optimal

Advantage India at the moment