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*Official* 1st Test - England v India - Keep all Discussion Here Please!

scorpio

U19 Cricketer
Giles is pathetic. A real irritating decision by nasser. Hats off to flintoff and white and of course englands new allrounder jones.

Sehwag is an absolute revelation. I am so happy for him. Btw why did dravid slow down ? :I
 

Rich2001

International Captain
Sehwag is an absolute revelation. I am so happy for him. Btw why did dravid slow down ? :I
Because he suddendly relized that he was in a Test match and not a ODI.

Also because he didn't need to with Sehwag going so well and quickly at that, all Dravid needed to do was keep the score ticking over and putting the bad balls away
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
OK, I have had an hour to think about the second day's play.

1. England batted really well.
2. England started bowling really well (Hoggard's first over anyway).
3. Flintoff's finally got a bit of 'reverse' - but for me he bowled well throughout. Picking up a wicket at the end - albeit a night watchman - was just reward for a gutsy performance
4. Jones tried. His pace is obviously being blunted by the wicket.
5. Giles got a wicket bowling over the wicket. Even so, I hope that I never see him bowl that way again during this game.
6. For the most part, Hoggard and White bowled too short and too wide. This was obviously a ploy in order to stop the run of fours through the leg side.

My summary of England's bowling - a bit of a curate's egg. Some good, some totally inept.

Forecast for tomorrow - India to go past England's total, but not by a lot (unless England's bowling improves 100%).
 

Rich2001

International Captain
5. Giles got a wicket bowling over the wicket. Even so, I hope that I never see him bowl that way again during this game.
There's not much chance of that, he will continue to bowl like that all the time India's batsman continue to give him easy wickets, If the batsman just go defensive and don't keep giving into the attacking style that they like playing, then the negative tatics will always be a success as they will get bogged down and be forced to attack good balls, I liked Shewags way he showed in Giles first couple of overs that he wasn't going to be tied down to that line and took it to him.
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
full_length :

Got me there bud.

OK, India bowled absolute garbage.
India batted really well.

Doesn't change the reality of the situation - neither side are really good enough in the bowling department to effectively force a victory, unless the surface breaks up.

Rich :

'fraid so. We'll see a lot of it.
The wicket was a fluke, but I think that the reason we will see more over-the-wicket junk is for negative rather than positive reasons.

One 'interesting' point - that was the first wicket in a test at Lords by an English spinner since Tuffers got a couple in 1999.
 

lord_of_darkness

Cricket Web XI Moderator
lol i cant believe the lower order of england cracked india ...

so much for fast bowlers and world champions...

all credit to england for working so hard

also congrats to scorpio who continues to swear when it is actually needed , ( note there is no sarcasm here ) you do well in putting the swear words at the right time in the right place dont get too carried away though :D
 

scorpio

U19 Cricketer
i cant help it lord...hope that they dont collapse morrow..that woudl drive me nuts..
and i may have to question the honour of the indian team with choice words... :P
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
So much for my predictions.

A summary of India's first innings could be 'Suckers'.

I reckon that if they had had more patience and not gone chasing the short and wide stuff, they would still have been only about 4 down.

England bowled very well to a plan (yes, even Craig White) and throttled India's natural game.

So what now? No follow-on - this is an excellent decision. There is nothing in this pitch. England to bat the game out of sight, and to set India in excess of 500 in 5 sessions.

Then, second verse - same as the first.
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
The question now is whether the Indians have the stomach to carry the fight to even the 5th day. That they're gonna lose and lose massively is now a certainty. The "fab four" between them managed 110 runs. Well, Laxman played well, but.... maybe, if they are called the "gutless four", it is more appropriate.
 

royGilchrist

State 12th Man
so the Indian battin was much better than the english on paper? and the england conditions would make nehra and khan even better? :)

The match seems to be in englnad's grasp, but Indian team has Laxman and Sachin who are special players who might not always play to their potential but they can still do big things. Its unfortunate that India (and Pak) are always overhyped by their fans, but this was the best opportunity for India to expose the English attack which was well below full strenght.

Test cricket is not only about ability, but due to its long duration its about teams exposing others' weaknesses. If Indian's had hung around long enough, the english attack would have shown lack of experience and talent.
 

scorpio

U19 Cricketer
it did not take long for the gloating replies to come... :rolleyes:

This display from our team is the norm..so the real fans arent really shocked.
But india has alwys been a slow starter and i really hope they can turn it around like the windies did since this is a long series.

Btw i hope all the stupid fair weather fans just go away...and not come back after we win another match and yell that we are the greatest.. :(!
 
Yes , u are right India are slow starter, India is gonna strike right back!

Indian batters are only themselves to blame for, they were over confident.Indians should keep in mind that whatever the quality of their opponents be, Indian batters have to apply themselves.There was nothing much in the wkt, nor in the English bowling, its a pity that the best of the batters performed pathetically.

Kaif should be brought in the team and so should be Bhajji, i still think India can bounce back and beat the poms!
 

oyesachinoye

Cricket Spectator
The team selection was so stupid, why was Kaif not in the team??? He has been the highest run scorer from both the Indian and Brits team.
Harb, he could have restricted Eng to a much lower total, why the hell did they not take him???

On top Ratra played atrocious stroke, had the lower order given Laxman support, he would have taken India out of trouble.

Its painful to see the better team losing just coz of poor team selection and lack of application by the batsmen!
 

warrioryohannan

U19 Cricketer
PATHETIC, thast how one can describe India's performance.

They dropped catches, played criminal strokes and didn't bowl all that well.I guess Indians were over confident thinking they could easily run over a depleted English side.

However i still believe that India will bounce back and will win the series eventually!
 

lord_of_darkness

Cricket Web XI Moderator
India was always pathetic at winning test series outside India

Batting was crap , Bowling was crap , fielding was crap , now tell me what else was sh*t ?

If Gangu was 'god' in leading India to victory in the finals ? what is he now ?!
someone needs to take the test captaincy of him if india needs to go anywhere , then i bet you gangu will score a lot more than 5 or 10 or if he can .. 15

Honestly if they want to try and win the series , they should drop Ratra , bring Dravid as Wicketkeeper , bring in Kaif as an Extra batsmen to support batting , kick Agarkar bring in Harbajan .

Then there will be a slight change of things , maybe ..

so far i doubt India will win the 1st test , they could try hard and make the 1st test a draw..... , but not by the way they are batting right now
 

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