*Official* 4th Test - England v India - Keep all Discussion Here Please!

[Neil Pickup]

That certainly helped fill in the gap between Geography and Further Maths. Now I hope I can find a spare TV tomorrow.

Vaughan was absolutely brilliant today, I'm struggling to remember having watched a better innings (before you complain, I don't have Sky, and the key word here is watched )

As I said earlier - "Tail starts at 7, top order resistance needed". This will do fine, thanks. Now to make this 600+, see how many Vaughan can get, wait for some clouds, and rip India out twice.

Now, I wonder if certain posters will show their faces unless something incredible happens...

 

[scorpio]

Yeah..Vaughan needs to perform against some other team to be rated without a doubt.

Some Illuminating stats:

Agarkar:

Overs where he conceded less than 4/over: 4
overs where he went for more than 6: 5

This tells the story of agarkar is short. A four ball almost every over which will defeat what ever thing the other bowler and himself does.

Also an interesting stat i found on another website..:

Tests 10 through 14, read: 38.83, 41.85, 42.72, 42.97, and 42.65 heading into this Test.

Diminishing returns ? After UFO's and Crop circles why agarkar still plays for india must be one of the biggest mysteries ..atleast to indian fans.

 

[Anil]

Diminishing returns ? After UFO's and Crop circles why agarkar still plays for india must be one of the biggest mysteries ..atleast to indian fans.

Maybe both the mysteries are connected. Ajit himself might be one of those "green men" in disguise, come to earth to scuttle the hopes of Indian fans. :P

 

[luckyeddie]

Agarkar looked almost apologetic today (and Ganguly looked almost apoplectic), although I wouldn't single one bowler out in particular. It was like Headingley in reverse (although to be fair there wasn't a lot of help for the seamers, at least when the ball was old) - too short, too wide and that included the spinners.

Vaughan, though, was special, especially in the last two sessions. I have actually had to rein myself in whilst compiling the match report (see CricketWeb front page) - I was getting a little carried away towards the end.

This match is likely to be his last batting before the Ashes (operation on his knee is currently planned for next week). Talk about going out with a bang.

 

[Top_Cat]

Not rain on anybody's parade here but I get a feeling that Vaughan's innings' here and in this series in general arent cause for real celebration yet. Vaughan is pretty strong off the back-foot when the ball is short and wide but against a high standard opening attack like McGrath and Gillespie, I think he'll be found out. His back-foot bias was very obvious in the part of his innings I watched where he played mostly back-foot drives and when he did get onto the front-foot, it was only really a half-step forward.

And therein lies the problem. He doesn't transfer his weight to the front-foot fully and against slower swing bowlers such as Agarkar and Bagar, this won't be much of a problem but on bouncy tracks like in OZ against guys who hit the seam, I think he'll struggle.

 

[scorpio]

Like T_C i am yet to be convinced of this technique. But to his credit he has a very good temperament. The way he throttled back when marcus was going good and the way he paced his innings was just too good. A real find for england

BTW can anyone tell me waht corks avg pace was in the second test. I read in another website that both bangar and cork bowl at a similar pace. Since bangar didnt do badly for a part timer...i am guessing cork with his experience and being a better bowler could make a world of difference when the pitch slows up...

 

[luckyeddie]

There's a long way to go.

I'm not singling out Vaughan as a world-beater, and it is true that in the first session he left quite a bit in the locker-room (I think I described it as 'scratchy' in the report).

Without going too far overboard, one face kept coming to mind last evening in the last session, and if Michael Vaughan progresses as far as the one I'm thinking about, he will be special.

In Vaughan's defence, he is still quite new to this test cricket lark. Although he is 27 going on 28, his test career is still less than 3 years old and this is just test number 23.

Oh, sorry. The one he is just beginning to remind me of a little?

Ken Barrington (before you guys' time).

No stats please to nullify my suggestion - it's just a feeling.

 

[luckyeddie]

It's always easy to be wise after the event, but I bet Ganguly wished that he could have instilled the same sort of accuracy into his bowlers yesterday that they are showing in the first hour this morning.

Vaughan out, Crawley out - this test is open again (just).

 

[scorpio]

You cant criticize a man for making 195..can we ? heh. Well played vaughan ..the oppurtunity presented itself and he took full toll.Kudos

BTW...like i predicted yesterday bangar is higly effective. I guess with the pitch being slow paced...bowlers like bangar and cork with their deliveires not really coming to the bat are gonna be effective provided they bowl with discipline.

Well...someone should take ganguly aside and tell him not to give the goddamn ball to agarkar. His figures so far in the morning - 7 overs 36 runs. I am tearing my hair...just what do they see in him? !

 

[scorpio]

argggghh...once stewart falls..instead of bringing in kumble or zaheer and attacking tudor ..ganguly brings in agarkar...just what the hell is he thinking

Is this some sort of scam or what? I cant believe ganguly still thinks agarkar is gonna do somehting.

Anyone watching the match live...what are the commentators saying about Agarkar ?

 

[luckyeddie]

Well, they haven't actually used the word 'pants', but not far short.

The attack which is being used now (Harbhajan and Kumble) is the way to go.

Every now and again, bring Zaheer on for a couple of overs. Corky trying to hold the tail together as we speak (well, as we type). 8D

 

[luckyeddie]

Hey, Corky can catch too.

And this jugears - he can bowl a bit when he's not dropping it on his own toecaps.

 

[Anil]

It was a too little too late effort by India today. With 515 runs in their pockets, England are more or less free of the spectre of defeat which is now looming large over India. They have to bat out of their skins to save this one with one wicket already down or this will go the Headingley way in reverse.

[Edited on 9/6/02 by anilramavarma]

 

[scorpio]

Disappointing show by england. Slow runrate and batsmen choking. If not for a good show by cork things could have been worse. Got to give cork full credit for some of the freebies thrown by agarkar and a couple by bangar.

Interesting stat: out of 515 runs...england made just 44 runs in the 'v'. Shows what length india bowled.

England should go on to win this test...but it may not be that easy..pitch is slow and indian batsmen are in good form..letssee

But overall disappointing day so far..after yesterdays fireworks.

 

[Anil]

Indians are scoring at a clipping rate right now(4 an over or thereabouts). I wonder why? I would have thought their primary task would be to preserve their wickets till atleast the follow-on is avoided.

 

[Anil]

Indians conceded 50 extras in the English total. Only 7 runs came off wides and no-balls. So, did Ratra concede a lot of byes or were they mostly leg-byes?

 

[Neil Pickup]

Anil - there were an incredible amount of byes, most of them where Ratra didn't even get close..

Well done Corky . Agarkar was atrocious, really atrocious. Short, wide, you name it. Bangar was reasonably impressive for someone who's not a 100% bowler and Zaheer kept on going.

Sehwag got himself out once more - is this guy really an opener?

 

[luckyeddie]

Time to give Dravid the job.

He's pretty well doing it already - I think that's 5 times he's been in inside 5 overs.

 

[aussie_beater]

I have seen Ratra only a few times on the job and he looked pretty ordinary to me fumbling all over for simple stuff, specially when he is standing up for the spinners.

 

[luckyeddie]

Little alternative at present, since Parthiv Patel is still suffering from the injury he suffered at Headingley.

Methinks that Ratra is just keeping the seat warm for him.