England India - First Test

[sunny-dave]

At last - some proper cricket after the pyjama-clad nonsense that has taken up so much of the summer so far.

An interesting series with two quite well matched teams - and some genuine superstars on show :

Kohli in his pomp - but can he do it in English conditions against a Duke ball?

Root - 'probably the best batsman in the world except for ... Kohli'?

Anderson and Broad - getting near the last hurrah for this pair?

Cook - ditto?

Plus an unlikely return for Rashid - can he do it over 5 days with a red ball?


Coffee brewing, TV on mute and TMS on the radio ... off we go

SD xx

[sunny-dave]

“Disappointing crowd” say commentators - “Probably the Wednesday start”

“Cobblers” says Dave - “£150 for two tickets, plus the pain of getting in to Edgbaggers - I’ll stick with my TV until you set the prices sensibly and treat me as a valued customer, not a nuisance”

[sunny-dave]

Strewth - ball bending like a banana - Cook not good enough to get a touch ... yet ...

[mushroom25]

why no "beard to be feared" this time?

[sunny-dave]

Tactical, I think - you don’t ned two spinners at Edgbaston (usually) and Curran/Stokes just about add up to one fit/effective bowler.

I expect Moeen to replace Stokes at Lords though as Stokes will be ‘unavailable’.

[mushroom25]

yeh you probably right, Dave, given the chance of rain is unlikely.

[RandyMarsh]

what does the pitch look like?

[sunny-dave]

Pitch is straw coloured - but not too dry - they've been watering quite a bit by the look of it.

Some turn for Ashwin first thing, but it got less as the pitch lost any early dampness.

Jennings lucky to still be there at lunch - dropped (albeit not an easy chance) and played and missed a good bit.

88-1 is not a bad start after a very tricky first hour.

[-Talbot-]

Sounds like it's quite exciting.

[Baldric]

Exciting?

It's Cricket.

[sunny-dave]

Just caught up with play after an afternoon excursion for a pie and a pint.

England doing a grand job ... of building a good position and then flushing it down the metaphorical toilet. A senseless run-out and then a selection of 'rabbit in the headlights' dismissals.

They might just creep to 300 tomorrow, but then it will be (as is so often the case) up to the bowlers to dig them out of a pretty big hole.

[Sqad]

There's 450 runs in this wicket and these Indian batsmen are no mugs.
I think that the English bowlers may struggle tomorrow.

[sunny-dave]

I was thinking 500 & then England spinning to an innings defeat on Saturday, sqad :(

[Sqad]

LOL.....you may well be right Dave........;-)

[Garaman]

There was I admiring our middle order, on paper.

[sunny-dave]

Great session - England bowling well, but catching like blind amputees - still got India 102-5

Dropping Kohli could be a match losing moment though :(

[Sqad]

Blimey Dave....it looks as though we were both wrong yesterday.
Yes...you are right..."dropped catches can lose matches."

[Garaman]

Just read:

'Virat Kohli has hit 22 Test centuries, with just 16 fifties.

Only Donald Bradman has a better conversion rate - 29 centuries and 13 fifties.'

Costly drop[s]

[DTCwordfan]

I would take a 50 run lead after yesterday.......

[Garaman]

//"dropped catches can lose matches."//

...and sometimes more than matches. The whole series could have been changed by that drop.

[Garaman]

'"We still bowled them out below our total so that's a huge positive."

Why is it that 'huge positives' usually imply a negative situation?