[Thalla]

Originally Posted by harry10

Highlights for me-

1. Jaiswal did Bazball better than England.

2. Stokes is a real clutch player when team needs him.

3. Axar is still underutilized by Rohit.

4. Bumrah is the best pacer for a reason. Brilliant ball to dismiss Stokes.

5. Rohit throwing wicket away after a start. Has become a pattern irrespective of format.

6. Ash was great as usual. Jaddu though expensive picked wickets.

7. Tomorrow will be great fun. Should look at 150 lead minimum.

8. Somewhere on earth watching Hartley, Bashir feeling good he didn't get Visa on time for this match.

It is almost impossible to beat India in India without a couple of quality spinners. At the moment I think England only have one good spinner that is Leach. Hartley and Rehan didn't look threatening at all.

[hothatchaway]

Cricket is a funny game. Depending on how things are going for you, conditions seem worse than they actually are and that is what ollie pope showed today. A proper test match innings which looked far better in contemporary test match cricket where batsmen refuse to grind it out. Apart from the dropped catch late in the day, he looked in control, rarely missing. There was hardly any lbw shouts.

I think the English have decided that they cannot play with the turn on the offside. So the reverse sweep is the weapon of choice. Even after pope was set and was driving confidently with the turn, he helped himself to reverse sweeps whenever the gully was removed and the gap in the field was there. Says a lot about the technique of their batsmen.

Hope there will be no more talk of the pitch being bad or otherwise. Bumrah looked menacing in his short bursts. England made a tactical blunder be leaving Anderson out. Rehan has promise. Hartley is not a test standard bowler. Stokes' captaincy was baffling on day 2 when he pulled out his best bowler, Root out of the attack.

England has managed to take the game to the fourth day. It should not be difficult for india from here. There are no demons in the pitch.

[Revvatron]

This looks little like 2012 series. Second innings gives Eng hope and they go on to win series. Although I don't think history will repeat only on the account of Eng not having Swan/Panesar kind of bowlers.

[Shumi_21]

I think England have used their full quota of luck for the whole series in this match itself! The number of plays and misses, the number of missed/miscued reverse sweeps and the fact that almost all umpires call decisions went their way.

The reverse sweep strategy seems to have worked for England too. Ash, Jaddu & Axar seemed lost for answers in a very long time. Let's see if they are up to the challenge in the next game. If not for Bumrah's brilliance, we'd be chasing a lot more than 230 odd. That spell where he accounted for Duckett (twice), Root, & almost got through Pope/Bairstow with his Yorkers and slower balls was simply amazing to watch.

Edit: Meanwhile, we lost 2 wickets in an over to Hartley in the form of Jaiswal and Gill

[PPS]

Bazball has arrived in India! Indian spinners were clearly rattled by the English batsman. The slow turn didn't help their cause either. Its a pretty good pitch prepared by the curator but I have a feeling only dustbowls will be prepared henceforth in the series which will eventually help the below average English spinners. Expect England to give the Indian team a scare or two!

Originally Posted by harry10

Axar is still underutilized by Rohit.

Have noticed when Axar & Jadeja both are in the XI, Axar becomes less effective! And when you play 3 frontline spinners, 1 among them is always underbowled or underutilized.

[ABHI_1512]

West Indies just made my morning by their display and going by how Hartley and Joe Root are bowling in tandem with the pitch providing them everything that they need, I hope our team can withstand the spin attack. What Ole Pope played should count as one of the finest knocks in the second innings and that too on a turner of a pitch, staggering innings, deserved his double.

P.S - This match is going to England now !! What a brilliant fielding effort by the Captain, super.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

This match is going to England now !! What a brilliant fielding effort by the Captain, super.

It’s England’s game to lose from here on. India’s batting is lifeless and uninspiring in this second innings.

Edit:Shreyas Iyer out!

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

West Indies just made my morning by their display

The story of the day and the next few weeks should be the West Indies win frankly. I just hope this creates some sort of revival in the fortunes of the once feared team. Cricket is getting too predictable with the top 3 and occasional 4th team (need not elaborate).

[ABHI_1512]

Tom Hartley takes seven wickets as England come back to win against India. A player who was being talked about as ordinary returns his best test figures to humble India. Tells us that no matter what, test cricket is the ultimate cricket. England were more hungry and it showed in their approach. Congratulations to them, the series should be an interesting watch.

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

The story of the day and the next few weeks should be the West Indies win frankly. I just hope this creates some sort of revival in the fortunes of the once feared team. Cricket is getting too predictable with the top 3 and occasional 4th team (need not elaborate).

And I am absolutely thrilled by their display. Playing with an injured foot and coming up with that kind of spell was simply brilliant. Shamar Joseph was inspirational and as you rightly said, I also hope that test becomes the starting point of the revival of cricket in West Indies. No team gives the joy of watching cricket better than West Indies. So, yes, Cricket needs West Indies. Brian Lara and Carl Hooper were crying in the commentators box, shows how much it means to them and I can feel their joy.

[Oxy]

Honestly Gill, Shreyas and even Rohit should be axed. Ashwin has also been useless with the ball.

I see a repeat of 2012 coming. The management is going to ensure absolute rank dustbowls are prepared for the rest of the series, and that is when you will see the English spinners owning our batsmen.

[redCherry]

What a cracker of a day it turned out to be for test cricket today

First, WI winning against Aussies, that too in Brisbane and then England winning against us, with least expectation of these 2 teams winning at the beginning of the day.

Pope scores nearly a double ton, against all odds facing quality bowling and makes a huge contribution in his team's win, which till today morning no one thought off would happen.

BTW, Today's Deccan Herald had this heading -
"Rope-a-dope from Pope raises England's Hope"

[harry10]

Rohit is a bad captain in tests. He has no plans, no thinking of making things happen. Plus he goes defensive the moment opposition scores couple of fours. Gave umpteen easy singles. Kohli aggression is really missed.

Gill needs to go. Get patidar in.
Ideally Sarfraz should had a debut by now but selectors and management just care for ipl stars. They don't care who deserves a chance due to domestic.

If pitch is similar next game. Drop Siraj and play Kuldeep. Siraj bowled total 11 overs in the game. When they don't have confidence in his bowling why play him. No accountability.

Ashwin picked 6 wickets. Jadeja 5 wickets. Axar only 3 wickets. Real fighter was Bumrah. On a pitch where pacers had nothing for them he picked 6 wickets. Champion stuff. I won't blame bowlers. Target was just 230. If you can't make that in India with a batting line up till 9th then you deserve to lose and heads should roll. But knowing lackluster management I expect same 11 next game.

I am glad for Windies. What a fight. Lovely cricket. Lara was so emotional in Comm box. Such games are a treasure.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by harry10

Gill needs to go.

Damn straight! I’ve always maintained that Gill’s technique is suspect. Visibly suspect. I don’t recall him playing any test innings of consequence apart from the one at Gabba, second innings. Guy averages under 40 after two years of playing in the top order. And is down on confidence. He needs to go back and have a stint in domestic. Unfortunately, that’s never going to happen given the marketing muscle and the IPL lobby behind him. They have already anointed him as the prince! Prince can’t seem to play neither the moving ball, nor half decent spin.

Similarly, Iyer has no place in the test team either. He’s another flat track bully. Good thing he’ll be out as soon as Kohli returns. Still, it is painful to watch these guys struggle against part time spinners. Ours was always the test team which played quality spin for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The best spinners of the game used the say about us that it didn’t matter whether we could pick what was being bowled, as we just didn’t care. Now, with our IPL quota test team, guys like Joe Root seems like Murali.

Hope this embarrassing defeat gets them to give Ranji top scorers a genuine chance, starting with Sarfaraz.

[Shumi_21]

Originally Posted by harry10

Rohit is a bad captain in tests. He has no plans, no thinking of making things happen. Plus he goes defensive the moment opposition scores couple of fours. Gave umpteen easy singles. Kohli aggression is really missed.

I think all of India's plans were "reverse swept" under the carpet by the English.

The harsh truth is that we lost because of a feeble & timid mindset. Usually it's the batters who go into their shells at the slightest amount of pressure, like they did in the second innings. But this game proved that our spinners too are equally capable of bottling it when the opposition comes hard.

The difference was the English believed they could win from any position, while the Indians were afraid of losing from a winning position.

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Still, it is painful to watch these guys struggle against part time spinners.

It's been a pattern since 2017 now. It started with Steve O'Keefe, then Ajaz Patel, then Matthew Kuhnemann and now Tom Hartley. Our batting lineup has been run through multiple times by left arm spinners with limited ability. It's insane that even Rahul Dravid, one of the game's best technicians, hasn't been able to find a solution.

[am1m]

Come on Windies!

After a long time they've given us fans something to cheer about! I hope their board handles this current generation of talent a lot better than they have in the past and this will spark some sort of revival. Too early to tell though.

A weekend of unexpected results. Figured it'd be a close match after Pope's brilliant innings, but didn't expect us to go down. Credit to England, well played. Guessing Kuldeep in for Siraj next match onward. Don't see any other changes.