Support NeoGAF

[Mindwipe]

For all the talk of England turning the corner, I'm not sure this tells us much more than out of form Indians can't bat in these conditions and Anderson and Broad really like it when the ball swings on a green top with cloud cover. Since Lords where England genuinely screwed up their bowling, there's not really been any point where England were under pressure (maybe the first morning in Southampton where India bowled as badly as England did first up at lords and 3 of the English top four got lives early on) which has been their downfall lately.

Well, I guess they can only beat what's put in front of them, but I agree with the sentiment - I wouldn't assume if England have turned a corner or not, because how are you supposed to tell by beating this shower?

That said, I do think some (relatively) easy games for new bowlers to develop their confidence is good news, rather than some times in the past where England have sent youngsters out to their doom against very good teams, watched them get slaughtered, and then never played them again.

 

[kmag]

Lol 5 down for 36. Has a test ever been over in 1.5 days, stay tuned to find out.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Apparently all I have to do is say that a bowler isn't doing well and he'll get a wicket. I'm like a really negative lucky charm.

Ali isn't bad, he gets a bit of rip and some nice flight, but a cursory glance at his county record (Average of 39 in the 2nd division) suggests he's hardly the new Murali which India have conspired to make him out to be

Oh no, I agree that indians haven't been playing Ali that well, it's almost like they don't know what's the right amount of respect to give him. Though from what I've heard he wasn't that good before 2012 in the county season but really kicked on 2012-2013.

 

[Mindwipe]

Lol 5 down for 36. Has a test ever been over in 1.5 days, stay tuned to find out.

I don't live very far from the Oval, and I was wondering if I might take Monday off work and try to go.

Should have learned my lesson last week.

 

[Niago]

I quite like this line from the BBC text commentary:

"Even if you were facing Shane Warne bowling hand grenades on a farmer's field you'd fancy yourself to be better than 36-5, right?"

 

[Antiwhippy]

5 tests series really does separate the men from the boys. If you got blown over in one test it really does seem to rollover to the rest of the series. 2 great examples this year. >_> <_<

 

[Antiwhippy]

Jesus christ the in-swinger james anderson has going on now is insane. Swung close to half a metre.

 

[mclem]

They were just saying on TMS that this series, now, is very close to the record for highest number of runs scored by tenth-wicket partnerships. And that was before that six. There's about twenty runs to go, and the remainder of this partnership plus any more tenth-wicket partnerships in this match in which to do it. Might well get there.

Edit: And there's the record.

 

[Vaddon]

Cook dropped twice after lunch, crazy luck. Or just very poor fielding.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Considering that it's India I'll go with very poor fielding.

 

[Vaddon]

There we go, third time lucky.

 

[Antiwhippy]

I really wonder why sri lanka keeps sticking with thirimanne when he keeps on failing.

Anyway, sad to see mahela go. Wonder how sri lanka will handle one of their best batsmen out of the side.

 

[3Sixty]

No ball loooooooooooooool

 

[Vaddon]

Wow at that no ball.

 

[Steverulez]

If they were calling no balls correctly I bet we'd have 450 already

 

[Antiwhippy]

Broad is having fun out there.

 

[Vaddon]

Looks like Broad wants that fastest test fifty record.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Why are the commentators always so eager for a declaration?

There're virtually 3 days left, you're currently 313 in front with 2 wickets left and the batters are batting like it's twenty20. Why the fuck would you declare? Bat big and bat once.

 

[Steverulez]

Well I did wonder the same although tbh I think the score is already far too many for India to chase

 

[3Sixty]

Obviously not out.


Umpires taking sympathy on broad haha

 

[Antiwhippy]

Lolmarseena.

Though to be fair it seems like those kind of dismissals are always the hardest to judge.

 

[Antiwhippy]

WTF is holding on about. I don't think the indians are trying to injure anderson, they think the no. 11 is easier to get out than the person who scored a century.

 

[Steverulez]

Lool broad and Anderson weren't even actually out. Oh well.

If india continue as they have been batting/bowling/fielding then they won't last much beyond tea

 

[3Sixty]

I figured Jimmy must have got an edge cus that was CLEARLY going down leg but nope.

Guess the umpires got bored of watching England bat.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Gotta say the umpiring has been pretty poor this game.

 

[Steverulez]

I figured Jimmy must have got an edge cus that was CLEARLY going down leg but nope.

Guess the umpires got bored of watching England bat.

Root denied 150 too

Oh well

 

[Vaddon]

Shame about Joe Root missing out on the 150 but I guess it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. He scored more than the entire Indian team's first innings by himself, great player with a really promising future.

 

[Steverulez]

He will replace cook as captain when he's ready to retire

 

[3Sixty]

Gotta say the umpiring has been pretty poor this game.

Whole series really.

Have umpires become reliant on the review process?

 

[cartoon_soldier]

As an Indian I am loving this

 

[Antiwhippy]

Yeah, root has been pretty great in these 2 home series.

Spoiler

Now to see if he can score big against teams with good bowling attacks. >_> <_<

Whole series really.

Have umpires become reliant on the review process?

Maybe. though I think they're just more prone to making those 50/50 decisions which can be rectified by DRS.

 

[3Sixty]

Love a direct hit.

 

[Antiwhippy]

There was never a run in that.

 

[3Sixty]

Embarrasing from India really. They are mentally gone.

5 Match series has completely seen them off.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Hmm, good on england I guess, but honestly as a neutral this series has been pretty terrible to watch outside of lords, which was a pretty fun test because both sides put up a fight.

Should have gone with a 3 test series with sri lanka.

 

[War Peaceman]

India in the last three games have been the worst I've ever seen. Even out 5-0s vs. Australia were better than this shite.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Nah.

Remember that 5-23 collapse?

Or in melbourne where you guys threw away a winning position?

It's about on par.

 

[Mindwipe]

India in the last three games have been the worst I've ever seen. Even out 5-0s vs. Australia were better than this shite.

Absolutely. England may have got battered, but at least you felt they were trying a bit.

England taking it easy, and still scuttle them for less than a hundred. India's worst defeat since the team was probably mainly ex-pat Brits anyway.

 

[War Peaceman]

Nah.

Remember that 5-23 collapse?

Or in melbourne where you guys threw away a winning position?

It's about on par.

England were pathetic but there were several times where England did well. Don't forget how many times Haddin and the tail bailed you out.

Or the 2007 2nd test with the Colly/KP partnership.

Every session in the last three tests has been miserable. The worst.

 

[Mindwipe]

Nah.

Remember that 5-23 collapse?

Or in melbourne where you guys threw away a winning position?

It's about on par.

Australia were good.

India rolled over against an England team who came into this series in a mess, and haven't had to play anything near their best.

 

[Dynedom]

Well I predicted the outcome of this series incredibly wrong.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Yeah, actually I'd put the last 3 test as worse than anything england did in the last ashes. Guess I'm including lords where the indians did put up a really good fight on a green top which slightly elevates them in this series.

I actually thought the Indian bowlers were ok barring those sessions where they gave up when nothing was working for them, but I thought they were horribly let down by the indian fielding (where the slippers might as well not be there) as well as a few umpiring howlers early on which might have changed the course in some cases.

The batting is shocking though. You'd expect bangladesh to put up a better fight. Just seems like they can't stomach a 5 test series.

 

[Steverulez]

Indian bowlers were ok, but the fielding was poor as you said and more importantly I thought dhonis captaincy was poor as well

Hadn't seen him before this series and I can't say I think anything of him as captain, even if he got a decent run score. They won the lords test, we were at the lowest point we could be and they were on the up, even with the injury to Ishant I still thought they just collapsed for no real reason.

Some of the stuff I've heard people saying is that India just tried to hold on to the 1-0 lead which is ridiculous with 3 tests left

 

[B.O.O.M]

ouch....that's just embarrassingly bad

 

[Vaddon]

Glad to see Root get man of the match, well deserved. Thought Ballance might get a shot in with man of the series but it's understandable that Anderson would get it instead, happy with that too.

 

[Antiwhippy]

I just hope India learnt from this series that they should use DRS. Cook would still be seen as being out of form if they did have it for example.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Jesus christ at herath getting figures of 14 for 184 with a 9fer. Dude is absolutely gun in the SC.

 

[Vaddon]

Sad to finally see Jayawardene retire from tests but it's nice that he did so with a win, crazy figures from Herath.

In terms of the England ODI squad, Alex Hales has been included. Broad won't be playing due to his surgery though. Here's the whole squad:

Alastair Cook
Moeen Ali
James Anderson
Gary Ballance
Ian Bell
Jos Buttler
Steven Finn
Harry Gurney
Alex Hales
Chris Jordan
Eoin Morgan
Joe Root
Ben Stokes
James Tredwell
Chris Woakes

 

[Steverulez]

In culmination of the discussions among all the office bearers of BCCI over the last couple of weeks, the BCCI has decided to avail the services of former India captain, Mr. Ravi Shastri to oversee and guide the Indian cricket team for the forthcoming one day international matches against England. Mr. Duncan Fletcher will continue as Head Coach while Ravi Shastri will be the overall in- charge of cricket affairs of the Indian Team.

In their continuing efforts to re-energise the support to the team, the BCCI has given a break to the bowling coach Mr Joe Dawes and the fielding coach, Mr Trevor Penny for the one day series and appointed Mr Sanjay Bangar, former Indian all rounder and former India fast bowler Mr Bharat Arun as the Asst. coaches of the team. Mr R.Sridhar will join the support team as the fielding coach for the one day series.

I can't imagine Duncan fletcher liking that one bit

 

[kmag]

I can't imagine Duncan fletcher liking that one bit

Is that the equivalent of the ECB putting Botham in charge?

On the subject, it's the first time any one can put this in a sentence about Botham, not much of a cock.