England in India - cricket

Sheddie · administrator

England in India - cricket

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

england played really badly against Pakistan yet they still should've/could've won two of their three tests against them. India are an altogether different prospect and a lot of their players are quite hit and miss - mainly the master himself, Sachin. I agree with Woolmer that they should not focus on spin as India are the masters of it so pace is the way forward for England IMO. Whilst this will be a more tough plan in terms of sheer workload they just need to perservere and they should succed. Plus Simon Jones is back!

England to win 2-1. Strauss Man of the series.

Drew · Feb 18, 2006

Peter wrote:

The England team have arrived in India earlier this week, they play a 3 day practise match starting tomorrow followed by another 3 day practise match starting on the 23rd. The 1st test starts on 1st March. How do you rate the team's chances of success ?

Tour Match: Cricket Club of India v England
18-02-2006 at Mumbai, Day 1 of 3 In Play England won the toss and decided to bat England 1st Innings 177 for 4 (48.0 overs)
England 1st Innings

A J Strauss b K Waingankar 51 77 11 0

M J Prior b R P Verma 0 13 0 0

M P Vaughan c V R Samant b K Waingankar 54 68 11 1 I

R Bell not out 27 83 2 0

K P Pietersen b M S Ansari 26 45 3 1

A Flintoff not out 6 13 1 0

Extras 11nb 1w 1lb 13 Total for 4 177

Current position in opening warm-up. Strauss & Vaughan with 50's.

Started my clubs indoors nets 4 weeks ago..2 hrs every monday night.......looking forward to first game 5th May !!!! Got promotion last year finishing second....!

-- Edited by Drew at 09:05, 2006-02-18

Sheddie · administrator

Great news guys !!!

There's going for be highlights of each day's play for the 3 tests v India on Channel 4 or Channel 5

:biggrinL

Sheddie · administrator

Unfortunately, Sky managed to come up with a high enough bid at the 11th hour and scooped all the coverage

The Sky cricket monopoly continues

Sheddie · administrator

What did everyone think of the 1st Test ?

I thought it was a fantastic performance from England especially considering the problems they'd had the previous week. Wonderful performances from Panesar and Cook, when everyone is back to full fitness it will give the selectors a real headache, it's great that players like that have taken their chance when injury strikes as it will put more pressure on the normal XI to perform. Panesar was a real revelation, I was really worried before the test that the selectors were going to chicken out and just play Blackwell, it was great to see them give Panesar his chance as although Blackwell performed well in the warm-up games, he's not a test quality bowler and he doesn't have anything like the wicket-taking potential of Panesar. It's great that at last we have a 2nd spinner who actually spins the ball ! Alex Loudon's another with real potential, I was very disappointed he didn't get a chance in Pakistan.

It's great to have a player like Alistair Cook in the side because he's the sort of player who's prepared to grind out innings and has the concentration and stamina to stay out in the middle for a long time. We've got a load of fantastic strokeplayers in the team who can score at rates of 6 an over or more but you also need players like Cook to hold an innings together. With Collingwood also playing the best Test of his life, he's now really staked his claim for a regular test spot.

Who would you choose for the England XI if all the players were available ?

Sheddie · administrator

2nd test: day 2:

England are 200-5 with rain having stopped play. A rather precarious position for England in their 1st innings, unfortunately all the top 5 have got starts but apart from Pietersen, none of them have made it count. Ian Bell's dismissal was particularly bad-he missed a googly and got bowled while Andrew Strauss played a rather lazy cut shot and edged to slip. Looks as though there's more rain forecast for the next 3 days so a result will be very surprising for this match. It's disappointing as this is the best ground for England as it'll aid the strong seam attack.

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

Yep this test looks like heading for a draw :cries:

OVerconfidence seems to have accounted for a lot of wickets this tour! None more so thatn strauss' on Day 1

Sheddie · administrator

mkkreuk wrote:

Yep this test looks like heading for a draw :cries:
OVerconfidence seems to have accounted for a lot of wickets this tour! None more so thatn strauss' on Day 1

The way things stand at the moment from a British point of view, a draw wouldn't be too bad a thing ! It's a shame the batting has been so poor in this test, the one player who can really be excused is Collingwood who got a jaffa from Kumble. Unless Freddie can produce a big innings, we look set for a below par total, Jones is sure to throw his wicket away and then it's just Blackwell and the tail. Hopefully we can sneak over the 300 mark.

Strauss says that he's in good nick but he's been unable to grind out a score in both Pakistan and India. He could be the one under pressure from Cook once Trescothick returns. He gifted his wicket on day 1 with a lazy waft outside off stump

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

Blackwell's not playing in this test! Its plunkett instead! But the way both have been batting recently i reckon Plunkett would get more runs than Blackwell!

Sheddie · administrator

mkkreuk wrote:

Blackwell's not playing in this test! Its plunkett instead! But the way both have been batting recently i reckon Plunkett would get more runs than Blackwell!

That's true, I'd forgotten about that. A good decision from the England camp as Blackwell was so ordinary in the 1st test. I think Plunkett is quite a good batsman so he could score some useful runs ?

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

England dramatically collapsed towards the end of the 1st innings of the Second Test to 300 All Out

England 1st innings

AJ Strauss            18                     (c Dhoni   b Pathan)
AN Cook               17                     (lbw         b Pathan
IR Bell                  38                     (bowled by Kumble)
KP Pietersen          64                     (c & b Patel)
PD Collingwood      25                     (bowled by Kumble)
*A Flintoff             70                     (c & b Patel)
+GO Jones            52                     (bowled by Kumble)
LE Plunkett            0                      (c Dhoni   b Patel)
MJ Hoggard           4*
SJ Harmison           0                      (lbw          b Kumble)
MS Panesar           0                      (c Dravid    b Kumble)

Extras                (lb 5, w 1, nb 6)                      12
Total                 (all out, 103.4 overs)         300

India 1st innings

W Jaffer                30                  (c Flintoff b Panesar)
V Sehwag              11                  (c Jones    b Harmison)
*R Dravid              95                      (Bowled by Flintoff)
S Tendular            4                    (c Strauss b Flintoff)
Y Singh                15                   (c Bell      b Hoggard)
M Dhoni                16
IK Pathan             52                  (c Collingwood      b Flintoff)
A Kumble              32                 (bowled by Plunkett)
Harbhajan Singh    36                 (c Jones            b Flintoff)
Piyush Chawla       1                   (c Jones            b Hoggard)
MM Patel              11*
Extras                (lb 25, w 1, nb 8)                       34
Total                 (all out, 96.2 overs)                   338

-- Edited by mkkreuk at 09:02, 2006-03-12

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

3 quick wickets have India on the ropes! 134-4!

Drew · Mar 11, 2006

Indeed.........point worth noting is that the wickets are spread around all 4 main bowlers !

If they could wrap them up for 250 or less and then spend day 4 piling on the runs then they still could get a positive result !

I maybe Scottish but England are my team...always have been !

mkkreuk · Admin:Moderator + ATP qualifying

At stumps on Day 3 the test is evenly poised. If England can get two early wickets tomorrow they will be firmly in the driving seat but Dhoni will be dangerous and not forgetting Rahul Dravid! My money is on a draw still, though.