International cricket thread

MFPM

Great recovery by Root and Foakes, moving England into a decent position. Pitch doesn't look great. Thought India would play Bumrah here, win the series then rest him.

Mysterypunter

Looks a good score for England, 302/7. Scored quickly without much risk, and another 50 would be handy. Root batted properly and should continue to, but the fancy stuff will be useful when they are 8 or 9 down. Like their chances from here

Gillespy

Another great day of cricket. Like ever, it's a matter of seeing how the other side bats on it but it looks a competitive score. Batting last won't be straightforward regardless. Although it definitely settled down after the first two or three hours. It might be the hardness of the new ball too that had a lot to do with it. India have a new ball waiting and will want to keep the score under 350 ideally. Robinson looked nice and comfortable with Root but there's nothing after them two.

Strumms

112/3 —> 307/7 is a pretty decent recovery…

be interesting to see firstly how long Root and Robinson can stick around for in the morning… England could do with another 50/60/70 out of this partnership and what’s left but I agree Anderson and Bashir are unlikely to contribute too many….

Strumms

Ollie Robinson has found his inner Brian Lara… smashing boundaries off his back foot to the Indian quicks….

As I type sweeps a boundary to square leg go to 53 not out…..

Nice to see the aggressive approach from both players,

Gillespy

Pitch starting to misbehave a lot now. Bashir bowling very nicely. Jaiswal the main man again for India. They would be lost without his runs this series.

MFPM

Jaiswal out to Bashir who's bowling well. The pitch does seem inconsistent but given England made 300+ this is a poor response so far from India.

Gillespy

Good little partnership by Jurel and Kuldeep frustrating England when it looked like they'd take a lead of 150. England's day again.

MFPM

England in a dominant position. Bashir in particular bowled excellent. Jurel and Kuldeep have dug in and played well. If they can get that lead down to about 50 they'll be back in the game but that's probably unlikely. England will probably have a 100 lead.

The decision to rest Bumrah at this point in the series was absurd. He's had Root on toast in the series and been India's best bowler. Imagine Australia being 2-1 up in Australia and dropping/resting Lyon or Cummins, India lack that 'foot on the throat' approach of an Australia.

MFPM

Interesting match now, India did really well to get to within 46 of England's total. Ashwin then hit England hard with the ball, but Crawley is batting well. England still favourites at this point, barring a collapse from here India will be chasing 300 which will be tough on this pitch.

Xander10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814552#Comment_121814552

Crawley gone.

Xander10

And now Stokes bowled out. Might India keep the chase to under 200? Could get interesting

MFPM

Crawley and now Stokes gone. England 166 ahead. Bairstow needs to step up here and deliver a decent score.

MFPM

Bairstow out 1st ball after tea!! Huge for India..

MFPM

Hartley caught! England 133/7...179 in front.

MFPM

Now Robinson goes after just three balls, two lbw shouts, second one out.

MFPM

So the game comes down to 192 for India or 10 wickets for England.

MFPM

India looking good at the moment, 154 needed.

Gillespy

India's to lose now. A brilliant day for them. Jurel did a great job getting the deficit down, unlucky to not make a hundred and that's the best Ashwin has bowled all series. England made an awful mess of it and it had nothing to do with reckless aggressive cricket.

Strumms

often seems to be one innings where England just don’t quite get it right.

145 all out has just done for them in that second innings.

even looking at the first innings, take away Roots brilliant hundred, Ollie Robinson, was the only other player to score a 50.

they can’t have any complaints when they lose the series.

They have not had any test in the series where they’ve managed 300+ runs in both innings.

Only 3 innings in 4 tests, have they scored 300 plus runs…. 3 out of 8 innings.

they haven’t performed…..

England they’ve had pieces of luck, look at this test, India without Kohli and Bumrah for starters, but not so far laying a glove on India in the test.

It was all set up for them…. India losing those fellas, get in and play and put them under the pump……but no…..

barring the turnaround of the century they are 3-1 down. Series lost.

If I’m an English fan I’m worried about being humiliated this summer . Anderson will be turning 42 in July and to be fair, if it’s me, now I’d be having a quiet word….

the torch has to be passed. Imagine the likes of Robinson gets injured….and now partly thanks to the Anderson obsession, who else is there ? The lack of quality or otherwise is there to be argued but the lack of experience is staggering. England could be going in to face SL and WI with a real inexperienced, underdone pace attack next summer.

Strumms

The leading English wicket takers in the county championship last year…im selecting the quicks only…. Rest are spinners, medium pacers or all rounders….but the quicks…

Brett Hutton - 31 years old

James Porter - 31

Oliver Hannon-Dalby - 34

Chris Rushworth - 37

Tom Baily - 33

Jack White - 32

Roland-Jones and Overton at a glance are way down at 28th & 30th positions…

im used to seeing English teams picking 3/4 seamers and another 2 or 3 well capable in reserve…. Vying for selection !

where are the quicks, the up and coming quality fast men ? Anderson and Broad you would have thought would have left a legacy of up and coming players wishing to fill their shoes… but, doesn’t seem to have happened yet.

Strumms

A very bullshîtesque interview with Crawley…. all jovial and barely arsed… “ ahhh we’ll give it a good crack “

Bashir might have had a wicket but Stokes hasn’t afforded him a leg slip and what would have been a regulation catch is instead regulation runs.

that said Anderson hadn’t got much more help, one slip and no short leg, or silly point/silly mid off….. nobody near the bat…

Andersons second over and he’s disappearing for 6’s…. Then a rather poor attempt at preventing a 4 in the field by him is more akin to me fielding.

then a dolly of a catch pops up to short leg a couple of overs later, no short leg, Stokes does nothing! . It’s a mental watch. 🤦🏻‍♂️

MFPM

India making heavy work of this but should get there. 76 needed with 7 wickets in hand.

As for Crawley and his interview, they take their lead from Stokes, it's robotic stuff, they've decided to deal with the media in a certain way and they all follow suit.

Trampas

I guess when they play county games doesn’t help. April/May and August/September when it be a seamer conditions rather than flat out pace. Is Jimmy afraid to retire?

For much of the stokes era is different the interviews are bad. It’s same answers approach and tough if you want a different one.

Gillespy

First series defeat for Stokes then.Think they've acquitted themselves well overall especially considering the inexperienced spinners. Far better than any tour since 2012. Some of those were proper hammerings.

Shane Warne always said the best team will always win the test match. Someone always stood up for India when the game was in the balance. Obviously Jaiswal and Bumrah the main two but important contributions from others along the way as well. Jurel this game the big difference maker.

Strumms

No real standout performances by any English player barring Root with the century….

People might point to Bashir’s economical 5 for, fair enough but to attain the 5 wickets he bowled 44 overs. Off the top of my head, a wicket only every 8.4 overs ? ….. isn’t great at all. A wicket every 52 legal deliveries.

VillaMad

The fact that Bashir has now more test wickets that county championship wickets make it an impressive performance to be fair. That England have such a paucity of bowling options in general has got to be huge concern moving forward though.

Their middle order has been their biggest issue in the series really. Pope got a big hundred in the first test and looks like a walking wicket since, Root big hundred in the last test but nothing else. Bairstow hasn't hit a score at all, while Stokes has only 1 half century from 8 innings.

In other news Neil Wagner has announced his retirement from international cricket. Curious stat in particular for a bowler in that he played 64 test matches for New Zealand without ever playing an ODI or T20I. Could never understand how you are only allowed 2 bouncers per over, yet it seemed he bowled bouncers non-stop and yet was never called for it?

Mysterypunter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121825113#Comment_121825113

I was always wondering that about Wagner myself. Neil Short. Never pitched it up. Strange kind of approach

Gillespy

Fair play to him for making a career out of it but it ruins the game too much of it. Saw it too in the Ashes used very successfully by both teams. Steve Smith has been talking about it saying he'd like to see umpires call wides like they do with negative leg side bowling from spinners. Bowlers need something though and on flat slow pitches it can be the only option.

Strumms

So NZ vs Australia on a rather green looking Basin Reserve pitch. Smith and Khawaja opening the batting for Australia…

I’m at a loss to understand why it’s only a 2 test series , disappointing.