Cricket

catcherintherye said:
I think a top team, which India should aspire to be, would enforce the follow on here. Very little miles in the legs, and phsycologically it wears an opponent down. I don't know if India are quite at this point as a side. We may get a chance to find out!
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There is really no point at all in enforcing the follow on with so much time left in the game
 
BigMick said:
Obviously the game is lost but it's still important that England battle it out tomorrow. Lawrence in particular has a lot to play for with Crawley and Bairstow available for the 3rd test. Don't think 50 will be enough to save him - he needs more. Pope could also do with some runs under his belt while the more they get to see of Patel bowling the better. Same, possibly with Yadav, although the 3rd test is a day-night game with a pink ball - the only other in India was in 2019 when they easily beat Bangladesh at Kolkata, the only test in India when all 20 wickets they took fell to seam. Both teams will therefore consider going in with an extra seamer, but it will depend on the pitch - India won't want to give Anderson and Archer (if fit) any advantage, and they know their spinners, or certainly Ashwin, are different class to Englands.

Crawley will probably open - I don't see Bairstow as an opener (certainly not long term); I'm a big fan and I know he's been working on his technique but anyone who has been bowled almost 30% of his dismissals just isn't tight enough to open. He'll probably bat at 3, again too high but it's the only place open to him at the moment. Good to see Moeen bowl fewer rank bad balls today, though still too many for an off-spinner, and getting Kohli twice in the game should boost his confidence.

I'm sure that when the tour began England would have been delighted to be going to Ahmedabad with the series all square, and that this could be the game that gives them the best chance of winning, given a reasonably fair pitch.
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I suspect at present Crawley would come in for Burns and Bairstow for Lawrence. If Lawrence can score 100 he will probably do enough, and maybe Pope misses out. If Pope gets runs too, all bets are off.

I thought he played nicely this evening Lawrence.
 
catcherintherye said:
I suspect at present Crawley would come in for Burns and Bairstow for Lawrence. If Lawrence can score 100 he will probably do enough, and maybe Pope misses out. If Pope gets runs too, all bets are off.

I thought he played nicely this evening Lawrence.
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Yes I think you're right. If Lawrence did reach 100 it would be hard to drop him but I think that's what he'll need to do to stay in.
 
Pretty bang on that pitch, was only going to be one winner here...
Got to wonder what was the point in picking ali?
Not taking anything away from his performance, but if he was only going to be available for Ken game surely they should have tried someone else?
Not convinced by sibley and burns...what happened to the days of england having solid openers....strauss, tresco, cook
 
For all the fuss about the pitch and the importance of the toss I can't help but think that India would have won even if England had batted first, so comprehensively did they outplay us.

As someone said on here, the day one pitch was more like a day 4, and I doubt if England would have mustered much more than 200 even batting first. Ashwin and Patel were simply far more accurate than Ali and Leach and wouldn't have served up the full tosses and long hops that saw 300 runs scored on the 1st day. That's where the game was lost - there was no coming back from that.

I suspect India would probably have had a lead of around 100 on 1st innings and would have been chasing around 75 to win the game, which they would have done easily even if England picked up 2 or 3 wickets.

Very impressed by Patel; yes the pitch was ideal for him but he was very accurate and, being tall, he gets a bit of extra bounce which makes sweeping him risky. I know the sweep is very fashionable against spin at the moment, and both Root and Rohit played it brilliantly in their big innings, but it may be advisable to play it against him only when the batsman has settled and had a good look at him.

As for Moeen going home, we don't know the full circumstances but on the face of it seems an extraordinary decision.

Looking forward to the 3rd test on this new ground in Ahmedabad with play starting at the much more convenient UK time of 9am!
 
Walken said:
There is really no point at all in enforcing the follow on with so much time left in the game
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and you are opening to door to a loss too. If England's second innings were to yield a lead of say 180-200, India would find that challenging on day 4/5 own that pitch. The only correct decision was to bat again, post a big enough total, plenty of time left in the game on a deterioration pitch.
 

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