Tea - Ind 348-6

A better afternoon session for England, but Kohli is still there, not out on 83 & the lead is ever reducing.
Vijay eventually fell for 136...

At end of play India were 451 for 7, a lead of 51.
Kohli is still there on 147, currently supported by Yadav who has 30.

The Indian Captain is certainly the player of the series. However England have used 7 bowlers in this innings without much success. Apart from a few overs with the hard new ball England's quickies are struggling while the spinners are just not accurate enough, for long enough to cause the pressure on the batsmen.

Lunch India are 579 for 7

The England bowlers have taken a real mauling this morning.
Surprisingly their main tormentor has not been Kohli (who has only advanced to 212) but Yadav, who has bludgeoned his way to 92.
The most likely prospect now is that England will go 3 nil down.
It remains to be seen if the entire England squad can manage to muster as many runs as the Indian Captain though..

India 631 all out.

Yadav went for 104 & the Captain was the last but one man out for 235.
England need nearly what he scored (well 231 of them) to make India bat again...

Tea & it is hard to imagine how this could get any more embarrassing for England.
Hero of the first innings, Jennings, went for a golden duck. The captain followed him once he had progressed to 18 runs & then 4th. in Moeen, brought on an early tea when he could only survive for 3 balls. Root is there on his own for 30,but it is starting the final session of the day with England on 49 for 3 wickets.
Not much point in having a ticket for Monday at this rate...

End of play 182 for 6 - England need another 49 to make India bat again..

Root was out for 77, Bairstow remains there on 50, no one else has done much...
To say the day belonged to India with both bat & ball would be an understatement..

Unfortunately for England a wicket last over will perhaps make it a 1 session day tomorrow.


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Well, that didn't worry anyone for too long.
Bairstow added only 1 to his total & then was gone. It was a swift procession after that, with Ashwin getting 6 for 55 in this innings to go with his 6 for 112 in the first.

So...

WICKET - INDIA WIN BY INNINGS AND 36 RUNS

Just the final Test to go. You can't see it going any different to the last 3 to be honest...

Just to mirror an observation on another cricket thread, how low can you go.
Only the 3rd time in history that a team has lost after batting first and only scoring 400.
England twice and Ceylon once.



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[quote="Barney"]Just to mirror an observation on another cricket thread, how low can you go.

Indeed so,Barney,England are almost at rock bottom.
"How low can we go"......well,we have to use our colonial friends,Australia,as the yardstick in recent years

Australia 85 all out v South Africa,Hobart November 2016
Australia 60 all out v England,Trent Bridge August 2015
Australia 47 all out v South Africa,Cape Town November 2011

Its rumoured the Australian Cricket Board will only be selling tickets for the first 3 days of next years Ashes series !

Zidane wrote:

Barney wrote:Just to mirror an observation on another cricket thread, how low can you go.

Indeed so,Barney,England are almost at rock bottom.
"How low can we go"......well,we have to use our colonial friends,Australia,as the yardstick in recent years

Australia 85 all out v South Africa,Hobart November 2016
Australia 60 all out v England,Trent Bridge August 2015
Australia 47 all out v South Africa,Cape Town November 2011

Its rumoured the Australian Cricket Board will only be selling tickets for the first 3 days of next years Ashes series !

Nice return of serve
The ashes will come down to who has completed their both never ending rebuild process and finally settle on a lineup.
I can only do one thing and predict a 5-0 whitewash in Australia's favour.


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Well, thank goodness, the final Test match has started.
England's form with the toss continued as they won it & elected to bat.
Let's hope that their form with the bat won't continue in the same manner as it has for the prior 3 Tests..

James Anderson has possibly thought that discretion is the better part of valour after his remarks about the Indian Captain & misses out through 'injury'. Chris Woakes is probably a little unlucky to be dropped as Stuart Broad returns from injury & Liam Dawson is included in his first Test. He is a batsman & left arm spinner which is probably more suited to Indian pitches than Woake's medium pace. We will see..

At lunch England are 68-2 with Root on 44 and Moeen on 7.This is a recovery from 21-2 with Jennings our for 1 and Cook 10......Moeen was also dropped on 0.
Still some way to go till we get to our possible match winning total of 500+.........

At the close of play England are 284-4,which they would gladly have settled for given the poor start they had.
Mooen is still there on 120 with Stokes on 5..........Root out for 88 and Bairstow 49,so honours just about even on day 1.

Meanwhile in Brisbane,its Australia who have a slight advantage at the end of the second day.
Australia 429 Pakistan 97-8

I was a critic of Joe Root early in his career but he has sure shown that he is Mr Reliable in the England lineup. A top class test bat.
As for Aussie vs Pakistan, week let's say you make your own luck. Dropped catches and missed appeals won't win you many matches.


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Zidane wrote:At the close of play England are 284-4,which they would gladly have settled for given the poor start they had.
Mooen is still there on 120 with Stokes on 5..........Root out for 88 and Bairstow 49,so honours just about even on day 1.

Meanwhile in Brisbane,its Australia who have a slight advantage at the end of the second day.
Australia 429 Pakistan 97-8

Yes Zid I had to keep blinking at 8 - 97. I was sure I was watching the Aussies bat.

Lunch

Eng 352-7 (Dawson 27, Rashid 8 )

Neither Stokes nor Buttler offered much this morning & Moeen finally fell for 146.
Newcomer Dawson has looked fair for his 27 while Rashid doesn't look like lasting long.

The series continues as before - England get a reasonable first score but it looks like it will still be 150 short of what the pitch deserves. India will no doubt get a first score that the pitch warrants & England will then be lucky to make them bat again..

Tea - Eng 452-8

Very much better second session from England.
Rashid rode his luck a little but scored quickly too. His luck ran out when he had reached 60. That meant a very well needed partnership between him & Dawson of 108.
Dawson has been very steady & offered very little to the fielding side by way of chances. He is not out 55 & Broad has progressed swiftly to 17.
450 is a tidy score, unfortunately the wicket looks as dead as a Dodo, with the Indian bowlers getting very little out of it. Unless something remarkable happens to it overnight then even if England progress to 500 it is difficult to see that the Indian batting lineup won't pass that...

Eng 477 all out

& a quick end to England as Broad does the unforgivable & gets himself run out.. Ball follows swiftly & Dawson is marooned on 66.

It will be interesting to see if the England bowlers can do any better than the Indian ones. Going on the first 2 days so far it is a wicket where batman recklessness is far more liable to take wickets than bowler brilliance.

Close of play - India 60-0

India 417 runs behind (Rahul 30, Parthiv 28)

India navigated the 20 overs without any difficulties. England tried 6 bowlers during that time & none appeared to do anything that threatened the batsmen's composure..
Long day in the field tomorrow for the fielding side I think..