England v India, 2nd Test, Trent Bridge, 29 Jul-2 Aug, 2011

Brass Monkey wrote:**shakes head** WTF are India doing? No third man still... totally braindead.

Am I allowed to say that I have never rated Dhoni's captaincy.

Brass Monkey wrote:

eowyn wrote:
Well I know which one I'd "do". Does that help?

Heck, no! This isn't Blind Date.

Oh well! I'm enjoying watching 2 blokes with broad shoulders and meaty arses making us some runs.

taipan wrote:
Am I allowed to say that I have never rated Dhoni's captaincy.

It's insane. But then, Strauss didn't have one for an age as well. They must have been made from the same stuff! Don't rate either of them.

How many more statements are going to be released? Let.s just have a big ECB/BCCI love in on the field at close of play.

eowyn wrote:
Oh well! I'm enjoying watching 2 blokes with broad shoulders and meaty arses making us some runs.

Me too. The meaty arse part anyway - WGAF about the runs when you can just watch bums!

Brass Monkey wrote:

eowyn wrote:
Oh well! I'm enjoying watching 2 blokes with broad shoulders and meaty arses making us some runs.

Me too. The meaty arse part anyway - WGAF about the runs when you can just watch bums!

Bums, they make the world go round. Love 'em!

eowyn wrote:How many more statements are going to be released? Let.s just have a big ECB/BCCI love in on the field at close of play.

Was incredibly sycophantic. Seems like the management may have had some say in Dhoni's decision...

Brass Monkey wrote:

eowyn wrote:
Oh well! I'm enjoying watching 2 blokes with broad shoulders and meaty arses making us some runs.

Me too. The meaty arse part anyway - WGAF about the runs when you can just watch bums!

Explains why Trev isn't posting.

Trev's having his hair permed and drinking a few glasses of Chardonnay.

Brass Monkey wrote:

eowyn wrote:How many more statements are going to be released? Let.s just have a big ECB/BCCI love in on the field at close of play.

Was incredibly sycophantic. Seems like the management may have had some say in Dhoni's decision...

What's the latest story?

taipan wrote:
What's the latest story?

Well, it's all about what the commentators are reading into it. The statement said something along the lines of: 'the captain, and the team management, felt that the decision should be recinded'. They reckon the management might have had a word with Dhoni.

Gosh. This fielding unit is a pack of utter shire-horses.

Prior and Praveen - total twats.

Growler wrote:

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:Well we're going to lose anyway. 2 days of sunshine to chase 300 odd on a pitch that seems to be getting easier to bat on. Swann's gone mental, Jimmy and Bres have not done a lot and we can't expect Broad to pull hattricks out of his arse every innings.

All of the "India have lost, game over" blubbering a few pages back looked a bit over the top. Some handsome chap pointed it out at the time.

Don't give up hope yet Lara ....... our tail can still put on plenty, so we should have a lead well over 300. I wouldn't expect Swanny to have another innings as bad as his last one bowling, and Jimmy had a quiet first innings at Lords. He may still wreak havoc second time around.

Sure the pitch has flattenned out since Friday but on day 4 should be starting to deteriorate a bit .....

I was woofing otherwise I'd be guilty of the same defeatism I'd accused furry and co of!

The above could happened and my woof prevented it. Thank me. We should be OK now thanks to Super Matty Prior and his generous helping of sexual healing.

Ach, that'll be me choking on a big helping of NSR then ...... bugger

Well done England, a masterclass today.

FWIW, I have never seen an English side as flawlessly dominant nor, as a fan, regarded their players with as much respect/ apprehension. Even when they won the Ashes it always gave the impression of scrapping. Not now.

If their players can continue like this, it has all the makings of long term dominance.

The bowling attack, as usual, looking rudderless without Zak. And if Harbhajan isn't dropped in the next test I may just kill something.

Brass Monkey wrote:Woarrrr! Prior's wrecking it. 52 at better than a run a ball. Ledge.

And he can't play ODIs. Must all be in his head, in the Ramps stylee.

There're plenty of chinks in England's armour. There's plenty more for England to do before they're genuinely number 1 in my eyes. Like winning this match for a start.

India cannot get by on talent alone. They need serious work in the field, serious work. They need better plans with the ball when things aren't going their way.

Dello wrote:
And he can't play ODIs. Must all be in his head, in the Ramps stylee.

Yeah, strange old business. It was something like 52 off 38 - figures he can only dream of in ODIs. Can't pick it really, apart from he tries to muscle the ball more in ODers and hence his timing is off.

Another dull day of Test cricket.

Ian Bell - what a fohling idiot.

And a fohling beauty, to be fair.

But mainly, a fohling idiot.

It all worked out in the end, but really he could've had no complaints if India had upheld their appeal - which they surely would've if they hadn't had the whole tea break to think it over.

Would've left a bad taste in the mouth, but thats probably a similar feeling to getting out to Harbhajan. Not that anyone with two working arms could.

Get as many runs as possible, England. Pitch is as benign as a sponge dagger - although they did all, once again, play Kumar as if he was bowling exploding bum rapists. Take the runs. Grind India some more in the field. They're not up for it. Don't fancy it at all.

prior killing the test for india, once again. can't see india escaping in this test unless a whole day is rained out

Just listened to the post-match interviews on TMS and yet again we sound like utter qunts in comparison with the opposition. Ian Bell churned out a cliche-laden, tedious set of PR platitudes ("Obvously I think that the right decision was made in terms of the right thing and obviously the spirit of cricket was obviously upheld, blah de blah"). His only acknowledgement that it was his own fault was that he'd been 'naive'.
Then Dravid comes on and is straightforward. He explained that the team sat down during tea, discussed what happened amongst itself and the English management, and decided that as Bell wasn't going for a run it didn't feel right to maintain the appeal. Quality.
I always think the same when I hear the Aussie players interviewed compared with ours.
Strauss isn't so bad, but why do our lot always sound like they're reading from the media relations manual? Pisses me right off.
Anyway, what a great series this is - and well done India for that Bell decision.
If only Colly had had the sense to do that against the Snoozers..
On a different point: have we ever had a batting line up that goes this long? I don't remember one.

Incidentally, serious f**king fair play to India and Dhoni. They've gone up a hell of a lot in my estimation.

Jontyh wrote:Just listened to the post-match interviews on TMS and yet again we sound like utter qunts in comparison with the opposition. Ian Bell churned out a cliche-laden, tedious set of PR platitudes ("Obvously I think that the right decision was made in terms of the right thing and obviously the spirit of cricket was obviously upheld, blah de blah"). His only acknowledgement that it was his own fault was that he'd been 'naive'.
Then Dravid comes on and is straightforward. He explained that the team sat down during tea, discussed what happened amongst itself and the English management, and decided that as Bell wasn't going for a run it didn't feel right to maintain the appeal. Quality.
I always think the same when I hear the Aussie players interviewed compared with ours.
Strauss isn't so bad, but why do our lot always sound like they're reading from the media relations manual? Pisses me right off.
Anyway, what a great series this is - and well done India for that Bell decision.
If only Colly had had the sense to do that against the Snoozers..
On a different point: have we ever had a batting line up that goes this long? I don't remember one.

Agreed across the board.

Re: the batting line-up - Bresnan, Broad and, when he's being serious, Swann could all bat eight. To have them 8, 9, 10 is a real bonus for England and must be rather demoralising for the bowling side having worked so hard and expended so much energy in getting five or six wickets.

Longest ever batting line-up? I don't know. I know the shortest - vs NZ, 1999, which had Darren Maddy and Ronnie Irani in the top six, and a tail of Caddick, Mullally, Tufnell and Ed Giddins.