England v India, 5th Test, The Oval, 15-19 August, 2014

Okay, so are England really that good or are India just complete shite?

Eight wickets in the session.

Zombie Bradman wrote:Okay, so are England really that good or are India just complete shite?

India are taking shite to a new level because there's no way England are even going to be competitive against Aus next year.

Great stuff from England, abject from India.

Well that was abject surrender.

Since winning at Lord's, India have put together three of the most gutless, feckless performances you could ever hope to see.

They lost the last two games in around five days - combined.

India were utterly abject today, with bat, ball, fielding, captaincy. You name it, they were shoite at it. England were flattered by this result. There have certainly been some marked improvements across the board, but the margin owes as much to Indian spinelessness as it does to England's superiority. I think West Indies will be a sterner test - just.

Dello wrote:Well that was abject surrender.

Since winning at Lord's, India have put together three of the most gutless, feckless performances you could ever hope to see.

They lost the last two games in around five days - combined.

Yeah, I've rarely seen less guts and less, er, feck in a team. Bangladesh would probably have more feck than this. Ireland surely would, for obvious reasons...

No resolve from India. A pathetic capitulation in fact. Should imagine thats the last five test series we see from them.

Dear God in Heaven!! I fully expected to get up this morning to see an England innings victory, but nothing as abject as this from India.

93, FFS???!!!!

What a pea-hearted I-can't-wait-to-get-on-the-plane effort this appears to be!

Am I being too harsh? Was it simply brilliant bowling by England? Going by the comments above, it would appear not.

Nice to see newbie ZB posting. Welcome.   

And has an allegedly world class player ever been as badly and comprehensively dismantled as Coaly was in this series? Vijay and Rahane showed some fight, and Dhoni, despite his seeming general indifference, always attempted to show some heart at the wicket. But the rest of the batsmen were pap.

Of the bowlers only Buvi Kumar gets a pass mark. Ishant's 7-fer was largely due to unbelievably inept short ball play from England. The rest of the time he was rubbish.

You really get the impression that India begrudgingly play Test cricket - really preferring the money-spinning T20 circus instead - and at home if possible. SRT would be disgusted.

Gavaskar certainly was, said something like those who don't want to play Test cricket should just quit the format instead of embarrassing the country.

I'm surprised he could comment at all, maybe a mumble whilst stuffing the BCCI's cock in his gob.

beamer wrote:Gavaskar certainly was, said something like those who don't want to play Test cricket should just quit the format instead of embarrassing the country.

The Indian faithful have every right to echo Sunny's demand.

Good article

[snip some scathing stuff about GG]...

"That brought together Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli to bat out of their station once again. One final time. With scrambled minds, exposed techniques and questionable support staff behind them. They are millionaires. They are in their mid-20s. They have scored centuries in South Africa and New Zealand. Kohli has won ODIs off their own bat. They have done nothing of note on this tour. They aren't even slip fielders."
...
"India should have got a picture of Bhuvneshwar and stuck it up in the dressing room. When they didn't feel like putting up a fight - and how much can you blame them given their techniques and the state of mind they were in? - they should have looked at Bhuvneshwar's picture and reminded themselves they have to fight for him."

-------------------------------

Sums up the Indian state of play very nicely.

skully wrote:Dear God in Heaven!! I fully expected to get up this morning to see an England innings victory, but nothing as abject as this from India.

93, FFS???!!!!

What a pea-hearted I-can't-wait-to-get-on-the-plane effort this appears to be!

Am I being too harsh? Was it simply brilliant bowling by England? Going by the comments above, it would appear not.

It wasn't easy conditions but I don't think it was a 94 pitch.

That said, sub-100 scores have been pretty regular over the last few years.

Was it cloudy Jimmeh-favourable conditions? The pitch looked slow as while Root and Sturat were pasting the Bannie bowlers to all parts, so I can believe it was pitch conditions.

It was Duke ball conducive conditions. Still need to bowl well though but the batsmen seemed psyched out before they reached the crease.

Cheers MrK.

Watched until Jimmeh was gunned. Too late for this old fart/early riser. Maybe when I'm retired I'll be able to watch until sparrow's.

England back to third in the Test rankings... India joint fifth with Pakistan, with Sri Lanka jumping into the Champions League places.

Watching India bat in these last couple of Tests was reminiscent of Bangladesh to be honest, no application, no fight, the complete inability to knuckle down and play a long innings. If touring teams from the subcontinent are going to be like this we will have to play Australia every year eventually! Also we will get more turgid pitches like Trent Bridge this year, as groundsmen are under orders to make the match go at least four days... can see a few of them next year just to neutralise Mitchell Johnson anyway.

Was at the Oval yesterday to see the last rites performed by England on a very poor and totally disheartened Indian team.

Root was brilliant - but only because he was allowed to be by some uninspired captaincy,
inept fielding and filth from the bowlers.

But the Indian batting was poles apart from what I witnessed from them at Lords just a few weeks ago.  
Clueless and pathetic, they were run ragged by good bowling and excellent fielding.  
Ballance's catch at 3rd slip was top drawer.
I like Mooen fielding in the deep. Graceful pick-up and then an Exocet like throw in to run out Aaron ... great to watch.

Dhoni should really go ... but, who is there (of any calibre) to replace him?
Fletcher too, I think, will fall on his sword ...
As for the rest of them ... well, if they don't pull themselves out of the farce they've created for themselves,
then they surely will be contenders with the Bangles and the Zimboks for the bottom of the pile.

Well done England, but the road ahead is much much more stiffer than what they've encountered these past 2 weeks.
Roll on April 2015!

Dello wrote:Well that was abject surrender.

Since winning at Lord's, India have put together three of the most gutless, feckless performances you could ever hope to see.

Earlier this series I compared them to the "all out 42" Indian mob of the early 70s.

I apologise unreservedly to those retired gentlemen.

Our own 1978-9 3rd string mob v England at least offered some heart. This was pathetic.

Hard to imagine that the second innings could have been worse than the first. One expected at least that the batsmen would show some heart - grit - resilience. Instead there was another insipid performance characterised by pusillanimity.

I think you've over-egged it.

They'd have needed 25 shots of bravura, a flagon of elan, and a gutful of intestinal fortitude before they even approached pusillanimous on the Custer scale.

"When asked if some of the players, handpicked as India's Test future, could maybe give up the IPL and work on their Test game, Dhoni shot back: "Don't be jealous of the IPL.""

Struggling to think of another cricketer I dislike more than Dhoni. Fark, I can't even think of an Aussie I dislike more, at least the plethora of Aussie qunts over the years still have respect for the test game.