England v India, 5th Test, The Oval, 7-11 September, 2018

So, a traditional road at The Oval, then?

Yeah, to allow Chef a farewell double... though might be nice for Jimmy to have a chance to get his own upcoming milestone on home turf as well.

beamer wrote:Yeah, to allow Chef a farewell double... though might be nice for Jimmy to have a chance to get his own upcoming milestone on home turf as well.

Needs 5 wickets doesn't he? Not a gimmee but you'd expect him to get them over a couple of innings.

Nice if he equalled Sanga. I wonder if he was tapped on the shoulder or 100% came to his own decision.

Still he leaves Test cricket on an up after a home series win against the best team in world cricket.

Same squad as for the fourth test minus Vince. I think it'll be the same side unless there's some live grass on the pit h, in which case Woakes should replace Rashid.

50 would be nice for Chef, 100 would be beautiful.

Decent steady start for England.

skully wrote:Decent steady start for England.

Over four hours work undone in about ten minutes.

vilkrang wrote:

skully wrote:Decent steady start for England.

Over four hours work undone in about ten minutes.

Tradition

The trouble with this is that a few of them will now be thinking they could have got a quick 30 or 40 by swinging the bat and we would have been better placed.

198-7 in 90 overs is no better than 198-7 in 45 overs, which is a more typical England effort. Well, it does keep the draw in play I suppose.

Great effort from Chef, who rolled the clock back. Otherwise a disappointing effort from Pomgolia.

Kudos to Instant Karma, who yet again has delivered.

Geez, from 1-133 to a pretty abject 7-198. Was there rain? Otherwise that is a very dreary effort by England.

Joe & Jonny are sure in poor form.

Is it any coincidence that since Bairstow established himself as a JAMODI opener, his red ball form has gone to shit?

beamer wrote:Is it any coincidence that since Bairstow established himself as a JAMODI opener, his red ball form has gone to shit?

Or possibly he is a good number 6

Shaping up as a two stand (Chef/Moe & Jos/Stu) innings.

India will be impatient for the innings end.

Our top order really is AIDS.

Kohli set fields for a late innings slog, which is fine except that Buttler and Broad played properly.

Kohli might be the best batsman in the game but Root leaves him standing when it comes to tactical astuteness.

Basil wrote:Kohli set fields for a late innings slog, which is fine except that Buttler and Broad played properly.

Kohli might be the best batsman in the game but Root leaves him standing when it comes to tactical astuteness.

That would be the same Root who almost gifted India the 4th test by letting them add almost 100 for the last 2 wickets in the first innings, because of inept tactics?

So Coaly topscored again for England.

Looks a decent team bowling effort by England.

Cook’s last innings milestones/possibilities:

20 to finish on the neat figure of 12,345
50 (assuming out) to average 45
76 to overtake Sangakkara for 5th on the all-time list.

This has been a really good series, still think it's a shame this is a dead rubber.

Jennings bowled leaving one, another horrible way to get out... is there any way they can persist with him, even if they think he might go better away from home? 18 Test innings in England without a 50.

Apparently Jennings averages 1.33 (no that's not a typo!) against balls from seamers that would have hit the stumps in this series.

We'll save the talk of alternatives for when this one is done and dusted, but it's looking pretty desperate. Cook on the other hand, four short of finishing with twin 50s and an average north of 45. And Root starting to look more like his old self again, accumulating and rotating the strike.

Another statistic - Moeen Ali now has more Test wickets than Ashley Giles, and at a better average. I know, the King of Spain might not exactly be the yardstick for great spinners, though I've always felt he deserves credit for the important part he played in some of our big series wins of the early to mid '00s - but Moeen is a genuine all-rounder who has won us matches with the bat as well, and batted probably everywhere from 1 to 8, so a pretty decent effort.

Different types of spinner, I know, I guess the argument against Moeen is that he can get a load of wickets on a good day but not offer much control on a bad one, where as Giles was what it said on the tin (or the mug!), a containing spinner who complemented a strong pace attack.