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

England have bowled very well here. Dravid and Laxman have needed all of their skill to keep them out.

india avoids the follow-on

super session here

india would not be too unhappy with that. just the wicket of mukund. everyone would be hoping for a bright sunny day tomorrow

india has to absolutely seize tomorrow. no plodding and pushing for too long. could be the most important day of the series

beamer wrote:I do sometimes wonder whether top order batsmen play with too much fear in tough conditions like these, and if they swung the bat like 8, 9, 10 and jack who have nothing to lose they would actually get more runs!

It's not even about swinging the bat. Like I said earlier, England looked pretty comfortable in the hour before lunch when Pietersen was in and pushing hard for singles - playing positively.

Too many passive wallflowers in that innings.

furriner wrote:

furriner wrote:Not to worry Dello, the bad thing about getting the oppo out early on a sticky wicket is that you're going to come in next.

Soon.

Wot I said.

Was just a poor shot from McQunt. England didn't get anything like the movement India did.

And it'll be another heavy roller tomorrow - in preparation for a sunny day.

Bad times (if you're English - or South African with a tenuous claim to being English).

Good day's cricket. Top bowling conditions and the Indians utilised them pretty well. A couple of close LBs and some quite frankly injudicious shots helped them along the way though. Not to be too harsh on them but one would reckon a 'gun' bowling attack would've rolled such a feeble batting effort for 120. A bit like Headingley '09. Then some plucky runs. A bit like Headingley '09. England bowled pretty well IMO. Could've had both batsmen, which is almost a double-compliment as they played immaculately. What excellent batsmen for such a difficult time, had we got either of them before the end of play I'd have said it was nigh on honours even. I'm banking on conditions staying the same though. Otherwise we're mincement.

Oh, and Praveen is a TWAT.

T. W. A. T.

Twat.

Well clearly India's day and they are massive favourites to take the test, but Broad and Swann have given us some hope at least. Pity we couldn't get a couple more though, will mostly likely flatten out tomorrow with the heavy roller and the sun shining.

If we can 2 or 3 out in the morning session we are still in it.

Brass Monkey wrote:Good day's cricket. Top bowling conditions and the Indians utilised them pretty well. A couple of close LBs and some quite frankly injudicious shots helped them along the way though. Not to be too harsh on them but one would reckon a 'gun' bowling attack would've rolled such a feeble batting effort for 120. A bit like Headingley '09. Then some plucky runs. A bit like Headingley '09. England bowled pretty well IMO. Could've had both batsmen, which is almost a double-compliment as they played immaculately. What excellent batsmen for such a difficult time, had we got either of them before the end of play I'd have said it was nigh on honours even. I'm banking on conditions staying the same though. Otherwise we're mincement.

Test of technique and temperament and England were found wanting.

Cook, unlucky. Strauss, Trott, Bell, poor shots. Pietersen and Prior got good balls. Morgan's a walking duck at the moment.

They've gorged on some friendly bowling for 12 months, England, but were saved from a sub par first innings score at Lord's by Pietersen and a catastrophic collapse in the second innings by Prior - against a two man attack. It's been coming.

I thought they were pretty ordinary today in the way they went about their work. They seemed to decide early on that it was going to be tough out there and rather timidly surrendered to the inevitable. The scoreboard was going nowhere. It was just prod, poke, prod, out - all day long.

When Broad and Swann took a more positive approach, suddenly the conditions looked quite survivable.

Shame. I think they could've cobbled together 300+. I expect India to.

Yes, I forgot to mention that I agreed with you in regards to the lack of positivity. No 'intent' whatsoever - dead bat, leave, just don't give a f*ck about rotating the strike. Only Pietersen could drag Strauss into trying to pressure this quite awful Indian fielding side. There's a good 50 runs extra per innings to be had most times, IMO. When they did this, the bowlers became out of rhythm and looked the worst all day, apart from the Broad&Swann episode.

Yeah, I also agree about this fragile effort in terms of seeing it coming. Said it myself. May even claim it Dello-style. They're, in essence, GCBs.

Everyone's a GCB these days.

Perhaps it's the legacy of so much limited overs cricket, but when the ball does anything, most sides look completely bereft of ideas to combat it.

Jesus, I'm sounding like Geoff Boycott.

The problem for England in this game is India have a couple of experienced old-school batsmen in their line-up who should be able to find a way to make a score.

I suspect that'll ultimately be the difference between the sides when it all shakes out in the coming days.

Aye, it's about 80% of the reason that they're currently #1 in tworld.

Dello wrote:
I thought they were pretty ordinary today in the way they went about their work. They seemed to decide early on that it was going to be tough out there and rather timidly surrendered to the inevitable. The scoreboard was going nowhere. It was just prod, poke, prod, out - all day long.

Same old sh!t from England when they face even vaguely bowling friendly conditions. It's either all out attack, trying to smash deliveries that they should be leaving or defending and collapsing in a heap. Or it's all in defence, leaving or defending deliveries they should be putting away for runs and collapsing in a heap due to scoreboard pressure.

They need to learn the concept of shot selection.

Swanny's paw: no break.

Yeah, the two batsmen that were likely to be judiciously positive (KP, Prior) got pearling deliveries really.

Not even mentioned Bell's dismissal. Absolutely fohl'd the cover off a wide long hop.

After being dropped, fohling a pokey edge behind.

For all the talk of Strauss not knowing where his off-stump is when bowlers come around the wicket at him, Bell doesn't appear to know where his is any of the time. He plays at everything from about a foot wide in.

Bell looked the most clueless among all the batsmen.

Oh, and Sreesanth bowled well. As predicted, by some wise sage or other.

He is a mental midget, though. Good fun. In a mocking the afflicted kind of way.

He is sort of embarassing, but then I realise you can't really be embarassed by people like these.

Yeah, he was pretty expensive all-in-all, should've been tighter in both sessions. But he gets good batsmen out. I'm sure that Trott will be livid though. He laughed at the sheer audacity of the shot he played.

Bell? Well yeah. But we need batsmen that can cash in when all is fair.

Brass Monkey wrote:Oh, and Praveen is a TWAT.

T. W. A. T.

Twat.

What happened?

Edit: Saw it. Agree.

Fined 20% of his match fee. Reckon he got off pretty lightly, all in all.

Dello wrote:Swanny's paw: no break.

So no Tredwell at Edgbaston. Will GPS be fielding/bowling tomorrow?

Watched pretty much all of it last night. Excellent day's cricket. Good use of conditions by the Indian bowlers then some outstanding late order hitting by Broad and Swann to add some respectability to what looked like being a very poor 1st innings total for England.

Then Mudqunt hangs out the bat for catching practice in the first over to give England the momentum.

Looking forward to tonight.