India v England, 1st Test, Chennai, Dec 11-15 (II)

Dello wrote:
The bowling is a disaster. One Test on from his "heroic" return to proper cricket, and Harmison looks as shot-to-pieces useless as he did when got dropped. So he's gone from useless to decent to useless in the course of three Tests. I guess the saddest part of that is that it represents an improvement of sorts: his previous run of form was useless to useless to useless.

It's proven scientific fact that James Anderson is nothing more than fodder when the ball doesn't swing. Proven. Scientific (not really, but probably - if they had the time to test these things and weren't wasting it all on not curing cancer and making monkeys smoke cigars). Fact. The ODI series should've tipped the selectors off that Anderson wasn't swinging the ball - and looking about as threatening as a fluffy bear holding a fluffy heart. Wearing a fluffy hat.

The trouble with Anderson is that if it doesn't swing, he is a nothing bowler. But the very least you expect from your opening pair of bowlers is to maintain a decent line, length can vary. Neither seem capable. You wouldn't mind if Sehwag was smacking good balls all over the place, but it was just piss poor bowling.

Lets face it

With the exception of Monty the others bowled alright(at least until tea when i went to bed)...
IND were just too good.

lardbucket wrote:In Monty's defence, even great spinners have struggled to contain that lot.

Sage word.

I do feel also that Viru took his chances, and could have been out. Even (or particularly) with the uppercuts. He is that sort of player. A world-class pinch hitter, so to speak. 001, with a licence to kill bowling attacks.

And who knows, if he had holed out at that point, with an hour to go instead of a few minutes on Day Four ..... my aunt might have grown appendages, etc.

Besides, it's only a game, as we Poms like to say. Or some of us. In public, at least.

Well ventured, Sehwag. Much gained!

Zat wrote:I love English cricket. Your team looks like its about to beat India in India...

By posting this on Sunday, I may have finally made up for some of the horrible woof I put on the Aussies prior to the 05 Ashes.

Made me laugh in today's Telegraph:

A swelling crowd were rapt as 3½ days of English serenity and stoicism was impudently upstaged by 90 minutes of Indian flair and flamboyance. Which one will ultimately prevail? On Sunday night only a fool could confidently predict that.
(Simon Hughes)

The opening line of the adjoining article by Derek Pringle:

England should still triumph in this diverting Test ...

snigger.

Well I have to say well batted India to start with, and very well shoddily bowled England. Freddy apart, and Swanny to a point our bowling was bordering on Bangladeshi at points.

However, you have to say that the Indians batted sublimely, and put everything possible away in chasing nearly 400 in the 4th innings.

Now onto England, where to farking start.

I'll actually start with whichever farkwit employed the useless cretin that is supposed to be in charge of developing our spinners, and more importantly Monty. 2 years ago he bowled at the same pace but with control and flight/dip, now he bowls dreadful flat ones. Whichever the donut is that is employed to develop these spinners needs kicking quickly....

Next on the list as always is the nutless one Ian Bell, when will this useless waste of space be stuck on the scrap heap. Totally inept as usual when it comes to making any contribution of note, even a haplessly out of form Colly showed he had the balls to tough it out and graft incredibly hard to an admirable hundred.

Now Mr. Moores. Surely this tw@t has got to go, and go soon. How he can continue to be in charge, when his selections keep underperforming and keep getting selected,

KP for all his bravado etc.. looked completely bereft of ideas. However its only his second test in charge, so he should be given time to get into the role, but he was sadly let down by his bowlers and the passengers he decided to pick.

Shah will not get a gig in the next test, unless KP finally gets too pee'd off and does something rash with his batting lineup. At some point something has to be done to shake up a batting lineup that has continually misfired for 3 years or so.

But with all the ineptness surrounding this side, one things for sure, this Indian side are a very decent side with some very good form!!!

We didn't deserve to even compete against this side, and we did for 3 1/2 days, its just a shame as Dello says that we have so many passengers in the team, whose positions through the fcat they have a poxy central contract seem to be safe!

This test goes a long way to making up for some of the abject 4th innings displays India have put together in recent years, Mumbai 06, Sydney, the test at home against Pak in 05? where the venue escapes me...Away to the Saffers, can even put Chennai 99 (SRT aside) into that bracket.

Calmness, determination, class... never seen an Indian team ooze it like this.

P.s I could red-bloodedly jump SRT.

P.p.s ditto Sehwag, Yuvraj and Zaheer.

p.p.p.s By rights Dravid shouldn't play at Mohali but he deserves to go on his terms and hopefully he falls on his sword after that before completely tarnishing his legacy.

havent seen a ball of this test match but followed the last two sessions today on cricinfo !

gotta feel for england (and strauss in particular). batted way too slowly despite being on top through most the test. the sehwag factor opened up the test and good to see the others not screwing it up for once (bangalore 2005 against pak, SA 3rd test...)

really pleased for sachin getting the monkey off his back and laying to rest the ghost of chennai 99; yuvraj for redeeming himself and sehwag for finally getting the recognition he deserves.

its now 12 yrs since england beat us in a test series, during which time they've beaten every other side. we dont tour england til 2011 making it 15 yrs

Are Indian women allowed to be soldiers?

I think Dello best encapsulated the problems England is currently facing. The honeymoon for KP is now over and the rot appeared to set in after the million dollar match in the Caribbean and the whole morale must have been further damaged by the atrocious one day series.

After the bombings and uncertainty surrounding the tour, England did well to start the test off relatively well. They just lost their way during the Strauss/Collingwood partnership in which the scoring was too slow but in the end they didn't take enough time off the clock to ensure a draw given that their rate of scoring was pedestrian.

Once Sehwag took the initiative the writing was on the wall.

They'll now prepare a featherbed for the second and final test and England will go home losers after a promising start.

You'd hope the pommy press wouldn't target KP too much as it will have a deleterious effect on his outlook at a time when he's in a mini batting slump.

Red wrote:IYou'd hope the pommy press wouldn't target KP too much as it will have a deleterious effect on his outlook at a time when he's in a mini batting slump.

Well since you have been talking him up for ages, one would hope not.

I'm not really sure our press is as powerful as you make out. Cricket is lucky if it gets amongst the column inches these days in the tabloids....

JKLever wrote:I'm not really sure our press is as powerful as you make out. Cricket is lucky if it gets amongst the column inches these days in the tabloids....

My experience of them was they were more likely to be active after a loss in the cricket.

Bad news is good news.

Good news is no news.

Or as Ken Livingstone woudl have it, bad newts is no newts.

There's no business like show business.

Well it was always going India's way after Sehwag changed the momentum of the game. Harmison and Anderson were never going to be suited to Indian conditions (bring back Hoggard, at least he usually made the best of what he was faced with) and Monty seems to have gone backwards over the last year or so, Swann's superior batting and fielding could get him the place for the Ashes.

I fully expect India to win the second Test by an innings in double quick time as the England players will just want to get it over with now. Obviously Strauss has been a big positive but there will be plenty to think about, Bell needs sending back to the county game as he still hasn't made runs under pressure and there's a few others with something to prove.

So which TWAT on this board posted that the Indian players had "other things on their mind" when India were under the cosh and playing relatively poorly in their first innings?

Farkin excuses and bringing in other agendas to the glorious game that is TEST CRICKET.

IT GOES ON FOR 5 (FIVE) DAYS. All sorts of things can happen and do happen. It's about resolve and plumbing the depths of one's deep resolve when things aren't going your way (usually because of your own poor play). It is about belief and conviction in your own ability and that of your team mates.

India clearly have that at the moment which is why they are vying (and probably deserve) the No. 1 spot and where England are so lacking compared with their cohesion of belief Ashes 2005.
So please, whoever you are, spare us the farking political agendas at any moment you see as oportune and sit back and learn about the ebb, flows and deep complexities of real cricket.

This game was a fantastic advert for the real game. I am gutted England lost after making the running, but TBH they deserved to lose. You cannot win tests with only 3 of your "test line-up" getting into double figures. Giving away the initiative etc etc. Major lack of direction at the strategic level (where Fat Felch was so good...as well as the tactical level come to think of it.)

India deserved it. They came back from the dead and only a team of talent, self-belief and conviction can do that. I hope England learn from them.

doctorspin wrote:So which TWAT on this board posted that the Indian players had "other things on their mind" when India were under the cosh and playing relatively poorly in their first innings?

Can't be bothered looking, but I'd put my money on TO, bucky, or assMudge.

I think Merlin pondered if the Indians would be made to follow on sometime on day two...

Zat wrote:

doctorspin wrote:So which TWAT on this board posted that the Indian players had "other things on their mind" when India were under the cosh and playing relatively poorly in their first innings?

Can't be bothered looking, but I'd put my money on TO, bucky, or assMudge.

You only have one guess I'm afraid, but one of your 3 was correct!...and he wasn't English.

My point really was twofold; the tedious hijacking of cricket threads when there is actually some proper cricket on and the ignorance of the deep ebb and flows; waxing and waning of superiority in the 5 day game which is why it is the pinnacle of cricket and many sports AND why it is never over until the fat lady.....etc etc

doctorspin wrote:

Zat wrote:

doctorspin wrote:So which TWAT on this board posted that the Indian players had "other things on their mind" when India were under the cosh and playing relatively poorly in their first innings?

Can't be bothered looking, but I'd put my money on TO, bucky, or assMudge.

You only have one guess I'm afraid, but one of your 3 was correct!...and he wasn't English.

My point really was twofold; the tedious hijacking of cricket threads when there is actually some proper cricket on and the ignorance of the deep ebb and flows; waxing and waning of superiority in the 5 day game which is why it is the pinnacle of cricket and many sports AND why it is never over until the fat lady.....etc etc

Well, yes, good point.
But I think for me to narrow it down to three, of all the tossbags who post undaulterated crap on this board, without looking, was not a bad effort.

Zat wrote:

doctorspin wrote:

Zat wrote:

doctorspin wrote:So which TWAT on this board posted that the Indian players had "other things on their mind" when India were under the cosh and playing relatively poorly in their first innings?

Can't be bothered looking, but I'd put my money on TO, bucky, or assMudge.

You only have one guess I'm afraid, but one of your 3 was correct!...and he wasn't English.

My point really was twofold; the tedious hijacking of cricket threads when there is actually some proper cricket on and the ignorance of the deep ebb and flows; waxing and waning of superiority in the 5 day game which is why it is the pinnacle of cricket and many sports AND why it is never over until the fat lady.....etc etc

Well, yes, good point.
But I think for me to narrow it down to three, of all the tossbags who post undaulterated crap on this board, without looking, was not a bad effort.

Quite, not bad at all and no criticism intended. You near success is perhaps a sad indictment of certain aspects of this glorious board that is the paradise of Delloland