Yeah but variety.
Even if he bowled Moeen first he'd probably start with a long on and deep mid-wicket.
Dog on the pitch always a great moment in any sport
Going to need every bit of whatver collective and/or individual confidence was gained from all those runs in Rajkot. Going to have to get down to some serious batting.
Need an innings for the ages from Root. Starting to think that the 10 batsmen route is actually the best one too, because we just don't have the bowling to get these out cheaply on a dry deck. Woakes a must for the final three.
Could see them bringing Woakes in for Ansari next. Feel like we might end up missing Woakes' batting in this one tbh.
Woakes for Ansari, Batty for Anderson/Broad.
Wonder what we do when Stokes gets injured. Panic, I suppose.
This'll have to be the flattest pitch this side of the SSC if we aren't going to get royally rogered by the great nemesis of English Cricket. Old Father Scoreboard Pressure.
Niko, mate, FEC is opening. We'll thrash the bastards. 892-4 (dec.)
Super Mo
Another shocker from Dharma, apparently.... hard to believe, I know.
Don't see Cook get clean bowled too often. 455 looks a long way off with him back in the dressing room.
Bowled Shami? For fuck's sake. That's like travelling back to dinosaur times and getting eaten by a butterfly.
Good nut tbf. Both seamers have looked dangerous.
See off the new ball and cash in when the spinners come on. Bizarro world.
Obvious jinx incoming here, but having Hameed with a proper technique and some mental discipline as an opening batsman is such a resource to have compared to the 'off to a flyer, mate' Hales/Duckett approach, which might work at home to Sri Lanka but when you get put under the pump by a decent side will always come apart.
You have to pick your best players first and define the 'brand of cricket' by them, not the other way around.
Well Duckett in now. So let's look forward to 15(13).
Normally when you acknowledge the jinx at the start of the post, it stops it from happening
Root needs a double here. No pressure, Joe.
Don't think Root needs anymore motivation or drive but running out the kid may push him on to a massive game saving knock.
At the moment my prediction is he'll be 70* in a total of 158.
The Steve Smith knock.
He probably could do with staying at Ashwin's end because Duckett looks all at sea against the off spinners.
I'm only following on cricinfo today but in the first Test I thought his technique against the 'shwin was absolute nonsense, leaving all three stumps open at times as if he's trying to slap David Wainwright over extra cover in a T20 at Wantage Road. His bat has an awful long way to travel to get in line and comes from a funny angle as well.
He's covering the stumps a bit more but just looks uncomfortable. Hanging back and trying to cut all the time as well.
Starting to think we should have played Gaz Batts in this Test instead of Zafar.
Well need a nuggety 28 from Ansari to avoid the follow on.
Ball is starting to turn big and keep low.
It's almost an impossible position for us because even if we get to within 100 of them, which would be a great effort, it'll then be middle of day 4 and they'll be able to add another 150 without too much jeopardy to give us a hellish day five.
There he goes.
Well that was inevitable. Tbh he's better off just sweeping everything.
An English correspondent to the cricinfo commentary already calling for Duckett to be dropped because of his technical floor (sic) against spin. Has he seen Gary Ballance?
Duckett will be batting tomorrow morning at this rate so he better get working on those flaws.
I can only assume Jayant Yadav is the sort of chucky straight-on-with-the-arm off-spinning nightmare that usually has us in all sorts.
Looking at the current round of Shield games, I see pretty much every baggy green (mate) incumbent has had an absolute nightmare. Warner and Smith both out cheaply after Vics piled up 500; Burns out for 4 whilst his young Queensland opening partner Renshaw (who I mentioned before) made a ton; Voges hit on the head and out of the rest of the game; Nathan Lyon 0 for 140 and outbowled by Steve 'Believe' O'Keefe.
On the other hand, Faf du Plessis is getting done for ball tampering with mints, so we know who the real villains are.
Expected to wake up to see us 10/2 following on or something. Great partnership.
Good to see it hasn't taken India long to corrupt the DRS process.
Don't see why they took so long when it was caught at silly point anyway
Ansari caps a terrible game by wasting a review and Broad is denied a chance to review that which was never out. Dharma strikes again.
The real cricketing story of the week is this De Grandhomme geezer, who looks like he's just stepped out of a spitfire. What a name.
Ansari is paying for running his mouth prior to the match.
I saw him on the news and thought he looked like a cricketing time traveller.
England have bowled beautifully this innings. Shit captaincy and dropped catches in the first innings have denied a decent game. 300-320 first innings if they get Kohli early.
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/eng...sults;type=fow
6th wicket porn continues. Surprised Haddin/Haddin isn't top, mind.
I beat "Heals" got about 100 of those runs him and Waugh shared.
From what I have seen so far this morning....we are fucked.
Surprised they bothered with 5 overs of seam, or whatever it was.
Now I'm watching I doubt we'll see out the day.
Run rate of 1.44
Yeah, better get more men back on the fence.
It's a distant dream, but the idea of these two being unbeaten at the end of tomorrow, with 210 on the board is one worth clinging to.
Needed a genuine grubber to get Hameed. Reckon we'd have won this Test if we won the toss.
I haven't watched test cricket in ages but flicking this on to see England slog it out brings it back how glorious a sight it is.
Fuuu
Australia wringing the changes, but it's probably about time.
Tragically I know that phrase is a bell ring reference so no 'w' required.
Only really fancied us if Cook was there tomorrow tbh.
Duckett double hundred en route to victory perhaps