6 runs without loss.
India on the ropes.
6 runs without loss.
India on the ropes.
Seems like this is a cracker of a series, which it didn't look like being.
If they can do this against you in England, they're going to murder us here later in the year.
Doubtful. You'll just brutalise them on flat tracks.
This series is a case in point as to why test cricket is at it's best in (proper) English conditions, where the ball has the edge over the bat. The ball moving through the air and off the pitch, spinners in the game (Ashwin at Lords, Mo here), runs available for good batting, 300 being a good score - it all makes for good games. A nail-biting but successful chase for India would put it into classic series territory.
Don't forget that we have to score runs without Steve Smith.
I'm all for multiple hundreds from Glenn Maxwell, but there's some optimism in that.
That's a shame. Still, Jimmy's boy threatening again.
We had Kohli there, the third umpire isn't competent. Mistakes are OK but he didn't do the process properly.
Lol at that last wicket. I think Oxenford just guessed pretty much every decision in that match. Dharmasena is an absolute gun umpire though.
A quick thought on why these Indians are much more likeable than the last few Indian touring sides. MS Pony is no longer there, and the brilliantly impressive Kohli is. Huge difference in class between those two men.
Could not be more true. A lot of their most obnoxious players have shuffled on. Still got Dhawan though. And theoretically Jadeja.
Maybe a reprieve for Jennings with Chef chucking it in.
He’ll be back. Can see him scoring a hatful for Essex next season and he will reconsider.
They talked about Rory Burns on the Debate a few times this series so far but he's basically the only one they talked about as a serious prospect at opener other than one that Luke Wright was talking about yesterday, though that might have been a 3 he was on about.
Rory Burns has an unusual trigger movement, so the selection geniuses will probably do something retarded like ask Moeen to open, or recall Lyth.
Luke Wright wanting to recall Denly as a Test batsman ostensibly because of his form as a T20 leg spinner was up there with the worst ideas I've heard.
From memory I think he played some ODIs about ten years ago and has on and off been a strong player for Middlesex and Kent, but a Test callup would be most bizarre.
Sounds a fairly extraordinary game down in Taunton.
I don't think there's anything funnier in cricket than a doctored pitch backfiring (which it invariably does). Down at Ciderabad they've been preparing wickets to start 'as on' day two for a few years now, this one must have been day three.
That said, all the batsmen moaning about it being a 'poor pitch' can piss off. Get your head down and score some runs you entitled twats.
So who's going to open for England going forward? Jennings must feel pretty safe, at last. I was impressed with Hameed, if I remember rightly.
Also, the list of England test cricketers makes for fascinating reading. Eighteen debuts since the start of 2016. None of them could be really considered to have locked down a place at this stage.
Rory Burns surely. Ed Smith will try something funky though. Bairstow to open or something.
Hameed was great until he started struggling to get a game for Lancashire seconds, which is a worry.
Alex Hales is an objectively better cricketer than Jennings, and it's not as if being a useless twonk against anything that deviates off the pitch or through the air is an impediment to getting selected anymore. England really need an entirely new top 3 (assuming Root is going back to 4).
It's lucky Jason Roy destroyed his own face with a bat, or else we'd be Ed Smithing him into the top three.
I read somewhere that Ed Smith sees himself more as a general manager than a selector, which made me want to jump off the top deck of the Oval pavilion.
Sort of makes sense as he never seems to be actually gazing through those expensive round sunglasses on any actual county cricket as he’s always at the Test match and has been at training this week.
I can only imagine the vast contribution he makes being at training.
'Say, Stuart, old boy. One second. Could we chat?'
*Broad troops over*
'I think you need to bowl faster, and also more accurately.'
'You reckon?'
'That's what the data says, Stuart. We're not slaves to data, but we can use it to our advantage, and the data says that if you bowl faster and more accurately, you'll take a slew.'
'A what?'
'A slew. Of wickets.'
'Oh.'
'Perhaps it's a Tonbridge phrase, old boy. Anyway, good to have a chinwag, but Chris Cowdrey's waiting for me in the upstairs bar. Chars, chars.'
Lovely Oval road for a farewell Cook ton.
Jennings however... getting out on this should seal his fate.
128/1 off 60? Is it Nagpur?
Actually have a contribution from the top order and bat sensibly for a session or two and still collapse to sub 250. Amazing really.
The Yorkshire contingent are having an absolute nightmare in this series.
This is such a weird team. I kind of like them, it’s stacked with talent and brimming with a number of individuals who can win a game on their own and yet they just don’t quite work and are prone to hilarious collapses at any place or any time.
If they change the captain (in spite of my usual comments about him, I reckon Buttler might be a shrewd move) I think they'd have a better chance. I don't think Root has a lot going on upstairs.
The number of times Moeen played and missed was insane. There was a period in the afternoon session where he may as well have been blindfolded when facing Shami.
Root looked imperious in the ODIs, and whilst I appreciate there are substantial differences, maybe the captaincy is an issue. Just let Jimmy be the captain.
It was the sort of innings we need, though, not pretty but fucking hung in there and allowed people to bat around him (they didn't, but the point stands).
Aye, but, love Mo as I do, I'm not sure how much you can really credit him for sticking around. It's what happened, yes, and he didn't play aggressively, but on another day he'd have edged at least 20 of the balls he faced. Credit to him for reigning it in, but there really wasn't much to drive or hook at.
Retrospectively thank christ Rahane shelled Cook, and at least this probably gives him one more chance to grind out a test hundred.
I reckon these must have been the best sustained test conditions I've ever seen in England. The ball's almost always been doing something.
Monty Panesar is on Celebrity Masterchef and he seems proper gormless.
I don't know that I've heard him properly speaking before.
He's a bit of a sad case, unfortunately. His twitter feed is properly tragic at times. Think he's had a few mental health problems.
That said, a cricketer being 'proper gormless' is hardly a shocking or rare phenomenon.
Or sportsmen in general, I suppose. I'm not sure why it surprised me.
However what he's doing to these breadcrumbs is fucking special, the mad bastard.
Is this a concerted effort from Buttler to try and play proper innings or does he just happen to be in a bit of form?
It felt previously like if he got a good score in tests it was still at a run-a-ball type right and he just didn't cop an unfortunate delivery.
"Broady" staking his claim for middle order again too. What a hero.
What has been good about Buttler this summer in whites is that he looks to have a plan. Whatever technical issues he has he actually seems to want to construct an innings. He plays each bowler in a certain way, targets bowlers, bats out his crease etc. Other players higher in the order with more impressive first class form don’t seem to be as thoughtful about their game.
He seems to have found an identity for himself in the batting order. In his previous Test run it was 'ooh, here comes Buttler to smear 50 off 30' and if the situation didn't demand that he looked lost. This summer, mostly, he has played (or been forced to play) a lot more within himself, and it's also helped having Curran behind him.
His batting has reminded me somewhat of Prior at his best, but with a much wider range of strokes. I'd like him to keep ahead of Bairstow as a) he's better and b), as Nasser I think pointed out during the last Test, we review so much better with him there.
If Karun Nair never makes it back into the Indian test side, is he going to end with the stupidest test stat line of all time?
I'm pretty sure for his last few Tests, Australia were only picking Adam Voges to distance his average from Bradman's by the required amount.
Every time they show Ed Smith in the stands, it PROPERLY winds me up. I'm not sure if it's the attempted minor royalty vibes, the expensive suit, the awful bins, or all of the above and more.
Cook should retire more often. Best he's played in months.
Great moment. Delighted for him. Still not sure he won’t be tempted back at some point when we’ve burned through 12 more openers and he’s racking them up at Essex.
Sounds like it's been a wonderful day. Might actually watch all the highlights.
That Rashid delivery was filthy.
Haven't seen that sort of dirty business since Warne in 2005.
4-1 is an absolute liberty from that series. 2-2 might have been fair. India shat the bed at the key moments, though, and Curran is a god.