The cricket thread

guitars4you

91-2 and a stumping appeal - Root annoyed after the 3rd umpires decision and I think he is right to be so - Roll the tape on a touch more and I'm sure you can see the foot come down further , so it must have higher before hand, hence out

Easy drop catch just before from Pope off Anderson - Not our day

Stuckfast

Thank heaven for that Kohli wicket. Leach bowled a lot better once he switched ends. Surprised they took Anderson off, he was bowling really well.

crunchman

guitars4you said:

91-2 and a stumping appeal - Root annoyed after the 3rd umpires decision and I think he is right to be so - Roll the tape on a touch more and I'm sure you can see the foot come down further , so it must have higher before hand, hence out

Easy drop catch just before from Pope off Anderson - Not our day

Third umpire hasn't been good.  He overturned the catch Stokes made earlier - probably correctly - but didn't overturn the one where Leach was given out.  That one definitely looked like it hit the ground.  If he's consistent in giving the batsman the benefit, then fine, but he didn't with Leach.

sixstringsupplies

The on field umpiring has been top notch but the 3rd umpiring has been atrocious, for both sides, all series. A very simple process should be followed....and it is not.

Very poor performance from England with the bat, but they are not completely dead in the water.

If they can knock India over without their lead going above 70ish....game on.

Big ask though. Would help if you didn't feel like you had to get each batsman out twice.

I actually though the Stokes catch was dropped in real time, and the replays suggested it was grounded.

Sharma probably was not not, but the fact it wasn't fully checked is infuriating.

I would have been upset if I woke up at 4am to watch that!

Heartfeltdawn

crunchman said:

Even though England haven't got the rub of the green, it hasn't been a good batting performance.  In some ways the most worrying dismissal was Sibley's.  If he doesn't fix that thing of the bat coming through from slip to mid on he's going to get eaten alive by test quality quick bowlers.

When he's there waiting for the bowler to arrive, if you view him from side on then before the ball is bowled his hands come forward toward the bowler, then back toward the keeper, and then he brings the bat out to the slips and across. This was the same against the slow bowlers in Sri Lanka. If he swings a golf club in the same manner then he must get through a shitload of Titleist. 

Stuckfast said:

Flip's sake. How many batsmen have basically just missed a straight one?

It's what happens when you get batsmen spooked into thinking every single one will turn. Witness Ian Bell trying to play Warne in 2005. 

crunchman

Heartfeltdawn said:

Stuckfast said:

Flip's sake. How many batsmen have basically just missed a straight one?

It's what happens when you get batsmen spooked into thinking every single one will turn. Witness Ian Bell trying to play Warne in 2005. 

That's where they need better footwork though.  If they can get to the pitch, then they should be able to cover the turn.  I know it's easier said than done, but it's what the really good players of spin do.

Or go right back, to give yourself time to react.  If the bowler starts to pitch up more to counter that, then go forwards.

Heartfeltdawn

Stuckfast said:

Leach has been poor so far. He's basically served up a buffet of half-volleys with the occasional short one. Axar Patel by comparison hit a good length practically every ball.

Dew. Plain and simple. 

Gotta laugh at today though. 

"Hey Jack, here's the game plan. What we're going to do is to win the toss, pick the wrong bowling attack for this wicket, bat like tossers, get rolled, and then you've got to come out here and bowl as well as both of their spinners did against far better batsmen than they bowled against and you've got to do it when the dew is out and you can't grip the ball as well as their guys could earlier in the day. OK with that?"

guitars4you

crunchman said:

guitars4you said:

91-2 and a stumping appeal - Root annoyed after the 3rd umpires decision and I think he is right to be so - Roll the tape on a touch more and I'm sure you can see the foot come down further , so it must have higher before hand, hence out

Easy drop catch just before from Pope off Anderson - Not our day

Third umpire hasn't been good.  He overturned the catch Stokes made earlier - probably correctly - but didn't overturn the one where Leach was given out.  That one definitely looked like it hit the ground.  If he's consistent in giving the batsman the benefit, then fine, but he didn't with Leach.

I agree that I thought the Stokes decision was correct - But I thought Leach was out as well - But often awkward such issues with camera angles etc 

Stuckfast

Heartfeltdawn said:

Stuckfast said:

Leach has been poor so far. He's basically served up a buffet of half-volleys with the occasional short one. Axar Patel by comparison hit a good length practically every ball.

Dew. Plain and simple. 

Swann said on commentary there was no dew at all.

earwighoney

Heartfeltdawn said:

"Hey Jack, here's the game plan. What we're going to do is to win the toss, pick the wrong bowling attack for this wicket, bat like tossers, get rolled, and then you've got to come out here and bowl as well as both of their spinners did against far better batsmen than they bowled against and you've got to do it when the dew is out and you can't grip the ball as well as their guys could earlier in the day. OK with that?"

3 seamers and one spinner is a strange decision for any Indian wicket, maybe aside from Kolkata.

Stuckfast

Who else were they going to pick though? They've obviously lost confidence in Bess, Ali has gone home, and it'd be a tough ask for any of the reserves to come in and play their first Test here.

Archer has been disappointing so far. If he'd been firing it in at 90mph I think he'd have got something out of that wicket.

scrumhalf

If we had got to 400 then the bowling attack might not appear to be so imbalanced. But you can't arse up the batting and then ask the bowlers to skittle them out and be only 100 adrift.

Heartfeltdawn

Stuckfast said:

Swann said on commentary there was no dew at all.

Over 22 saw both Indian commentators talking of the damp greasy outfield and how the ball skimmed off the surface. You also had England fielders armed with towels trying to keep the ball dry. It's not the sort of thick heavy dew we've seen in ODI games where the boundary ropes would be dragged across the outfield but it is there. The lacquer doesn't come off as quick in those conditions, Leach was gainfully employed relatively early,   

Heartfeltdawn

scrumhalf said:

If we had got to 400 then the bowling attack might not appear to be so imbalanced. But you can't arse up the batting and then ask the bowlers to skittle them out and be only 100 adrift.

If Silverwood and co selected this XI on the basis that they were confident of using getting 400, then I strongly recommend they avoid the local magic bean sellers. I think it's just a horrible misreading of the pitch. 

I take Stuckfast's point about who else they could play. We're in this situation because the slow bowling department has been so dreadfully mismanaged over the last few years. Moeen went to Australia as number 1 in the Bayliss era and came home and that was that and now he may never play again. Bess did decently when Leach was sick, bowled like a drain last summer, and kept getting the chances. Some critics were still calling him #1 at the start of the Sri Lanka tour. 

scrumhalf

Two wickets for Leach in the first 35 minutes of play this morning. Interesting... 

Stuckfast

Yes Leach has been good this morning. Two more LBWs to straight balls...

Stuckfast

Not a bad start for Root there!

He should be a handful on this track.

Stuckfast

Is that the first wicket to fall to a ball that's actually turned?

Heartfeltdawn

Pitch and straighten. That's all you need. And now Root is in on the action. Nice work, Mr Foakes. 

Good luck to those folk with Day 4 tickets... 

Stuckfast

Root looks like Murali on this track.