England 2012 Cricket Thread

[Whiney MacWhineface]

We could do with Root and KP Prior putting on a triple century partnership.

[PaulWinch again]

Sadly looks like this will be a drawn series now, barring a remarkable batting display. Compton hasn't done enough to warrant his place really and I like Bell but he shouldn't be on the team with his form this year.

[PaulWinch again]

I also wouldn't be one of the people slaughtering KP for getting out, at least he got a decent amount of runs.

[PaulWinch again]

The interesting one for me is Compton, everyone has talked about how well he's done. To be honest I haven't been that impressed, he's got starts and got out or just got out. He hasn't done anything remarkable yet.

[PaulWinch again]

Although I'm hoping this might be a low scoring pitch, and if we can somehow get to 300 it might be ok.

[fbriai]

I'm hoping we can make 300 as well, although I see 250-260 as being more likely, and then try and get a couple of early wickets in the morning. If we can hold them to 350, then we are still in with a shout. That said, I think there are still a lot of potential turns in this test match yet. It's far from over.

It looks pretty certain that we are going to get a result one way or the other, mind.

[PaulWinch again]

Root and Prior have done very well there. It's really important that we get up to 300, I'm not sure it's that great a pitch to score on. It's a real shame Finn is out, because Bresnan doesn't look the same bowler anymore. Bell will be looking over his shoulder now, his form this year has been really poor.

[fbriai]

Yeah, they've done well at the end there. Steadied the ship nicely. All set up for a good day's play tomorrow. Turning into a really interesting test match.

[Villan For Life]

Quite a recovery of sorts. It must have been painful viewing at times.

On day 2 we need Prior and Root to continue where they left off whilst Bresnan and Swann contribute with the bat.

Bresnan divides opinion on this board and whilst I don't want to go over old ground, playing him at 8 and Swann at 9 does mean that we bat very deep which should be beneficial in this test.

[fredm]

I think it's a wicket where, if you are prepared to graft and not get impatient, you will stay in and grind the runs out.  Let's hope Prior and Root manage to get a start in the morning and the others also do their bit.  It is not a wicket where you can score quickly, the outfield is also slow, so the Indians could well get in a mess trying to push the run rate along and give soft wickets away.

[Monty]

Australia stayed on top for years by getting themselves out of predicaments like this. 150-5? No problem mate, the tail will wag us to about 250 and Warne and McGrath will skittle them for about 220 before Haydn and Ponting batter their way to 504-3 declared. At this point, the oppo is totally deflated and it's victory by about 300 runs. We'll need Swann to be at his best for this to happen, but we can still do it.

[bertlambshank]

What a dog turd of a pitch.

[PaulWinch again]

KP reckons it's the toughest pitch he's ever played on for scoring shots, that's interesting. It may be the case that 200-5 isn't so bad, and if we can add another 100 on that'd be good.

[Meanwood Villa]

If we can get 300 we've done well. Anyrthing more would be great. If Monty and Swann get into them again then we could be looking at another victory yet.

[Dave Summers]

KP reckons it's the toughest pitch he's ever played on for scoring shots, that's interesting. It may be the case that 200-5 isn't so bad, and if we can add another 100 on that'd be good.

Saw most of the lunch to tea session and echo the thoughts of KP on scoring.  If he can't score quickly then, as long as we bowl with discipline, then India shouldn't be able too either.   The caveat to that is Sehwag of course, 3/4 hours of him and it's a different ball game.

My initial thoughts are we are nothing more than okay with what we have scored.  Agree if we can cobble together another 100 or so then that will be reasonable.   But the real aspect of this game is that India HAVE to win so you would think they will have to force it.  If it's that hard to score on, how long will it take India to get enough runs to get in front and put us under pressure?.

All very interesting but I would be a lot more confident with Finn in the team, although from a batting point of view I am now glad that Bresnan is there.