The Cricket Thread 2014

[tomd2103]

Great stuff from England.  Let's hope we can take our chance and put the game beyond India in our first innings. 

[Villan For Life]

It's an important session for England coming up. The bowlers have carried their form from the last test into this one, we need the batsmen to do the same.

[DesBremner]

I'm beginning to wonder if  the Indians have put a sneaky bet on

[paul_e]

This is already the 3rd highest partnership in the game, that first innings was something a bit special.

[Villan For Life]

Robson gone - bowled Kumar for 6. It was a really testing line from Kumar that got him.

[paul_e]

I'm starting to worry about Robson now, I liked the calmness he had when he came in but he's not backing it up with runs and the indians seem to have found a line and length that he really struggles with.

[Villan For Life]

Cook gone for 17, out on the hook.

There's really no need to play that shot until you are firmly on top in the game.

[paul_e]

English batsman seem to be easily suckered into playing shots like that though, I've never really understood why.

[Dave Cooper please]

Unless we unearth a real fast bowling talent ( there are some promising players out there, but no one ready just yet) then we have to stick with Woakes, Jordan and Finn as the back-ups to Anderson and Broad. After this series there are only five Test matches before The Ashes start, they will need all five of those to get their confidence up and start taking wickets. For that reason I'd play Finn instead of Woakes for the next match and then in the West Indies and New Zealand drop Broad or Anderson on rotation for all the Tests so that all three of the others get maximum game time.

[Villan For Life]

It's a shame we lost Ballance at the death, otherwise what a cracking day for England.

[taylorsworkrate]

Great day. Broad and Anderson got it spot on early on. Dhoni played a really excellent innings to save India from total capitulation.

Slightly annoying that we used the nightwatchman. Surely Root could have been trusted to survive 3 balls?

[PaulWinch again]

Excellent day overall.

[UK Redsox]

English batsman seem to be easily suckered into playing shots like that though, I've never really understood why.

The worst shot of the day was Bell's 'swing and a miss' to his first ball faced.

[tomd2103]

I'm starting to worry about Robson now, I liked the calmness he had when he came in but he's not backing it up with runs and the indians seem to have found a line and length that he really struggles with.

Yeah, his lack of runs is becoming a bit of a concern now and it's putting that extra bit of pressure on Ballance.  Saying that, we've got Carberry and Compton who could quite easily step in if needed so it's not really a major problem. 

[tomd2103]

Unless we unearth a real fast bowling talent ( there are some promising players out there, but no one ready just yet) then we have to stick with Woakes, Jordan and Finn as the back-ups to Anderson and Broad. After this series there are only five Test matches before The Ashes start, they will need all five of those to get their confidence up and start taking wickets. For that reason I'd play Finn instead of Woakes for the next match and then in the West Indies and New Zealand drop Broad or Anderson on rotation for all the Tests so that all three of the others get maximum game time.

I don't think there is such a player out there in county cricket at the moment.  What we really could do with is finding a front line spinner and for Finn and Stokes to recover their form and continue improving.