Cricket thread just for Cerbera

Broad used to threaten 90mph, now he struggles to reach 80. Something not quite right there.

I know broad has been laid up with a fever this week but he was flagging at the start of the series.

Monty and Swann will take wickets, but they need support at the other end too. 2 more wickets today will do.

So Panesar bowled beautifully, aided and abetted by Swann eventually, and restricted India to 327 on a spin friendly pitch.

England are currently 393-6 a lead of 66 having just lost Pietersen for a magnificent innings of 186, full of swashbuckling shots, including 4 sixes, but it was the way that he and Cook, 122, took the game to the spinners and looked in so much control.

Prior and Broad in now and they have the chance to score some quick runs and push England's lead well over 100 hopefully.

The pitch is spinning wildly so Panesar and Swann must be licking their lips at the prospect of bowling on it again with a lead of substance.

Should've kept my mouth shut. England all out for 413 so a lead of 87. Not a great finish by the tail end, Prior run out? He was just getting going and could've given England a big lead.

Monty time now.

Greenjock wrote:

Should've kept my mouth shut. England all out for 413 so a lead of 87. Not a great finish by the tail end, Prior run out? He was just getting going and could've given England a big lead.

Monty time now.

Agree about Prior,could yet prove to be a big turning point in this match.Having said that,i suppose that a lead of 86 would have been seen as a sort of miracle at the start of England's innings.Cook superb again,the enigmatic Pietersen batted like a master rather than an 8 year old picking up a bat for the first time.Strange player,strange man but ultimately runs in the book can't be argued against.Interesting game in prospect but wouldn't like to see England have to chase more than 150.

72 for 4 ............... can't bear to look. Am watching the golf and flicking onto cricket every 15 mins. It's working so far.

Anything over 100 lead and I will be worried

78-5 Monty you beauty!

Monty's bowling beautifully (and Swann's not too shabby either). 101-6 as I type, a lead of 14. Any lead approaching three figures is going to be a tough ask, especially if Harbajan gets his mojo working.

117-7 at close.Brilly but must mop up the tail [and Gambhir] very quickly tomorrow,as said previously anything over 120 could be tricky.Very good today though,outplayed them thar injuns in all departments.

Clinical stuff from England. 10 wicket victory with Panesar taking 11 wickets and Swann 8

Brilliant win,nice to see Compton taking the initiative when chasing a small total.Apparently Geoff Boycott said before this test that Swann and Panesar were better then the Indian spinners-maybe Boycs does know a bit about cricket after all. I think i heard that this was the first time that two England spinners had taken 19 wickets in a test since the 1950's-Jim Laker was a bit greedy and took 19 in one match [i think he also took all ten in the tour match against the Aussies in the same year].Uncovered pitches and all that but still an amazing achievement.This series is set up nicely now and has already been watched by decent crowds,which is nice to see in test cricket-lets hope the next two attract even bigger gates and England can maintain their excellent cricket.

Big win, but didn't really address that many of the issues.

We know Cook is a machine and KP is capable of brilliance. We also know Monty is a decent second spinner.

We still don't know how Trott is going to get out of this rut, Compton looked ok but didnt reach even a half century again, Bairstow/Patel didn't make runs and Broad still looks lost. So the issues are still there, but were just hidden as India failed to deal with Monty and KP had one of those days.

Mock Cuncher wrote:

Big win, but didn't really address that many of the issues.

We know Cook is a machine and KP is capable of brilliance. We also know Monty is a decent second spinner.

We still don't know how Trott is going to get out of this rut, Compton looked ok but didnt reach even a half century again, Bairstow/Patel didn't make runs and Broad still looks lost. So the issues are still there, but were just hidden as India failed to deal with Monty and KP had one of those days.

Latest word is Finn for Broad next text.Can't say that would be weakening the batting,certainly not on current form-Broad has been crap with the bat as well,although he is plainly in a different class from Finn in this regard.Finn would offer something different with the ball,Broad innocuous so far.Presumably Bell will be back,he needs to get going again,he didn't look with it in the first test.I think Trott will come good soon,possibly Morgan in for Patel? Be very interesting to see what the wicket is like after the Indians were hoisted by their own petard last time out.Should be a good match whatever happens.

Euff. England just miss out on an easy run out which would have made Day One significantly theirs. Still have had a good one at 230-6 though. An hour left.

Yup big chance to bowl at the tail on day one. Still great effort and if they dismiss India for under 350 they will be happy.

Brilliant spell of bowling by Anderson to get rid of tendulkar.

Brilliant stuff from England. Polished off the tail end quickly and Cook and Compton put on an opening stand of 165. Compton out for a maiden test 50 (57) and Cook still going strong on 124.

That's centuries in all 3 tests so far for the skipper and he's now the leading century maker of all time for England with 23. All this and he's still only 27 with years of opening the batting to come.

England 187-1 chasing India's 316.

Great day - England 216-1, trail by 100

Cook 136 n/o

Geddon.

Will Alistair Cook be rated as the best ever England batsman by the time he finishes? Boycs was the best player ever produced by England during my time as a cricket follower [from the mid 60's onwards] and in all honesty had to face consistently better bowling than Cook-Lillee,Thomson,the great West Indian quicks,the brilliant Indian spinners of that era etc but that isn't really Cook's problem. He can only score runs against the attacks put forward against him and he does that by the shedload-5 tests as captain,5 tons.He is now a dominant batsman and at the end of his career i think he will rank alongside all previous England greats such as Barrington,Hutton,Hammond,May,Hobbs,Sutcliffe etc.Veritable run machine,long may it continue.

He's certainly in the zone right now, he doesn't put a foot wrong and seems to have 10 minutes more to play the ball than anyone else. I'm hoping to see him and KP together tomorrow with KP chasing his 23rd ton as well.

I'm gonna do a Captain Cook vs Captain Cook feature whenever I can be bothered.

One discovered Australia...the other conquered Australia.
One circumnavigated previously uncharted territory...the other has risen to the top of the charts.

That's literally all i've got thus far. Roar.

Just proves that i know nothing about cricket-England take a 2-1 lead after i predicted 0-4.Probably even easier than a 7 wicket win sounds-England comprehensively outplayed them in all departments,if Prior could catch or stump,it would have been an almost certain innings win.Cook seems to have slipped seamlessly in the captains job and certainly sets the example with his batting.India must be in a quandary now-what type of pitch to prepare for the last match? England have pissed them off the park on different surfaces so far,so maybe it doesn't matter.A series win would be a real feather in the cap and set up next summers ashes series very nicely-i think England are a better side than Australia and should win.

I thought England would get hammered as well. So much for not being able to play spin!

Prior isn't the best keeper in the world but he's such a dangerous batsman he's invaluable to the team.

I just hope England don't take their foot off the gas now and lose the last test, which should be the last test for tendulkar. Ponting has retired before he gets dropped as he wanted to go out at the top and not leaving the selectors which an awkward decision.

His scoring records are phenomenal and probably won't get beaten for years if at all. A test player at 17 in a country where cricket is just about the only popular sport.

Panesar should have played from the start. He's bowled beautifully in the last two tests and I'm glad he's finally showed what he can do. He's taken so much stick over the years for his fielding and batting.

Finn has also bowled really well, backing up Anderson who is just superb.

I would like to see Compton get another good score to cement his place at the top of the order with Cook who is on fire. I'm not so sure that Cook's captaining has been anything outstanding, but his batting is world class. He should smash every English batting record because he's got years left to play and him and Pietersen should have a friendly rivalry that spurs each other on.

So England all out for 330 from 145 overs. Very, very slow pitch with the ball keeping low.

Great efforts from Prior again, Swann with a swashbuckling 56 and Joe Root on debut with a patient 73 from 229 balls who held together the lower order. A telling statistic about the pitch is that 3 of Englands top 5 batsmen, Cook, Compton and Bell, scored 5 runs between them from 68 deliveries!

It appears to be a really tricky pitch to score quick runs on, which is what India need if they are going to win the test and square the series at 2-2.

My guess is that Sehwag will come out all guns blazing while the other top order batsmen play more circumspectly. If the seamers can get Sehwag early then India will face a huge task to build a winning lead in their innings because they will need to bat 4th on this pitch to win.

Early days yet but I think 330 is a very good score on this pitch and winning the toss, Cook's first as captain, was vital.

Jimmy Anderson cleans up Sehwag for a second ball duck! Middle stump cartwheeling down the pitch.

Perfect start.

Sehwag was such a big wicket. He could take the game away from England if he batted til close. Well batted Root/Swann this morning. Not sure the pitch is a tough as England have made out, after the early two wickets England made 325-8 which isn't horrendous.