England cricketers in India

[BobHelm]

Game ended a draw..
India 172 for 6 off not quite 53 overs.

I have a feeling that England will be much the happier side going into the next Test though.
Rumour has it that before this Test started the Visakhapatnam pitch was being prepared as a 'turner'.
I am not so certain India will want that after this Test. England batsmen handled the Indian spinners far better than Indian batsmen handled the very different styles of the 3 English spinners..

One thing is that the series does not look like turning out to be the easy 5 zip white wash that all the pundits were suggesting England would suffer. Only up to lunch on day one did India ever appear to have the upper hand, after that they were trying to save the game rather than win it...

[BobHelm]

Second Test started today.
Anderson back in the fold after injury instead of Chris Woakes.
For India, KH Rahul slots back in at the top of the order in place of Gambhir, while all-rounder Jayant Yadav makes his Test debut.

India did what is probably the most important task of the day & won the toss. On a wicket that is expected to spin (deteriorate anyway ) they did the obvious thing & elected to bat.

England had them on the back foot early on as both Broad & Anderson took an early wicket to reduce India to 22 for 2.
That is as good as it got for England though & it has been all India since.

Slightly early tea taken as a dog invaded the pitch
India now 210 for 2. Pujara 97, Kohli 91...

[BobHelm]

Long day in the field for England.
Anderson came back & broke the partnership when Pujara was on 119 & it was worth 226. Then when the new ball was taken he dismissed new man Rahane for 23.
However Kohli is still there on 151.
India 317 for 4 at the close.
There has been very little in the pitch for either the quickies or the spinners today...

[BobHelm]

Well if yesterday was a trial for England, today was the verdict & it was not sweet for certain..

India all out for a lowly (considering the score yesterday) 455.

England then showed what a brilliant batting surface it was by ending the day on 103 for 5 wickets, a mere 352 behind the game with half the side down.

They rely, again, to Stokes & Bairstow to dig them out - the senior players a the top again offering little!!!

[BobHelm]

England 255 all out

Stokes 70, Bairstow 53, Rashid 32 n.o.
Ashwin 5 for 67.

Behind by 200, so India could enforce the follow on, but didn't...

Poor show by the batsmen yesterday (80 for 5) left the tail enders with far too much to do. They actually did reasonably well today all things considered.
Issue is that England's spinners are just not as good as India's & Indian batsmen are better with spin than England's.
But given the pitches in India no real surprise there.

Pretty much the reverse position of the first Test - it will be interesting to see if England can hang on, I expect not...

[BobHelm]

India 98 for 3 at close A lead of 298 runs

England has India on the ropes (if being only 240 ahead is ever on the ropes ) at 40 for 3. The problem was that only brought in the in-form Captain Kohli. He is, ominously, still there on 56 ably assisted by Rahane on 22.
Bat till lunch & set England 400 to win it???
They could declare overnight & I am not sure we could reach 300...
But you never know!!!

[BobHelm]

Possibly a bigger worry than India declaring is that England's spinners would run through the batting side.
That is what happened.
Rashid with 4 for 82, India all out for 204. Although Broad was responsible for a 4 for 33 as well.

England need a rather improbable 404 runs to win it...

[BobHelm]

Tea. England 40 for 0.
Cook 28, Hameed 12..

Very cautious by England, but rightly so. India turned to the spinners very early but got absolutely nothing as Cook & Hameed were happy to wear them down & offer nothing.

Long way to go & England were 101 for 0 in Bangladesh chasing a mere 260 & managed to lose that game.

[BobHelm]

At close 87 for 2.

Test cricket at its' best. Hameed went for 25, but he had stood rock solid for 143 balls. Likewise Cook stood firm up until the final over of the day. He was out for 54 off 189 balls - his slowest 50 ever, but surely one of his best.
Whether anyone else in the side has the skill & fortitude to blunt the Indian attack is questionable. Most of the remainder can get quick fire runs but offer chances galore as well.
England need 318 more with 8 wickets remaining.
You couldn't back them to do that against India, in India on day 5 of a Test match!!!

[BobHelm]

Buddha (or any equivalent of your choice) took pity on me this morning & disconnected me from the internet so as to save me some discomfort.
He/she actually overdid rather (my place is still not online) as an hour or so would have been sufficient.

England all out for an embarrassing 158. Only Bairstow with a not out today high score of 34 probably deserves his appearance money.
Just about any Indian who could throw a ball took a wicket.

I am guessing that the next up wicket might be a bit of a turner as well...

[BobHelm]

Conventional wisdom is that if you win the toss in India, you bat.
This makes sense as you stand the greatest chance of getting the opposition out cheaply on an aging Indian pitch.

So England did the difficult bit & won the toss.
Obviously, they put themselves in to bat.
However they forgot that the trouble with conventional wisdom is that you actually have to make enough runs when you bat to get the opposition out to bat a second time..

At lunch the tourists (truly named as they appear to be there to do much more than look at the scenery ) are 92 for 4.
Bairstow & Stokes at the crease, no one has scored enough to be worth a mention...

[BobHelm]

Stokes remained with Bairstow until it looked like they had repaired the early damage. However, with the score on 144 he had a rush of blood & charged down the wicket for a slog, a miss & a stumping. With the exception of young opener Hameed all the lost wickets have been down to exceptionally poor batting rather than a fiery pitch.

At tea it is :
England 205 for 5.
Recalled Jos Buttler is on 38 & main batting man of the day, Bairstow, is on 66.

The tail have an extremely long way to go to make a competitive total out of this though..

[BobHelm]

Buttler went rather tamely for 43 & then total disaster for England as Bairstow received just about the only ball that turned all day & so was out LBW for 89 precious runs.
Woakes then went for 25 as the day drew to a close.
Close of play - Eng 268 for 8

India will be well pleased with their day on what looks a good wicket.
The pundits say that day 2 at Mohali is always the best batting day... India will see most of that.
The score probably 200 too few, but, after being 92 for 4 the middle order have done all that could be asked of them...

[BobHelm]

England did not hang around in the batting crease for too long this morning.
283 all out

Couple of reasonably early successes with the ball - on 39 & 73 - but Indian are made of stern batting stuff in their early middle order.
At tea, India are 148 for 2 wickets. Pujara on 51 & captain Kohli on 40. Both have looked untroubled by anything England have thrown at them & I suspect that the score will tick over swiftly in the final session unless something can be done about them quite quickly..

[BobHelm]

Well, there you have it.
England came up with a Baldric cunning plan over the tea & sandwiches - bowl dross at them.
Rashid supplied the long hop, Pujara couldn't believe his luck & Woakes provides the run, lunge & catch to dismay the crowd the second ball after tea. Now just need another 7 of those...
Will India fall for it again though??

[BobHelm]

Well, after the ridiculous came the sublime by England.
First Rashid totally makes amends for the Pujara wicket taking bad ball by bowling a beautiful 'wrong un' to trap Rahane LBW for a duck.
Next enter débutante Nair who goes for a perfectly safe single to backward point only to be caught half way down the wicket by a diving save & stumps throw down by Butter.

3 wickets in 18 balls since tea to take India to 156 for 5. The captain is still there though & is now joined by the more than capable Ashwin. However far better stuff from the England team than from before tea..

[BobHelm]

Close 271 for 6 wickets, India are trailing by 12 runs.

The captain & Ashwin put on a stand of 48 to steady the ship. England must have then thought it was going to be their day when Stokes got Kohli caught behind for 62. Ashwin had other plans though & him & Jadeja batted nicely to the end of play.
Jadeja is on 31 & Ashwin on 57.
England need to wrap this up early in the morning & then put in a good batting display of their own...sadly the game so far gives little indication that will happen..

[BobHelm]

India 417 all out a lead of 134.
Ashwin 72, Jadeja 90, J Yadav 55. So it should be easy for the England top order batsmen...

[stattointhailand]

Well they got em out early Bob ........... EARLY AFTERNOON (just before tea )

[BobHelm]

Close of play - Eng 78-4 trail by 56..

As I said early on in this match it looks like India will probably not have to bother with a second innings...

Cook & Root opened as Haseeb Hameed has finger injury problems.
Unfortunately for all Cook's strengths batting against spin is far down the list. In fairness, as an opener you probably don't expect to until you are past your ton & seeing it like a beach ball.. He went for 12 after escaping a couple of times by the skin of his teeth before that.
Which bought in Moeen at 3. He now has the distinction of having batted for England in every position from 1 to 9. I think only Trevor Bailey has actually made the full set of 1 to 11.
Unfortunately there is nothing of the Trevor's obdurate defensive batting about Moeen & he departed after 20 balls. Bairstow & Stokes quickly followed.
Root is still there on 36 but with Hameed questionable he is likely to run out of partners fairly swiftly!!