England vs India 4th test

That was so painful to watch I just missed out great chunks of it. Always record the days play and dip into it as and when I feel like it. Not a proper fan me - I couldn’t sit in the ground applauding the other team skittling our team out or flashing the ball to the boundary regularly. I only want to see my team winning. Same goes for watching on Sky. FF in 30 second chunks, or even several minutes at a time. I missed a lot of today’s debacle because I couldn’t be bothered to watch them collapsing again.

It was a great start yesterday and, at 1100 this morning, we needed less than 300 runs with all wickets intact and all day to get them. Shameful that they couldn’t manage that.

 

We've asked for the pitches to be prepared for a bit of swing and seam which is fair enough as the home team. The problem is that India's bowling attack is better than ours and given that their batting group is better than England's, unfortunately over a 5 test series there's only going to be one winner.

 

Problem is if India get a good start on the first day then it’s series over.
We don’t have the mental strength to turn it around like India have done at the Oval.

 

If India win this series it will be the first 5 test series they have won In England. That’s a big deal for a great cricketing nation.
I’d love us to win at Old Trafford but it’ll be a fight, there’s a lot at stake for India.

 

Kholi's something special both as a captain and a batsman. Have enjoyed these matches so far, I just really feel for Root not having another batsman he can really rely on.

 

Twice the bowling has let India off the hook and root as let things drift at this test and he allowed them the keep bowling short pitched stuff at Trent bridge despite the fact the Indian tail ender's were smashing it to the boundary at will so either Root was telling them to bowl short despite it obviously not working or he wasn't strong enough to stop them bowling short. I just don't think he's up to the job which is a shame because to be honest I'm not sure any of the others are. So apart from taking a gamble and giving Morgan a go as test captain as well as short form captain I'm not sure where they go from here.

 

So where do we go from here?

we sacked off caring about test cricket years ago, recently we’ve sacked off having a selection committee and left the coach to it…. That’s not going great as he just picks the players who he knows.

playing red ball cricket when it matters might be a start but that’s never going to happen, making the pitches better would help but that’s not going to happen either.

fair play to India however, a team who are playing well right now and seems to know how to scrap when the pressure is on.

 

To be fair we’ve played some good cricket this series and that with lots of bowlers out. Sometimes though you just have to say fair play to the opposition. At least it’s not the Aussie’s. That would be tough to stomach

 

we probably aren’t far off at times, we are inconsistent as a whole but we definitely lack the application for batting long periods or batting when it’s hard.

The bowlers… Anderson and broad are on their last legs, I’d be surprised if both played together again, archer is injured with wood always not far behind. We don’t have a spinner we trust despite leach doing ok..

The batters…. pick root and any 5 others!

 

It was hard to watch, disappointing and half expected. But give India credit. That spell from Bumrah after lunch, perfectly complimented by Jadeja, was absolutely incredible. It lifted the whole side and after that they blew us away.

It's the first time I've really understood why a number of experts refer to Bumrah as one of the best bowlers on the planet. Unreal.

Well played India. England didn't even bat particularly badly

 

When England bat it's like the battle of Hastings. They see the Indian bowlers on the retreat and instead of practising caution they try chasing them down the hill. Only for the Indian attack to regroup and outflank them. On Friday they went into kamikaze mode too early and it's cost them the match.

 

You're not going to win many tests when you drop 6 catches and miss a run out chance like the one Moeen made a mess of. A batting collapse like yesterday is always possible on the last day when you have a spinner hitting the rough and a 90mph bowler getting reverse swing. But a number 8 getting 2 half centuries against you shouldn't be happening.

There seems to be an issue with our seamers running out of steam in the second innings. Anderson is starting to look like a cricket equivalent of masters football. Still has all the skill, but the legs are starting to go. Root's lack of patience doesn't help either. Doesn't give the spinner a spell while rotating the seamers and runs Anderson and Robinson to the ground. It showed after lunch yesterday, where there must've been some conversation about accelerating. They just needed to bat normally until tea and go from there against a tiring attack.

Am struggling to see how Anderson and Ali can stay in the team for the next test.

 

Anderson, age is catching up with him bless him.
Ali has his moments but not a great spinner or batsman, which leaves him as a middling all rounder at test level, the number of times he does fail with the bat we would be better off with a 'proper' spinner IMHO.

 

Root gave an insight into the mindset just by saying they needed a 200 lead. The game was up on Friday. You could see they were flat during the Indian second innings. Once the lead got as big as it did. Root would have wanted to stay out there a bit longer and take more time out of the game. It's a shame the openers couldn't have lasted a bit longer.

 

I think Ali is a quality batsman. He invariably gets out when he wants to.

 

Ali wouldn't have played in the first place if Woakes was fit. May as well put Woakes at 7, especially if you're going to have two out of Curran, Overton and Robinson playing. Then have Leach at 10, and I'd probably play Wood as the last seamer.

 

I like Wood because he fancies himself as a batsman. He has an ego and hates giving his wicket away.

 

Well I think Ali is an awfully batter at test level. He really ought to stick to white back cricket, but then again not in the England side. His bowling is average, and he doesn't have the guts to bat for a long time.

He's cost us more matches than he has won for us. Goodbye and good riddance.
But then again that is just my opinion.

Oh and don't even get me going on his totally inept fielding...

 

I think he gets bored. The Indian attack held no fears for him and he looked assured. He hit the fielders a few times and his 30 odd could have easily been a lot more. His shot to get out sparked off "that's my lot I'm off". That's why I'll differ and say he is a quality batsman.