Can't you stop watching the Cricket and do something else instead like set off early to watch Farnham Town
Not sure it stayed quite as low as Stokes implied but it certainly isn’t showing true bounce, on day two. Worrying. You never say never with this team but you can’t see a repeat turnaround win here - batting last on this is going to be hugely difficult. We’d have to bowl them out for a two figure score or not much more. Battling though - giving India a game - we’ve already done better in the series overall than a lot of sides have recently - and much better than many predicted. We sadly lack a truly test class spinner, one who can’t just bowl them out second innings but also contribute first innings and also hold an end, to have any chance of being competitive in the subcontinent.
Nine down. Suppose you can’t blame Hartley for looking to play shots, especially with the ethos of the team, but I’d suggest trying to play out Bumrah might have been more sensible. That said he’d probably have got him anyway. He’s some bowler.
Wasn't expecting us to be bowled out in less than a day tbh. We ll need two other Ollie Pope innings by the looks of it!
It isn’t, consistently. The pitch is very up and down. As many stay low as get up off a length. Like I say, batting last on this is going to be more than a challenge.
Ooh. Think Jimmy might have got away with that. Think the snicko might have been the bat scraping the ground rather than a knick on the ball. Looked in front of all three too. Let’s get another 25-30 now…
It is erratic but generally it’s bouncier than you’d expect from an Indian test pitch isn’t it ? It’s stopped a lot of sweeping either conventional or reverse. It’s going to be difficult, as you say, batting last particularly against 3 of the top 6 ranked test bowlers ( and in their home country as well ! )